Jim has been a volunteer for a little over a year now and has become invaluable as our jack of all trades and handyperson. This year he has repaired gutters, cleaned the roof, made a door for our hot water heater, helped to make improvements to get the commercial occupancy permit, fixed the outdoor lights, fixed a few catios, weather sealed windows, built/installed new interior doors, and continues to take care of whatever needs done. He says he has a long wish list of Sandi and Jenn’s projects to still complete. We keep him busy!

When asked how he got involved, he said “I jokingly say that I’m not a volunteer, but a voluntold. My wife Karen is a shift lead and she mentioned that Furry Friends was looking for someone to fix a few things. She asked if I’d meet with Sandi Long and help. How could I say no?”

Jim doesn’t have any kitty adoptees from furry friends yet but does have other rescued animals at home.  “Our dog (Merlot) was initially a medical foster we did over the holidays two years ago for the Cowlitz County Humane Society (Karen also volunteers there). Given his issues it was clear to us nobody would want him, so we adopted him and had his medical issues addressed. We also have two cats (Viognier and Bacchus) who we adopted years ago from other organizations.”

Jim retired from the information technology field and is very savvy in technology and business. He says his true passion lies with making and fixing things, which greatly benefits Furry Friends! He also likes to restore old trucks, one being an “off the frame” restoration of a ’62 F100 Karen lovingly named “the money pit.”

His proudest moment with Furry Friends was helping get the commercial occupancy permit for us by replacing all of our interior doors. We couldn’t have older door latches so we had to replace all the latches with magnets. This wasn’t working with the old doors as they were warped and twisted from years of use, so Jim made all brand new doors for us!

His message to the community about volunteering and animal rescue is this “There are so many animals out there in need of a forever home. Don’t buy cats or dogs from a pet store or breeder – visit your local rescue or shelter and adopt.”

Thank you Jim for the dedication you continue to show for Furry Friends daily!

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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 250 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. She also is our Executive Director and handles community outreach such as emails/voicemails and does the adoption and cat intake coordination as well as a number of other tasks including fundraising.