Our fantastic long-term volunteers Cara and Kevin have supported us for a combined total of over 30 years!
Cara has been volunteering at our Inverness centre since 2000!
She moved back up to Scotland after years working in England, and having always been passionate about animals, she thought volunteering at the Scottish SPCA would be a good way to spend some time with them.
Cara started off volunteering in the centre’s small animal room, and has since moved on to dog walking, as well as cleaning in the cattery and socialising the cats there. While the work has stayed much the same over the years, the centre has become a real community and Cara has made good friends with a lot of the staff, one of the main reasons she’s been volunteering with us for so long! Cara said, “They are a very friendly, very lovely group of people! It’s a great atmosphere, everyone is always laughing and it’s very social.”
She thinks everyone should give volunteering with us a go! “You don’t have to be a mad animal lover. There’s enough different things for everyone to try, plus once you get started you’ll find you start to fall in love with all the animals anyway!”
Kevin spent a year volunteering at our Inverness centre before moving to Caithness. He discovered we also had a centre just outside of Thurso and applied to volunteer there over 10 years ago.
Kevin said, “I have always been an animal lover but as I got older I became more passionate about animal welfare and wanted to do all I could to make a difference.
“I have volunteered with the Society for over 10 years and I continue to do so because if I can go home from the centre every week knowing I've made a difference, no matter how big or small, to the happiness of the animals then I think it's been time well spent.
“Over the last 10 years lots of things have changed but I think the role of volunteers has become more vital because, like all work places, the amount of paperwork and computer work required to run the animal rescue and rehoming centres has increased drastically meaning the staff have less time to spend with the animals.
“I think volunteers can help fill that gap to ensure the animals in the centres still get all the love and attention they need.”
