We have a great medical team at Furry Friends and we appreciate all that they do for the cats in our care. Tricia Jones and Sara Thomson have both been volunteering with us for the last six months after responding to posts on social media looking for vet techs/assistants. They have dedicated almost every Sunday to the welfare of our current cats and cats coming into our care.

Tricia Jones is a licensed vet tech who has worked for Columbia River Veterinary Specialists (CRVS) until recently when she decided to take a break to help her grandkids deal with online schooling. She volunteered for Furry Friends while working long hours in the intensive care unit. I’m sure she gave care to our Furry friends cats long before she began volunteering with us! She also has been a foster for neonate kittens (bottle babies) and is eager to learn all she can about how to save the smallest of the small kittens that would not survive without people like Tricia.

She says she has six animals at home (not counting the grandkids!) five cats and a Russian tortoise. Although she usually has many more fosters, especially during kitten season. She recently took in two brand new babies for Furry Friends with this years kitten season starting early.

When asked why she volunteers she said “because I can, because it’s the right thing to do, because everyone should do something to help their community & be involved in something bigger than themselves.”

Her other passions are advocating for spay & neuter programs, repurposing antiques, home improvement projects, and traveling.

Sara Thomson is a vet assistant who currently works for Tanasbourne Veterinary Emergency. Sara has volunteered every Sunday for the last six months on the Furry Friends medical team. She said her favorite part of volunteering with Furry Friends is when she gets to nurse the cats back to health after they have come to us from a bad situation. Recently we had a cat come in, Casanova, and Sara was an integral part of his recovery. This was one of her proudest moments with us.

When asked why she gives back she said, “I love working with animals in general but cats especially. The cats we get to work with are going through so much and I love being able to help.”

Watching her volunteer every Sunday her passion for animals does really shine through. She is willing to do anything that needs done for the cats and you can genuinely see she understands them and wants to make them as comfortable with the process as possible.

She is also passionate about her eight month old pit bull (Luna), her work, and helping save as many animals as she can.

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We would like to thank Jenn Hutchman for writing this spotlight. She has been volunteering with Furry Friends for a couple years and has been an amazing contribution to our team. She has fostered over 50 cats and kittens so far for Furry Friends, and not just the easy ones. She has fostered several bottle baby kittens that require feeding every two hours and has taken on some of the difficult medical cases like Monnie. She also is the lead person for our email/voice mail team, plays a significant role on our medical team and has done a number of other tasks including fundraising. For 2020 she put in about 570 volunteer hours for Furry Friends. We are so grateful for all she does.