Teresa M. Hutchison-Thomas Volunteer Spotlight
I have been volunteering with Furry Friends since November 2023. I volunteer 2+ hours a week and try to help out if they need help with transporting or anything else.
I had been volunteering at the local animal shelter and found that it wasn’t very personable. Cleaning, caring and socialization were rushed, so I looked around for an organization with a meaningful mission and purpose and discovered Furry Friends. Besides giving love to the cats, I LOVE my fellow volunteers. They are a fun and wonderful group of people who care deeply about what they are doing!
My biggest challenges: not wanting to take every cat home with me and finding more time to volunteer. But because I travel for work, that limits me. I work as a Clinical Documentation Technical Lead for the City of San Francisco. I help create an Electronic Medical Record known as your Epic Chart. I was also a nurse for 25 years coupled with doing Informatics.
My proudest, yet saddest moment as a volunteer occurred when I saw a kitten hit by a car in front of me. I stopped traffic and grabbed the kitten. Not knowing where to go, I rushed over to the Halfway House. Jazmynn, who was there, called Jenn and off we went to the Emergency vet. I had the kitten on my chest, talking to it and loving it while Jazmynn drove. We were losing the kitten and I tried mouth to nose, but it had suffered extensive internal damage. I’m so proud of how quickly FF acted, making every effort to help save that kitten, and I’m thankful that it didn’t die alone by a curb, but loved on my chest.
The reason I give back is because I feel blessed and want to be a blessing where I can. I also feel passionate about the issue of spay/neutering pets.
At home, I have two 12-year-old cats: Esmeralda or Esma, a Tortie and quite spicy, Lily, a large-boned Tuxedo, and Cooper, a ginger kitten. I love to garden, read and cook, and help out my senior neighbors when needed. ___________________________________________________________
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.
