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Foster & Volunteer Helping Hands functions as a network of generous and supportive Foster Parents. These volunteers take animals that are scheduled to be put to death at Little Rock Animal Services and work to find loving homes for them. So many of the animals at Animal Services deserve to live; if you agree to become a foster parent, you will be saving a life while enriching your own. If you'd like to become a foster parent to one or some of the animals at the city shelter complete the On-Line Foster Application and we'll provide you with a helpful manual and give you as many supplies as we can. And if you need inspiration, read Marlow Ball's article below. She's making the world a better place, one little life at a time... Volunteer -- We need volunteers not only to foster! There are MANY other ways you can help -- We need volunteers to clean the cat cages at Petsmart during the week. It takes about 90 minutes and you can pick your day! Volunteers are also needed for the feral cat program, the educational programs, for fundraising, to recruit and direct junior volunteers and help with our antique booth! My Feelings of
Fostering I really can’t explain the fulfillment and deep satisfaction that I experience every time I see a kitten and know that I am saving it. I hope I never lose that love and consideration for the animals that have gotten off to a bad start. It is a feeling that must be experienced because it is too powerful to ever be captured in words. It seems to be a feeling that only the heart can understand. I have saved many animals lives, but I still want to do more, I want to save more. Animals are my life. I have fights with my friends, and our friendship may not last. But I know that somehow my bond with animals will last. I hear of all the animals being euthanized, and I know that I can’t save them all, but I never give up. I just try harder and harder I know I need to do more. So far I have saved a lot of animals. I just love talking to the people and just helping the animals. I love what I do and would never change it. I realize that fostering isn’t for everyone, but I know that it is a good thing for me. -----My love----- When I first started fostering 2 years ago with Helping Hands for Little Paws, I wrote this in my journal: "It sounded so easy. Take home an innocent puppy that was adorable and bring him back in a week. But now, having experienced the trouble of keeping a puppy with out the benefit of a long term relationship, It is hard to explain why I am still brave enough to offer to foster again. I was silently crying and still am. I hope Star (my first foster dog) is having a nice life. I took his presence for granted. I thought that he would always be there the way all of my other dogs have been. The fact that I have to give them up still hurts but to know that I saved one dog from death makes me feel really good. I have some kind of compassion for these helpless animals. And I feel guilty that an animal bred by the human race to be a companion is also betrayed by the human race. I hope Star is happy. Because he is my first, I will never forget him. I love him, but I want to help another dog. I really feel that I was made to do this. And I pray that the human race will be more careful. Dogs need respect and understanding. Dogs are the way they are from Human interactions and human domestications." -----I'm sooo busy----- As I look at my desk, cluttered with papers of dogs that need homes. I started digging through the papers. They were piled so high that they all fell onto the floor into one huge disaster. I was covered in papers and lists of people and dogs and donations. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to fix the mess alone. I called my mother in and we organized it together. I just kept remembering this, and I realized why. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that that was what Helping Hands for Little Paws was for me. All of the volunteers have the same goal. Improvement in the lives of unwanted pets. We each feel that we need to or can help the problem. But alone there is not much hope. Our only hope is to join together. Where one has weakness, the other has strength. We have bonded together to fight in a war that alone we would loose. But now we face new hardships. There was recently a new law that was passed for Little Rock that said no animal can be adopted from a shelter in less it is spayed or neutered. I have worked with Helping Hands for more than 2 years. At first I thought that was a good thing because I assumed we would have our own spay and neuter clinic, where the Little Rock Animal Shelter could spay the dogs we wanted to foster, and whoever adopts them pays back the animal shelter. But this is not what is happening. Now there is not enough money for a spay clinic. So now, Helping Hands for Little Paws can’t rescue any animals from the Little Rock Animal shelter unless it is fixed. This hardship is definitely testing the volunteers dedication. Our only hope is to find adequate funding for a spay/neuter clinic. -----How can you help?----- Helping Hands for Little Paws is a Non-profit organization that rescues animals out of many shelters in Central Arkansas and adopts the animals to loving forever homes. We are a group of dedicated volunteers that operates on donations, all of which goes directly to the animals. Did you know that more than 7,000 animals were euthanized in the Little Rock animal shelter alone! How can you help?
_____________________ Junior Volunteers
Needed! __________________
Helping
Hands for Little Paws |
