Cuddle Volunteering

Shelters = orphanages for pets; a place where we take pets who do not have a home, where we take pets that we don't want anymore so they don't have to live on the street, a shelter for those who have been abused to recover. This is a good thing.


For those of you who love critical thinking and plausible theory, what formula would we need to make a shelter obsolete, to create a scenario where every pet has a home. With the no-kill movement strongly footed now, most everyone can agree that to euthanize healthy pets in shelters just because there aren't enough beds or because they have simply "run out of time", is the unfortunate reality of shelter animals. True, many pets are sent to rescue groups, but there are simply not enough rescue groups to go around for every pet.

This is where Cuddle Volunteers are so important.

A Cuddle Volunteer is a pretty simple job: you go to the shelter and cuddle with a homeless pet. You open the cage and give a few minutes to a creature who really needs it. Your time with them helps the pet with stress, it helps them to socialize, it gives them time to more accurately show their personality, their cute quirks, their funny wiggles and smiles.


Shelters need volunteers for the sole reason to get more pets adopted, quicker and to better-suited homes (we like the ASPCA's Meet Your Match program). Mostly, shelters have enough paid staff to do the daily tasks of processing intakes, paperwork, vaccinations, spay/neuter, surgeries, etc. and when talking about an intake rate of thousands annually, this is no small task just to keep the doors open.

Dogs and cats get adopted quicker when they have a friend, which might be you. You can meet the pet, say hello, pet and play with it. Through this process, you gain invaluable information for the shelter. You can help to give them information you learn about this pet that will help them to better utilize their adoption process.

Q. What if "Cuddle Volunteering"  doesn't exist at my shelter? 

A. Then consider helping them to create a cuddle program. Enlist your friends, your relatives, co-workers to be the first Cuddle team!

Q. I just can't. Shelters are just too upsetting for me.
A. Don't knock it 'til you try it! You might leave with a better sense of what happens at your local shelter. If it is still upsetting, well, this is something you just have to overlook. Realize that having a tough skin is what these pets need. Remember, a shelter is too upsetting for them also.

Lets get down to it. Consider being a cuddle volunteer. I can't imaging what better benefit you could provide other than adopting a shelter pet.

See you at the shelter!