Adoption days need handlers, greeters and a setup crew.
About a hundred and forty people volunteer with us. Most of it happens on adoption days: someone on the end of every lead, someone at the table, someone to carry crates at nine and again at three. Each event below lists its shifts and how many places are still open.
What the shifts are
One dog, one lead, the whole event. You know the entry and you say what it says. Sixteen and up, or with an adult; a short walk with a staff member first.
The table: the sheet of who is here, the applications, the questions. The best job for someone who would rather talk to people than hold a lead.
Crates, pens, water, the shade. An hour before and an hour after. Strong back, own gloves.
Between events: the county shelter run on Tuesdays, vet appointments for fosters who cannot drive. Your car, our fuel card.
The moment a handler works toward
A dog goes home wearing the same bandana it wore all morning, and the person on the other end of the leash is you. That is the whole job on an adoption day: a lead, an entry you have read, and a family who came because of it.
Events, with their shifts
Home for the Holidays weekend
Friday to Sunday, 12 to 5 · 418 Mill Street · in 7 days
Adoption fees waived for every animal that has been with us more than sixty days. Applications are reviewed the same way as any other weekend.
Mutt Strut 5K
9 a.m. start · Riverside Park, the river trail · in 161 days
A 5K on the river trail, dogs welcome and encouraged. Registration opens in February; the route and the water stops are posted here.
Full shifts stay listed so you can see the day is covered; we keep a reserve list for each. Past events leave the page by themselves.
Take a shift, or a role
Pick a shift with open places, or a role without a date and we call when one comes up. Demonstration: it sends nothing and stores nothing.
What happens next
Within two business days a reply with the place held, the time to arrive and who to find. For a handling shift, a fifteen-minute walk with a staff member first, any open day.
On the day: the sheet of who is here, the entry for the animal you are holding, water, and a staff member within sight all day.
Under 16 volunteers come with an adult who is also signed up; 16 and 17 can handle dogs after the walk. Nobody is asked for a background check to hold a lead; drivers who take animals alone are.
This is the sample rescue's practice, written for the demonstration.