Helping at the animal hospital

When I was working part-time and my daughter went to school I started as a volunteer at the animal hospital two mornings a week. I mostly took care of the cats and sometimes I would also walk a dog. I loved it!

One of the many selfies I sent to my husband saying ‘we need to adopt this one’.

I got asked several times if I didn’t find it hard to see all the neglect that was there. Of course it was awful to see the neglect, the trauma and the evilness. But that wasn’t what I was focussing on. It felt so good to be helpful, in any way. I cleaned their spaces (which could be a really dirty job) and I gave them their medicines (for which you need a lot of patience).

“So from something awful, came a lot of beauty, joy and goodness”

I remember people saying ‘I couldn’t do that and see the neglect everytime’. But closing your eyes for it doesn’t help. It will still be there. I would find it much harder if I saw it and couldn’t do anything about it. But in this case there was something I could do. There was a whole hospital of animals that needed love and care. 

And the beauty of it was that it wasn’t just the animals that were healing. I saw volunteers and heard volunteers telling about how taking care of the animals was healing them. So from something awful, came a lot of beauty, joy and goodness.

This sweety had severe head trauma after an accident with a car, but he recoverd after intense care. And he was always in for cuddles as you can tell from his face.

Unfortunately there were also cats that didn’t make it. Their body was just exhausted and they didn’t have anything left anymore. There was no quality of life for them. And that was a hard reality, but I do believe that they went to a wonderful place freed from their traumatized body.

She (and we) couldn’t get enough of cuddling

The meaning of this hospital was to let animals recover, heal and socialize (if needed) and then find them

a good home. And it was wonderful to see how the cats, all with different characters, found a home that suited them. There were kittens who went to young families and senior cats who went to seniors who were living a quiet life.

My daughter would sometimes join me if she had the day off. She enjoyed taking care of the animals, assisting me with preparing the medication. She took that job very seriously. And after we cleaned everything and gave the cats their medication it was time to cuddle and to play.

The best help!