The Right Time

Last week I signed up to be a volunteer for PAWS Chicago (Pets Are Worth Saving) a non profit, no kill animal humane organization.  I first had to attend the two hour long orientation where the organization was overviewed and all areas of volunteer capabilities were detailed. 

As I was sitting there, I was actually mad at myself for not volunteering sooner.  Mad mad mad.  Then came the part where we toured the adoption area.  And then I wasn't so mad at myself.  Tears welled up in my eyes after seeing a Keela type dog, shaking in her corner, looking at me with that "take me home" look.  I don't think I could have volunteered before because I wasn't ready. 

It's been 11 months since doggie bladder cancer affected our lives, followed by the devastating sadness of Eric's mother passing, and then my Grandmother, followed by more cancer shaking us to our core.  Even though this organization SAVES pet's lives, I couldn't help but think back to the week we lost Keela and the ensuing loss of this past crappy year.  Losing our dog was the beginning of the nasty chain of events.  Now that Eric is doing great, and we have had time to digest and grieve what we've gone through, I took several days of thought to what I saw in that little doggie's face and decided it is the right time to give back. 

So I took what I knew about myself, and signed up to work at the PAWS clinic.  There was no way in heck that I could work at the adoption location.  It's fancy - new - beautiful - basically a spa for cats and dogs waiting to be adopted, but someone would null and void our domestic partnership after I came home with the 7th pet that looked at me with the "take me home" eyes.  Oh did you know that Eric and I are legally binding domestic partners?!?  No big deal.  I mean, is Brangelina even that?!

Today was my first day volunteering at the clinic.  This clinic that I speak of, is located waaay far away from the adoption location.  Waaay far away as in I feel like I'm in another country.  It's down by Midway airport, and for those familiar with that area, there isn't much English language going on.  That was a concern, but I don't need to enroll in a Spanish course just yet.  Unless the dogs and cats prefer to hear that as they come out of anesthesia.  I worked in the "Recovery Room" for three hours, with no training, just hands on, full contact, getting all dirty right away. 

And I liked it, at least after three hours and a couple more hours thinking about what I did.  Some parts I found fascinating, some parts I wondered how much squimishness I could handle, some parts were funny, and lots of parts were fulfilling, knowing that this cat or dog was going to have a much better life after the spay/neuter surgery.  Animals are much heathier fixed.  In a nutshell, this is what goes down:

Responsibilities:

Assist the Recovery Technicians with dogs and cats exiting the surgical suite. Monitor, stimulate, clean, extubate, clean ears, clip nails, return animals to holding cages, and prepare supplies for surgery.

Requirements:
Must not become faint around the site of blood, and must be able to stand, sit, and kneel multiple times per shift.

And I did all of the above.  I was a tad freaked out about extubation, but as soon as the pet tries to swallow, you yank that tube out!  They are much happier without that tube!  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was fast paced and somewhat of a circus at times.  I took cats/dogs off the operating table.  I watched another volunteer get all scratched up from a cat.  I made sure a dog had her halo on before she really woke up because she bit a vet tech earlier in the morning.  And I saw one thing that never crossed my mind - a cat abortion.  But I will go back next week for sure.

This clinic is housed below the admissions area for animals coming into the PAWS adoption program.  This is where the pet is housed after being picked up from Animal Control, their health is checked out, and behaviorally tested to make sure it's okay to go into a family structure.  While some of the animals are in the program, other animals are coming through the Recovery Room as family pets already.  The clinic opens its doors for free and low cost spay/neuters for needy families and on public assistance.  Most of the animals I saw this morning were client pets.  And that is the mission for PAWS, to decrease the birth rates so Chicago will be no-kill one day.  48,000 animals were killed in 1997 when this organization started, and last year the number was down to under 18,000.  That still is a lot of animals.  I'm happy to be helping out.