For those going out tomorrow (please meet Alicia in the parking lot at 11 am; we still need more volunteers!): THANK YOU FOR VOLUNTEERING AT THE HAVEN!! ON BEHALF OF THE FURBALLS, WE GREATLY APPRECIATE YOUR GENEROSITY AND COMPASSION. First, the dogs and cats will be very excited to see you. As such, you will likely be shown an immense amount of appreciation by being pawed, licked, loved, and jumped on if you enter the kennels. For the straw: 1) Please check each barrel and ensure the straw is dry (please check the bottom of the straw, as the top of the pile may appear dry while the portion at the bottom is sometimes damp or even soaked.) 2) Please pull all wet/damp straw and replace with dry straw. 3) If a dog is thin, old or short-coated, please consider giving him/her a bit more than average amount of straw. 4) Please ensure the barrel openings are facing away from the wind and that the barrels are placed under the tarp (and flush to the windbreaker strip). 5) Please ensure the dog bowl/food is placed under the tarp if the weather is bad or is calling for rain/snow. 6) If a dog gets out, don’t panic! It is important to get him back, but on the bright side, the other dogs LOVE it when someone breaks out (not encouraging anyone to let them out though). Please be sure that at least half the volunteers have a blue leash in case of a break out. (Most dogs, even if they do break out and seemingly are running toward California, with reckless abandon, will circle back eventually to their kennel.) 7) It’s easy to miss barrels given the expanse and layout of the shelter; please identify a very attentive-to-detail volunteer and have that person do a final spot-check of the barrels once a section is complete. Tough to do, but please try not to leave dry/good straw out in the open – we have limited donors for this effort any given year and we don’t want to waste anything! 8) Please bring gloves, water for yourself, some snacks (perhaps a granola or snickers bar), a small pocket knife, and if you can spare, 1 or 2 large black garbage bags to help haul the straw around. 9) If a dog is nervously pacing, don’t go in the kennel. A lead volunteer will make the call to do so. 10) If tarps have fallen down, please take a minute to re-tie them to help give the dogs shelter from the rain/snow. 11) Please do not enter any buildings – many animals are recent intakes and have to be on quarantine – this is for the safety of all the shelter animals. Please do not go in to any areas where there are puppies are kittens. Please do not pet the puppies, kittens or any animal inside the buildings. 12) There are older dogs in a more open field, those are the Director’s dogs, please do not enter that area.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Jan 2014 23:01:36 +0000