If you don't feel you have the room and/or the right household dynamics with
the cats to foster, then don't.  Fostering is very rewarding, but it can be
disruptive to the cats and if you have any that get easily upset, they might
not deal with it well.  If you do foster, you really need a separate room
that you don't care if it gets trashed (little kittens can be VERY messy!).
The carpet in my former foster room is ruined and we have to replace it now.

Advice for volunteering in general: Hmmm... Try not to get too attached to
the animals!  This is probably the hardest thing to do.  Set clear limits on
your available time.  I failed to do this, and although I love volunteering,
it became all-encompassing for me.  Now that I have to pull back due to life
circumstances, it's very hard for me to do, and hard for some of the people
to accept that I can't do everything I used to do.
Try not to get sucked into shelter politics!  As I moved up and got more
responsibility, I found out all too well about the politics that go on.
Keep it fun!  Spend time with the animals that need some extra attention.

I have volunteered at numerous HS's across the US.  Usually you have to
"do time" cleaning kennels but then can graduate to other tasks.  IIRC
I had to do 12 hours in the kennels - both cats and dogs - before I
could do other things.  It's been so long ago, though, I may be
remembering it wrong.  I liked grooming and dog walking.  I also really
liked adoption counseling, but I didn't "get to" do that for a long
time.  I also worked in the euthanasia room because I wanted to
understand what it meant, first-hand.  That part was hard, but I
learned so much about so many things, especially myself.

My biggest advice would be to HAVE FUN!  It is one of the most
rewarding (but hardest) jobs you will ever have.  And remember - you
can make a difference in each animal's life, if only to let it know
that it was loved for one day.

-L.

OK, I just got back from the orientation, and our local Humane Society *does
not* run the local shelter - while the buildings are attached to each other,
the city runs the animal shelter (called Bloomington Animal Care & Control),
and HS does fund-raisers (there's a big one coming up at a "new" resteraunt
called Cheeseburger In Paradise), spay/neuter assistance program (they help
to pay the vet bill if you can't afford it) *and* education, pet visits at
hospice/nursing homes, humane education presentations at all the schools,
etc., etc.

They have a snake (not sure of what kind) that was surrendered, that they
are *not* rehoming - they use it in their education program.  They also have
an owl and a hawk (injured, unable to be released back into the wild) that
are also used.

I start off next week just doing office work (filing, data entry, & stuff),
and will expand from there.  She did say that during the school year they
have lots of volunteers/interns that are students at IU, but now during the
summer, there's only *2* full time employees and *1* volunteer.

She (the manager) did ask me if I knew why "some" people don't spay/neuter
their pets, my reply was "They're stupid".  She lauged and said
"EXACTLY!"... I think I just might fit in around there.... :)