Brent Murphy Volunteer Spotlight
I have volunteered with Furry Friends for 3.5 years. I was looking for some meaningful volunteer work, and since I’ve always been an animal lover -- especially of cats – it was a perfect fit.
Retired after a long career in Corrections, I worked with juveniles for eight years and then adults for 27 years when I worked for Washington County. I am a widower and my late wife and I always had at least two cats in our household. Two weeks after I started volunteering with Furry Friends, I met a 1-year-old orange tabby named Cheddar. We hit it off immediately and I took him to his forever home, my condo, and we have been inseparable ever since. He weighed 9.5 pounds when I brought him home and he quickly grew to 14 pounds in his secure environment. He even walked all over the complex grounds with me like a dog, and everyone recognized him and liked him.
Our current cats are Boots, aged eight, and Dora the Explorer, aged one. My history of owning tuxedos dates back several years. I adopted Boots from my vet’s office because he got along well with my big brown dog. I adopted Dora from the Humane Society when I was heartbroken after my big brown dog died. Boots and Dora are besties. My cats both love catnip toys, but Dora’s favorite toy is anything she can swat off a flat surface! She also finds the highest place in the house to perch while I search for those items. Boots’s hobby is coughing up hairballs. Boots is a lap cat who sleeps by my head and tucks my arm underneath him with a paw. Dora only likes head bumps and it is a privilege to pet her.
Furry Friends is so well run and I love their mission and their dedication. It warms my heart to see new cats come in and thrive with our TLC. Those two hours on Monday morning are one of the best parts of my week. A shout-out to my great co-workers! We are quiet but mighty!
I volunteer one to two hours a week at FF. My favorite part is seeing and meeting all of the new arrivals that come in. My biggest challenge there is NOT adopting another cat. I’ve thought about it, though, since I travel quite a bit and Cheddar gets lonely. In all honesty, my proudest moment as a volunteer was when I met and bonded with Cheddar. (You know how they say that pets look like their owners? Well, in my case, it’s true. I am a redhead and Cheddar definitely resembles me)!
As a humanitarian, I feel like I am giving back to the community by helping care for these precious creatures. A local issue I am passionate about is our current homelessness crisis. My main hobby is Trivia. I play on two competitive trivia teams three to four nights a week all over Vancouver. I have been playing Trivia for over 40 years and love the combination of intellectual challenge and competition.
Furry Friends is a great organization, and, as one of the few males volunteering there, I am so very proud to be a part of it!
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Furry Friends Volunteer Spotlights are compiled and written by Nomi Berger who is the bestselling author of seven novels, one work of non-fiction, two volumes of poetry, and hundreds of articles. She is a volunteer writer for Furry Friends in Vancouver, WA and also volunteers her writing skills to animal rescue groups in Canada and the USA.
