SPCA volunteer

After a long wait I have now been accepted as a volunteer with the Wellington SPCA. I was one of those kids who picked up half dead animals and tried to feed and cuddle them back to life, and had a heart attack each time the car drove to close a bird. In the old age of my early twenties I have become resigned to the fact that some little animals are just going to die.

However, there are some that can be saved, and some that should be saved, and so I’m quite excited to be able to work with an organisation like the SPCA.

The way some people treat animals horrifies me, and while I’m not the sort of person to create a menagerie in my house, I do love animals. There are many urban myths about animal cruelty, and many that are true, but even something like having a big active dog and not walking it is a bad way to treat a pet. Or never having fresh water for your cat. It seems relatively minor in comparison to things like flogging a horse or leaving a dog tied in a small cage for it’s entire life, but even not treating your cat for fleas or worms is mean.

To start with I’ll be working with puppies (aww). Being more of a cat person myself, I’d prefer kittens, but I prefer puppies to dogs, or rabbits or birds. My Mum has kept rabbits for the last five years or so, and honestly, you can’t do anything with them, they’re boring. They’re cute, but the fact that they happily make babies with their siblings offends my sensibilities, and they tremble if you cuddle them, and you certainly can’t let them run free or hang out in the house with you. Guinea pigs are even worse, it’s beyond me as to why anyone would have guinea pigs as a pet. It’s just paying lip service towards the idea of having a pet. Guinea pigs are for parents who hate animals and have children who want a pet. My cousins have had serial guinea pigs for most of their lives – when one dies, they replace it with a new one. I guess they are cute, but it doesn’t seem like much fun, does it?