Well, I finally did it. I started the process to become a volunteer for PAWS of Coronado.

This has been something we have been thinking about for a long time. But with our traveling to volunteer at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary every six to eight weeks, we just never got around to it.

Bob even stopped by the Coronado Animal Care Facility (ACF) one day about six months ago and picked up the paper applications and each month when I paid the bills I would say, “We need to get these applications in.”

Finally a couple of weeks ago, I was looking at the PAWS website and saw that we could apply online. And so filled out and submitted the online form and shortly received a welcome e-mail with all of the contact information for the areas in which we expressed interest.

Today we met with Claudene who oversees the cat petting program. She gave us a tour of the ACF and then we sat and learned all about the ACF and PAWS role in the care of the animals.

Some of what she told us I was aware of, but some of the details of the structure of the organization were new to me.

The way it works:

Coronado Animal Services is under the jurisdiction of the Coronado Police Department, (specifically under the Support Services Division) a city agency. Thus, all activities of the ACF are overseen by the city and must be approved by the city. These guidelines by virtue of its relationship with the ACF extend to PAWS.

Animal Services takes care of the animals for the duration of their quarantine time after arriving at the facility. After that time, they continue to feed the animals and clean their living areas.

PAWS then works with the ACF making sure the animals get whatever medical care they need, walking the dogs, petting the cats and doing all of the activities associated with finding homes for the animals.

Cat Petting:

As many of you know, I love cats and am very involved in taming and socializing them. So, one of the first things I signed up for was the cat petting program. Cats are petted twice a day from 10am – 12pm and again from 2pm – 4pm (except for holidays). There are two people scheduled for each cat petting shift. Each volunteer is expected to pet each and every cat so that they all get equal socialization.

Friday, I am going to the first of two of the required cat petting training sessions. The guidelines of this training have been designed as a collaborative project between the city and Claudene.

It is a wonderful facility and I am looking forward to spending time with the cats. I’ll let you know how my training session goes!

Happy Day!