Volunteer opportunities cover a wide spectrum of activities, but all focus on making a difference, either directly or indirectly, in the lives of homeless pets.
Many of you want to help but are unable to offer foster care for a dog or financial assistance. There are many other ways you can assist in saving the lives of homeless pets. All it takes is a little time to share and an understanding of our mission.
Forgotten Paws is a very small group run by a very small group of volunteers. We are interested in growing and finding some wonderful animal lovers who understand our mission. At this point, we are a one man show at the kennel with a handful of volunteers who come and go for special projects and events.
We rely on our volunteers to succeed in saving as many lives as possible at Forgotten Paws. Volunteers are very important to the shelter. Our shelter is different from others. We have a free range facility where the dogs are not caged all the time. This makes it tougher to have a volunteer group but we are slowing working out the details of having people come in and out. Our kennel is a house purchased solely for kenneling our dogs. It is slowly but surely coming along.
Requirements
Volunteers must be 18 years of age or older. We currently do not have orientation programs but are working towards this goal.
Current Needs
Forgotten Paws needs volunteers for the following activities:
Walking the overweight dogs. We have two dogs who are very overweight and need to be walked daily. If you can offer some time to do this, please let us know. We can work around your schedule but would prefer early day or late day when the temperatures are lower.
Cleaning. Each morning I spend several hours sweeping and mopping and just cleaning up the mess 30 dogs make in one day/night. Each day we sweep and mop each room, pooper scoop each yard, move crates and clean spilled food if needed. Each day, there is one room on the schedule that gets “the works”. This means, dusting the walls and wiping down baseboards, cleaning the ceiling fan, etc. If we don’t do it this way we can’t keep up! It takes me several hours to do this alone but if I had someone to help even on day a week for one hour, so much more could be accomplished.
Mowing the yards. We have a riding mower, we just need someone with the time to ride it!
Clerical work. We need someone to go through our files and build us an excel spreadsheet and database for each dog that has been adopted. We also need someone to put together adoption packets and organize the office
Helping with fundraising events and activities. We are in the process of scheduling some fundraisers, including a “Yappy Hour”, Chili’s Dinner Event, Silent Auction and a Yard Sale. If you are interested in spearheading one of these events, please let me know b/c I can’t do it alone!
Fostering dogs. We have a whole page on the site about fostering – click here
Community Service
Forgotten Paws accepts community service for certain misdemeanors. Community service activities may include cleaning kennels, cleaning the grounds and riding the lawn mower! For more information or to inquire about community service requirements, please contact us
Shelter Policies
Please access and review some of the Do’s and Don’ts for Volunteers (link currently not working but is being corrected). These guidelines are established for your safety, as well as the safety of our staff and the animals in our care. Volunteers must abide by these guidelines, as well as the instructions/directions of the staff at all times.
Groups
If you are part of a group of volunteers, such from a school or company, and would like to do a group activity or fundraiser to help the animals, please contact us at email