Volunteering at Steyr Animal Shelter

Hi everyone!

So I actually wanted my first "real" post on here to be skincare related. But today was my first day volunteering at our local animal shelter, and I really wanted to share that experience with you guys - both the good and the bad sides of it.

I love animals and taking care of them, so helping out at a shelter was something I wanted to do for a long time. I'm right now in a situation where I finally have time to do it. So I called the shelter yesterday to ask whether I could help and what I could do. The lady on the phone (the boss, I believe) explained to me that volunteers are welcome to come in at 8am and help feed the animals and clean their rooms and cages until noon.

So that's what I did today!

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The day started with me arriving at the shelter at 8am. When I went inside there was nobody there, so I gave them a nice "Hello!" to make someone notice me. A lady comes out of the backroom, looking fairly unimpressed (Tired? Bored? Annoyed? Maybe all of them). I tell her: "Hi, good morning! I'm Ines. I called yesterday and I'm here to help." The lady goes: "There's a chair over there. Sit down.", then turns around and leaves. So I go and sit on that chair, next to a cage with a beautiful blue budgie in it that's happily singing. Not a very warm welcome, but the bird sure cheered me up :)

()

There were three employees present this morning. I knew that not because they said Hi or introduced themselves, but because they walked past me barely noticing me. It wasn't until the 16 year old intern arrived (damn, I felt old for a minute there) that I finally heard someone say "Hello" to me. One of the employees then came over and told her what to do (no Hellos or Good Mornings there, too), before turning around and disappearing into the backroom again. Since nobody asked me to do anything I offer the intern my help. She happily accepts, and so we get to work.

We feed the birds, bunnies and cats, tidy the bunny-room, clean all four occupied cat-rooms, do laundry, sweep the shelter's garage and take a dog who recently had surgery out for a walk. 

The shelter really makes sure the animals are well taken care of! The floors and cat litter trays are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected every day, and before entering a room it's required to step on a towel soaked in disinfectant so as to not carry any germs from one animal to another. Special diets and health problems are taken into consideration for every single furry resident at the shelter, and the cats had tons of cozy blankets and toys to play with.

So if you think that animal shelters are horrible places where animals suffer and are not well cared for - that's definitely not the case in Austrian shelters. Of course, nothing exceeds a forever home with a loving family though!

During all work, the intern (who is the sweetest girl, she really made my day) explains to me what to do and how to do it, and also happily chats with me about her school, boyfriend and life in general. So eventhough we worked quite a lot we did it with a smile, knowing we help the animals and also enjoying each other's company. 

And before I left, I got to cuddle Moritz - a big, red, super fluffy cat. I fell in love with him!

I was unable to take pictures while working since we were quite busy. But I managed to get these two photos of my new feline friend Moritz. And myself in glamorous working attire, lol

At noon, everyone left. I thought the employees would probably introduce themselves to me now that they're not busy anymore, and ask whether or not I would like to come back. But unfortunately, that didn't happen. Everbody got in their respective cars and drove off after a brief: "Bye."

I voiced my confusion about that to the intern, and she said: "I've been here all week and nobody has asked for my name yet. They don't talk to me at all. I'm also not allowed in the staff room - that's just how they are here."

After a couple more minutes of chatting with the intern, we said our goodbyes and left as well.

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So, to recap today's volunteering experience at the Steyr Animal Shelter: the animals are awesome, the humans (except for the intern) not so much.

Don't get me wrong - I know very well that "volunteering" means "working for free". And that's absolutely fine - I love caring for animals and didn't expect anything in return. Except for a "Thank you", maybe. That would have been nice.

In my four hours at the shelter today I wasn't spoken to by the employees at all. Nobody cared who I was and what I did. Nobody cared whether I would be coming back to help them more often in the future. And nobody cared to say "Thank you" when I left covered in litter, cat hair and probably some poo. 

So the humans at Steyr's local animal shelter seemingly don't appreciate people helping them. And while this is a bummer and not a big motivation to come back, the animals appreciate the help for sure. Some of them (like Moritz) made that very clear.

And, as I said - the animals in the shelter are well taken care of. So I'd rather have the employees ignore me and care about the animals than the other way around. Something in between these two options would have been nice, but oh well. We can't have everything in life, can we :)

Grumpy humans aside, I enjoyed volunteering today. I got to care for and interact with animals, which always makes me happy. So I'll most probably be doing it again. Together with a friend, to make sure I have someone to chat with :P And who knows, maybe next time someone will say Hello. People can improve, right?

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I hope you enjoyed this (very long) first post of mine. Please know that I didn't write this to make anyone look bad or point fingers. It's just an honest review of my experiences today and conversations I had (or the lack thereof). 

If you made it until here - you're awesome, thank you! 

Have you volunteered somewhere? How were your experiences? Let's talk about it, I'd love to know!