Today is the last day of a week in which we have celebrated and recognized the essential work and the enormous contributions of our volunteers. But, in truth, those of us on the staff of the Richmond SPCA feel immense gratitude to our volunteers every single day of the year. It is not exaggerating to say that we could not function and could not save the lives of so many precious animals without them. They are the life blood of this organization.
I constantly see our volunteers working patiently with dogs who are frightened or withdrawn or high energy or any of a million behaviors that, without their dedicated work would make that pet harder to adopt or harder for an adopter to live with. I watch our volunteers socialize cats and kittens with kindness and sensitivity. I observe our volunteers do tedious but utterly essential tasks like laundry – no one even likes to do their own laundry, but clean laundry provides so many pets in our care more with comfort. I see the Running Buddies return from runs with dogs in our care giving them exercise, a feeling of freedom and some very important happy time with people. And, the work of our foster care volunteers is utterly essential. We focus on taking into our care so many sick and injured animals and so many tiny, unweaned kittens. Being able to send them to a loving foster care home with someone who will provide focused and compassionate care makes all the difference in saving their lives.
I never want to fail to include a recognition of our wonderful Board members who are also our volunteers and they give massively of their time and support, both of a financial and a personal nature. Our Board members demonstrate their dedication and their courage in making this organization one that constantly stands up for the interests of all animals when they need strong and influential voices on their behalf.
There are no words to express our thanks clearly and loudly enough for our amazing volunteers. There are so many wonderful pets in great homes today who truly owe their lives to our volunteers. This organization has accomplished so much progress in the care and the treatment of animals and so much life-saving that would never have happened without the persistence, generosity and dedication of our many volunteers. I thank them from the bottom of my heart, not just today but every single day. We could never save all of these precious lives we save each and every year without you.
Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name.
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