This month we’re celebrating Shannon Anderson, a volunteer who spends her time as a foster, adoption counsellor and vaccinator. Always cheerful and ever resourceful, Shannon’s a valued member of the VOKRA team.

Here Shannon tells us in her own words why she volunteers with VOKRA:

How did you start volunteering with VOKRA?

I moved from New Zealand to Canada in 2016. We had a small NZ acreage back home and I always had animals growing up; cats, dogs, horses, rabbits - you name it! City living was a tough adjustment, especially when our first apartment wasn't pet friendly! When we finally moved, I got landlord approval to foster and submitted my foster application the very same day!

How long and in what capacity have you been volunteering

I've been volunteering for just over three years now. First as a foster in May 2019, then I joined the adoptions team in April 2020 and, more recently, the vaccinations team in July 2021.

What’s your favourite part of volunteering?

There are many things I love about volunteering! I love the Christmas-like excitement of picking up a new group of fosters, especially pregnant kitties! You’ll find nothing but kitten photos if you search through my 12,000 iPhone photos - hah! (You can check out some of Shannon’s photos on her Instagram @northvan_kitties)

The combination of being a vaccinator and adoptions counsellor means I get to meet the kitties who are prepping for adoption. I feel like I know them a little bit better when they come available for adoption, which makes the process even more rewarding.

Then, of course, the overwhelming support from both the adoptions and vaccination teams, my foster coordinator and the team at the Operations Centre. Everyone shares a genuine love and passion for the work VOKRA does.

Do you have a favourite kitty(s) you have met or a favourite story from your time with VOKRA?

It's difficult to pick one kitty! Emmylou and George were two of the most confident, friendly kittens you'd ever meet, but Emmylou had a medical issue that took time to resolve. George was so cheeky and learned to open all the doors of the house, to areas that were "off limits''. We kept wondering how the kittens (we had seven at the time) were getting into every room until we checked the cat-cam one day and saw him opening the floodgates!

A favourite story related to volunteering was when a friend recommended me as a cat sitter to their neighbour. When I went to meet the family, I was puzzled by the cats looking so familiar. We got talking and I realised that I had fostered these kitties and met the adoptive family during a viewing in 2019. It was wonderful to reunite with them, two years later.

Tell us a little about your recent experience volunteering with cats in Croatia.

A lovely couple had posted on a housesitting exchange that they were looking for people to care for their pets while they returned to the UK for their daughter’s wedding. They also run Stari Grad Cat & Kitten Fund, a rescue in the beautiful village of Stari Grad, Croatia. Of course, many people applied, but they loved my experience volunteering for VOKRA. My boyfriend and I fed the street cats daily and while the family did not ask or expect it, we continued their work by trapping and spaying/neutering the street cats and returning them to site. So, in addition to the five resident cats, we often had kitties in and out of spare bathrooms while they prepared or recovered from their surgeries, and we also helped an incredibly sick mom deliver her five kittens. I wouldn't have been able to do any of this without the knowledge and skills I've gained from volunteering with VOKRA. It was an amazing experience, but of course came with some hardship! Most of these kitties would love to have a home, but it's tough to find adopters in Croatia. Despite everything, they’re well cared for and live happily in the sunshine, with "Uber Eats" delivering their daily meal. It's certainly not a bad place to live

Here's what foster coordinator Dianne Atkinson has to say about Shannon:

"Shannon and her partner Adam are wonderful fosters! To date, they’ve fostered 116 kitties! Shannon manages to talk Adam into fostering any number of kitties at once in a very well appointed, dedicated cat room. She’s always cheerful even when awash in kitten diaherra! Shannon’s very resourceful, she decided she’d better learn how to vaccinate all these kittens so she joined the vaccination team. One of Sharon’s tiny kittens had swimmer’s syndrome (a developmental abnormality characterized by a delay in the ability to walk and move about) and after researching it, she managed to restore him to full mobility with a home-based physio program! Lots of happy stories at foster Shannon’s home!"

THANK YOU Shannon for your dedication to the kitties and all the time you spend on your many volunteer efforts. We very much appreciate all you do@

As a volunteer-driven non-profit, we clearly couldn’t do what we do without our extremely dedicated and hardworking team of volunteers. Thank you to each and every one of you!

VOKRA’s always in need of volunteers. If you’re interested in volunteering click here.

Volunteer of the Month - July 2022

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