Est. 1996
Happy Animals Rescue and Rehabilitation
Volunteer or Fostering
Thank you for your interest in volunteering or Fostering with Happy Animals Rescue and Rehabilitation’s . H.A.R.R is a non-profit, 501(c)3 Rescue which operates a no-kill shelter and foster care program for dogs, puppies, cats, kittens and all animals in need of loving homes. Volunteers or Fostering with a variety of skills are needed to ensure the success of these programs. Your help is GREATLY appreciated. Please take the time to fill out this application and read and sign the agreement. This information will help us identify the volunteer or fostering duties that you would enjoy most and keep you posted on new projects. After we review your information, a shelter representative will contact you to discuss volunteer or fostering opportunities with that are compatible with your skills and experience.
Volunteer opportunities at the shelter
Volunteer opportunities at the shelter as Follow.
Dog walker
As a dog walker, you provide dogs with exercise and socialization, start basic training if necessary, and help maintain previous training. This helps the dogs and makes them more adoptable. You can start walking dogs immediately after orientation.
You can also sign out a dog with staff approval and take the dog to the park, the pet store, or another approved location. Be sure to let everyone you interact with know that your companion is up for adoption — you can take an H.A.R.R information sheet to share.
Cat volunteer
H.A.R.R. cats and kittens have free-range rooms at the shelter. When you volunteer with our shelter cats, you play with cats and kittens, help socialize shy kittens and cats, and groom long-haired cats. After you've gotten to know the cats and kittens, you can introduce them to prospective adopters.
Open hours
During our open hours, volunteers answer the phone, greet visitors, show them adoptable animals, help them interact with the animals, answer questions, and get to know potential adopters to help them find a good match. You can sign up for a shift from two to four hours.
Office support
Volunteers run the ARP office. These are some tasks that you can help with:
Answer phones. We'd like to have volunteers available to answer phones from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.
Print thank-you notes to donors.
Maintain adoption files.
Maintain medical records for cats and dogs.
Provide clerical assistance in all volunteer areas.
Recycle old recyclables.
Do data entry.
You can do these tasks from our shelter office or from home:
Retrieve H.A.R.R phone line messages.
Contact adopters to follow up on adoptions.
Contact foster families to ensure medical care is up to date.
Medical care
We administer much of the medical care at our shelter with the help of experienced staff and volunteers:
Give routine vaccinations and tests.
Groom dogs.
Shelter maintenance
We work to keep our shelter clean and in good repair. We often need volunteers for various projects:
Landscaping
Electrical
Plumbing
General construction work
Cleaning
Foster care
Our volunteers provide short-term and long-term foster care. More about this opportunity is on our Foster page.
Adoption counselors
Adoption counselors volunteer at the shelter, at adoption events, or both. If you can commit to consistent participation at adoption events or shelter open hours, you can enter our adoption counselor program. Current adoption counselors will teach you the procedures for cat and dog adoptions.
Adoption events
We have dog and cat adoption events every Saturday at various locations. You can contribute to their success by volunteering in any of these ways:
Set up and tear down at events.
Transport animals and supplies to and from events.
Greet visitors and provide information about H.A.R.R.
Help visitors meet and select pets.
Walk dogs during dog adoption events.
Please let us know if you'd like to commit to one, two, or more Saturdays a month. If you can be there for only part of the event, you can still help with transport, setting up, and tearing down afterwards.
Pet transport
In addition to transporting dogs and cats to and from adoption events, volunteers transport them to and from vet appointments. Often one volunteer drives them to the vet for an overnight stay before spay or neuter surgery, and another volunteer picks them up the next day.
Fundraising and community outreach
Our fundraising committee develops and organizes fundraising events to raise valuable funds to support our mission. We need volunteers at all levels of fundraising, from event staffing to leadership.
Event planning
Set up dates and times for events.
Develop a plan for transport of all supplies for the event.
Assist with marketing and publicity.
Work with volunteer services to staff the event.
Develop a site plan.
Contact city officials to obtain proper permits.
Supervise at events to ensure proper management.
Other community outreach
You can contribute in any of these areas:
Publicity events
Presentations to community organizations
Community outreach for sponsorship program
Sales and maintenance of display materials
Donation canister program
Online publicity
If you're good at writing or taking photos of animals, we could use more help in these areas:
Write blog posts (we have topics to write about).
Write newsletter articles.
Write featured dog and featured cat profiles.
Take photos of cats and dogs for featured pet profiles and for Petfinder.
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The next step
Are you ready to get started? Please fill out our volunteer application, and you'll be hearing from us soon. If you have any questions, please contact us.
What is fostering?
When you foster cats, kittens, dogs, or puppies for Happy Animals Rescue Project, you care for those pets in your home until they are adopted into their forever homes.
Foster care benefits everyone: it creates space for more pets at our rescue shelter, and it gives the foster pet an opportunity to live a more comfortable life while awaiting permanent placement.
Responsibilities as a foster care provider
As a foster care provider, you provide food, water, shelter, training, grooming, transportation to vet care, and a lot of TLC. Basic knowledge of animal care and training is a plus. If you need help with food, we may be able to provide some donated food. We can also take care of transportation to the veterinary clinic if necessary. We provide purchase orders for all necessary vet care, behavior and training help, and adoption counseling.
One of your biggest responsibilities as a foster care provider is to help us find the best possible home for your foster pet. Part of that commitment is to bring your foster pet to Happy Animals Rescue Project adoption events. We encourage you to stay with your foster pet throughout the day, but we understand that that isn't always possible. If you aren't able to stay, we ask you to fill out a form with information about your foster pet's routine and home environment so that we can try to match the pet with the best possible family.
Foster care providers play an important role in the adoption process. We depend on fosters to review adoption applications and raise any questions or concerns presented in the application. Foster parents have the best knowledge about the pets in their care and are encouraged to help find the best fit for their forever homes.
Support for foster care providers
Happy Animals Rescue Project has a large and active network of foster care providers, so you'll receive plenty of help and advice from other fosters. Some of our foster homes have provided temporary care for literally hundreds of pets over the years. They've seen and experienced a lot, and they're always willing to lend a helping hand to a new or relatively inexperienced foster care provider.
Adopting a foster pet
Fostering Happy Animals Rescue Project pets is not a trial adoption. As long as you are fostering, you'll be helping find permanent homes for the foster animals in your care. However, foster care providers do sometimes decide to adopt a pet they're fostering.
If you decide that you'd like to like to adopt a foster pet, we may choose to waive the application process. But you will be required to complete an adoption contract and pay the adoption fee in full at the time the contract is signed. You will then be responsible for providing all necessary care for that animal as part of your family for the rest of the pet's life.
