None of my teachers at high school ever thought I would ammount to anything. All anyone could have hoped for was for me to get 5 c’s at GCSE. One teacher even went so far as to tell me that out of all of the kids in his class I was the one most likly to fail math. Nice guy eh? Well 9 C grade GCSE’s, a few ok-ish A’levels, a good National Diploma and an excellent BSc degree later…i think i have prooved them wrong.
It has been almost exactly one year since I attended my graduation ceremony from university where I picked up my 2:1 in Animal Behaviour and Welfare. since that time I have been volunteering in South Africa at an endangered species breeding centre, worked with racing greyhounds and experienced the highs and the lows of the sport, worked in a furnature shop 30 miles away from where I was living at the time, been made redundant and faced 3 horrible months on state benefits and then landed a one day a week job as receptionist at an animal sanctuary.
Needless to say it has been one crazy year. But now, after years of people telling me I’d never ammount to anything and then more years of people warning me that there is no work and even less money in the animal industry, I have landed my absolute dream job! Animal Care Assistant at a rehoming shelter for abandoned and unwanted dogs, cats and rabbits.
While it is not thew most glamorous of careers and it definatly wont be the easiest, it is what I have wanted to do for most opf my life. It is the very reason I went to university in the first place! And while picking up dog poo, sweeping up cat hair and making salad for rabbits may seem a bit of a hassle, I love it.
True the dogs are psychotic, the cats are sadistic and the rabbits are antisocial but that is only because they have had the roughest of times before they came to us. despite many of them coming from loving homes they all have one thing in common. They have all, for one reason or another, been abandoned by their owners and left in the care of complete strangers. Very kind and caring strangers, but starngers none the less. When you are a German Shepard dog who has never seen another dog before let along heard any kind words, this basically means you have been left in a hostile situation to which you are programed to respond to with your teeth.
These animals have gone from living the life of Riley (whoever that was) to being kept in a kennel with an endless stream of new people attaching a lead to their collars and taking them out on walks in a completly unfamiliar environment.
We do our best with them but nothing we can provide can ever match the security and love an animal must feel when layt infront of the fire on top of its owners feet as they eat their dinner and watch Corrie. But we do our best. And I will try my damndest every single day to make the lives of these animals easier and a little less stress free while they are living with us. This is my promise and I intend to keep it!
