July 2021 Volunteer of the Month - Jennie
This July, we want to give a big burst of gratitude to Jennie, one of our newer volunteers and fosters. She is very active in our
cat and kitten program, both fostering those in need, as well as helping transport others to the vet for appointments. We are
very grateful to Jennie, as well as all our other volunteers, who may stumble across us in one way or another…..and then decide to
get involved and make a difference. Here is a little about Jennie:
I’m an animal lover by nature, you know the type. I’ll take a spider outside and put it in the grass, rather than killing it with a
tissue. I will (and have before) walked across a busy parking lot to rescue a mouse that can’t get back to the hole it crawled out
of and is trying to climb the wall in terror. I keep a bin of cat/dog food and jug of water in my car, just in case. I’ll stop in
the middle of the road to provide a barrier so that the geese can cross safely. In my downtime I’m a bit of a home body, I’ll read
or play video games or work on various small tasks. I enjoy being outside in nature, so sometimes I’ll spend entire days on the
bike trail behind my apartment, just enjoying the sounds of the woods.
Before I started volunteering for Paw Patrol, I was working with abandoned cats by myself or with one or two individuals. All
journeys start somewhere and this, for me, started about five years or so ago when I found a box of abandoned kittens in the rain
on my way home from work one day and had them all re-homed within a week. That started me feeding any feral cats I would find, and
now I’m a designated feeder for two clowders. In one of those clowders, I found a dumped pet who followed me home, he’d have
followed me right into my building and into my apartment if I let him. Unfortunately, I didn’t let him, and he got hurt. That
lesson has stayed fresh in my mind even after I brought him in, named him Oliver and sent him to live with a nice couple about an
hour and a half away. I got involved with Paw Patrol when I found a small group of cats between the ages of three months to five
years dumped at an office building where I was working, and one of those cats was in serious need of medical help.
By this time, I was dating a great guy whose in-laws by marriage work with dumped pets, and I had heard of Paw Patrol and the work
they do. So, I made some calls to the individual in the family who dealt with dumped pets. This individual helped me trap, neuter,
and release (TNR) the entire clowder, and then helped me again when I realized I had accidently returned a kitten who wanted to be
a pet. All the signs were there; being sweet when I dropped off food, showing me his tiny belly- the little one was just too afraid
to come up to me and ask for help. That kitten was a roughly three-month-old ginger boy. I brought Marshmallow home and got him
healthy, re-socialized, and into a new home. From the moment I put Marshmallow into the arms of his new family, I was in love with
the work that goes into fostering and re-homing these lost and dumped pets. Some day I hope to be able to help on the level that my
mentors and teachers at Paw Patrol can, but for now, it is one kitten/cat at a time.
Thanks again, Jennie and we look forward to continue to save many kitties with you over the years!
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August's Volunteer of the Month >>
