Paws Here

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Volunteering
Paws Here is entirely run by volunteers. From Rachel, the owner, to the students who help out by cage-cleaning to the young people who help us socialise the animals--every single one of us is a volunteer.

As such, we depend on those kind people who give up their free time to volunteer and we are incredibly grateful for their help. Without volunteers, Paws Here simply couldn't function.

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A group of volunteers at Paws Here

Every day at Paws Here we need to clean out all the rabbit and guinea pig cages, change all the animal's water, feed them and health check them. Every second day we clean out rats and hamsters, and we try to handle and socialise the animals as much as possible. As well as that we may need to groom the animals, cut their nails or administer medical care.

On top of caring for the animals, we also need to clean and maintain the shelter, talk to customers and people who are interested in fostering or adopting animals, answer the phone and respond to emails, keep the website updated, and deal with adminstration.

It's a lot of work!

fun

But it's fun too!

You can help in various ways: the majority of our volunteers, whether they are vet students, people doing work experience, or children helping out after school, will help us with the work that revolves around the animals: feeding, cleaning and caring for them. If you are interested in volunteering, that will most likely take up the majority of your time.

We are also always looking for volunteers who would be interested in taking on the more customer-facing roles, such as helping to answer the phone or help customers within the shelter. No volunteer has to do this, but if you express interest we can talk about it. You will be supervised and will not be left to handle this on your own. You must be over 16 to do this.

There are other ways you can help too: if you can drive we always appreciate help in taking our pets to the vet, and being driven to the vet saves us a lot of time and money. If you have a washing machine you can help us by washing the towels we use to clean out our cages, which also saves us a lot of time and is a very practical way to help.

Fundraising is another big way in which you can help: if you have any great fundraising ideas that will help us enormously, as we rely on donations, and any scheme you have that may generate donations is a very valuable contribution. Let us know all your ideas! If you can think of any way to make people more aware of us and what we do that is a great step too. You can also help by taking pictures of the animals and putting them on the website, helping us keep the website updated, and you can even help by contributing to our video diaries or blog.

If you are interested in volunteering in any capicity, please let us know. You can do that by contacting us through the website, phoning us, or popping in to the shop for a chat.

If you are over 16, we may ask for references, and if you're able to give us a CV or are able to tell us about any relavant experience you have, we will find that very useful. If you are under 16, you will need your parent's permission before you can help out. We're very friendly and very willing to chat to and accomodate anyone who is interested in volunteering.

If you are allergic to nuts or seeds, please be aware that many of the animal feeds contain these things.

Thanks for thinking about volunteering! Please contact us if you are interested.