FOR A GOOD CAUSE -- Suzie Brierley

CORONA DEL MAR - Suzie Brierley took one look at the cuddly kittens

and her heart melted.

Several months later, she was entrenched in volunteer work for the

Community Animal Network.

Brierley and her 10-year-old daughter, Amaryn, were strolling through

Fashion Island one weekend when they passed Russo’s Pet Store.

“I saw my girlfriend DiAnna in front of Russo’s setting up kittens for

adoption,” Brierley said DiAnna Pfaff-Martin, who coordinates the

Community Animal Network’s activities. “I realized immediately it was a

really good cause -- that [the kittens] needed to be brought back to

health, calmed if they were wild, and found homes.”

Amaryn wanted to help show off the cute, furry kittens to potential

families and was volunteering the following weekend.

“All her friends came by and soon they all wanted to do it,” Brierley

said.

So she took on the arduous task of becoming the volunteer coordinator

for a gaggle of fifth-grade girls.

“I told [Pfaff-Martin], ‘Listen, I have about 8,000 kids who want to

volunteer. Why don’t you let me set up some sort of schedule,’ ” Brierley

said.

While that was an exaggeration, she has been organizing a couple dozen

kid volunteers who must be taught the ropes and learn responsibility.

The program they support is what Pfaff-Martin calls “Spay and Return.”

The program spays and neuters cats to help control the population of

unwanted pets, she said.

The group takes in orphaned kittens, which they then have spayed and

neutered. The group also provides full medical exams for the animals.

The kittens are sent to foster homes until permanent homes can be

found.

That is where Brierley and her small army of volunteers come in.

“It’s a good training ground for a child to learn what it’s like to

have a job and about doing something to help someone else,” Brierley

said. “And since the kids started, it has been very successful.”