Cindy GoodrichVolunteer Spotlight
I have volunteered with Furry Friends for 13 years. When we moved to Vancouver, I wanted to volunteer with a cat rescue and kept seeing Furry Friends when I Googled cat rescues. They were close to our house and a small organization, so it was ideal. I’ve made many wonderful friends through the organization and I’m always happy to tell people about them. I watched them grow from adopting out fewer than 100 cats a year to several hundred cats a year. It’s amazing to see all of these kitties saved and then go to their forever homes.
I scan every cat’s file into our database, including their medical records, so that their adoptors can access their records. I also scan the relinquishment forms, adoption contracts and keep track of the volunteers’ hours. I currently volunteer about five hours a month, depending on how busy I am with my pet sitting business. My biggest challenge is not adopting every cat and kitten. I read their stories on FB or talk to the volunteers who work with them, and I want to hug them all and bring them all home.
My proudest moment was when I sat on the Board many years ago and was part of the Halfway House Committee which ran the Halfway House. I had been watching Jackson Galaxy’s “My Cat From Hell” where he trains cat guardians to help their cats get what they need by “asking” for it, particularly the shy and frightened ones. I saw what he did with the “slow blink” and a shy cat and started doing it myself with our own shy and frightened cats. I realized then that we needed a “socializing” group. After extensive research, I printed out all of the information and arranged for several volunteers to help out. Today, it’s a highly successful program, and I’m both proud and delighted that I started it!
When we lived in Arizona, I worked as an accountant and volunteered for a cat rescue group there. I also volunteered for the MS Society in Portland, a wonderful organization. They helped people living with MS find doctors, educated them about symptoms and new treatments and helped if they were having financial issues because they weren’t able to work.
There are two issues I’m most passionate about: stray animals and the way we’re treating our planet which is everyone’s home. At home, we have three cats -- all Furry Friends’ rescues: Comet, who is 14 and Dragon and Tobias who are 6. One of my talents is my ability to communicate with animals. I feel a connection to most of them, including wild animals. I love playing board games with my husband and stepson such as Lords of Waterdeep and Kingsburg -- lots of strategy and luck involved. I love how they challenge me to hold many ideas in my head at once.
My husband and I love to travel. We have been around the Baltic Sea, to Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, New Zealand (we saw two of the rarest types of penguins there), and Australia, where we spent time with kangaroos, wallabies and Tasmanian devils.
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Furry Friends Volunteer Spotlights are compiled and written by Nomi Berger who is the bestselling author of seven novels, one work of non-fiction, two volumes of poetry, and hundreds of articles. She is a volunteer writer for Furry Friends in Vancouver, WA and also volunteers her writing skills to animal rescue groups in Canada and the USA.
