HOME VISITORS URGENTLY NEEDED
We urgently need more home visitors to help us find homes for our cats. Especially in the Sandy / Biggleswade area where we currently have none
Do you have a car and like to meet people?
Could you become a home visitor and help us find new loving homes for the cats in our care?
Training and homing guidelines are provided.
This is one of the main areas we need more people to help us, as all potential new homes must be home visited before we can place a cat there. Our policy is never to rehome a cat without a visit to the potential home. This ensures the cat gets the right home for him/her, and the applicants are fully aware of the responsibilities involved. Follow up visits may be made once the cat has been placed in order to assist with any teething problems.
A Volunteer's Perspective - Jan (A Home Visitor of 10 years)
Rewarding, challenging, exciting. Home visiting can take you into many different homes and introduce you to many different people. We go to large properties and tiny flats in all parts of our area but always on a positive mission to find homes for our lonely cats. It is particularly good to re-home a needy cat with a loving family and just as rewarding to find the perfect match of a loving cat with someone who needs affection and companionship.
There can be difficult moments - for example sometimes a cat escapes from its new home before it has properly settled in. This happened to me once and Mary and I spent a week searching for him, feeling more and more desperate but in the end he sauntered back into his new home obviously wondering what all the fuss was about.
There are lovely moments like the family who wanted one cat but after visiting the one I recommended came home with him and his two brothers. All three have a lovely life in a big home with gardens turning into woodland.
We re-home kittens, cats with FIV, blind cats, deaf cats, cats with only three legs and very old cats. The kindness and generosity of people taking these cats in and looking after them with love is impressive.
Jan
We are also keen to recruit in the following roles:
Duty Officer
We need more people to cover our helpline which is open 9am to 5pm, seven days a week, you could cover a half-day or full-day.
There is lots of variety, and volunteers work on a rota basis. Dealing with the public in a firm but pleasant manner, you’ll be greeted by a wide variety of topics, such as "I’m having to leave my home, can you take my cat", or "I’ve found an injured cat, what should I do?".
Don’t worry, full training will be given!
Training and guidelines are provided and at no time will your phone number be made public.
Shop Volunteer
Our shop provides the branch with a much needed regular income – we are proud to have a shop that Head Quarters regularly refer to
as one of the best in the country and we need volunteers to help maintain and build on the standards we have already. The shop is open Monday to Saturday from 9am to 5pm and we have a good regular customer base as well as passers by. We sell everything from books,
CD’s & clothes to sofa’s and dining room tables and shop volunteers are responsible for sorting through the donations we receive, pricing
them and displaying them in the shop as well as serving people at the till.
Full support and training will be given by current long serving shop volunteers and our Manager and Assistant Manager. If you can spare a few hours
during the week to help in the shop please contact Sue (Manager) or Amanda (Assistant Manager) on 01234 840827.
Publicity Assistant
We have a Publicity Officer but we would ideally like to build a Publicity Team as all areas of our work need public awareness.
If you would like to help in any area please contact us on 08442 496911 or email us at enquiries@bedfordcatsprotection.org.uk