“My husband just left me and the kids, we have this dog that I just cannot keep right now. . . I don’t make enough money to keep the roof over our heads, just don’t know what we are going to do…this dog is wonderful (her voice breaks) we love him a lot, but just cannot keep him but we want to find him a good home . . . can you help?”
These calls are real, the circumstances are real. When people in the public call us at 419.826.FIXX (3499) they are prompted to leave a message. These are examples of calls from the FIXX line as retrived by our volunteers. FIXX line volunteers are part of the group of heros making up Planned Pethood.
“I have a cat that needs to be spay, I live on $500 a month and can’t afford it…can you help?”
These volunteers retrieve messages from our various mail boxes once a week on their assigned day.
“My vet says that you have a program where we can get our cat neuter done at a discounted rate…can you help?”
The FIXX line coordinator ensures each day is covered to assist with these calls. Often she fills in for someone who is away or ill. We have 1 volunteer for each day but several of them answer more than one line
“I’m really interested in one of the dogs on the website, but would like to know a little more information about her…can you help?”
Some calls are fun, like the people looking for a new pet. What a rewarding job to help them connect with their possible new best friend.
“We found a dog on the expressway just now, he seems really nice but we can’t keep him . . . can you help?” "We found a mama cat nursing a litter of kittens under a bush on our walk tonight . . . can you help?"
Sometimes the animals are unloved and unwanted, sometimes they are “problem children”, sometimes they are truly part of the family who for no fault of their own find themselves homeless.
"We adopted Sassy from you last year. Our house is in foreclosure and we have to move in with my mom who will not allow us to bring Sassy with us. We have to return Sassy back to Planned Pethood . . . can you help?"
We always take our animals back. Always.
The FIXX line volunteers laugh with callers, cry with callers and try to help them all. We are always in need of volunteers, if you are interested please contact debgring@gmail.com.
It feels good to help people even when it hurts- just listening and offering condolences, a bit of empathy, a laugh at a happy time, a tear at a sad time. It's all part of volunteering for an animal rescue organization. Somehow even at the end of the worst days possible, we know we helped. Won’t you help too? If doing telephones isn’t your thing, there are many other jobs that need to be done that don’t require fostering or even much time!
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