Her pet project
Mary A. Castillo
This year for Mother’s Day, Sune Gillian a volunteer with the Orange
County Humane Society since 1999, received a special gift.
“My son spent the day walking the dogs at the shelter,” she said. “He
couldn’t have given me a more perfect gift.”
Gillian, 52, began her volunteer work with the society when a friend
explained how she deliberately adopted an older cat who had been at the
shelter for a long time. So Gillian decided to do the same.
“I called and requested a cat who needed a good home,” she said.
“Instead I ended up with a mama cat and her litter.”
Eventually Gillian fostered many animals who needed a little extra
love or were too young for adoption.
“When I first started it was hard to let them go,” she said. “But then
I realized that once they went to a good home, I could help more
animals.”
On a typical day at the shelter, Gillian dispatches new volunteers to
take the four-legged residents on walks and helps answer the busy phones.
Marking the complicated-looking grid, she keeps track of who has been
taken on a long walk to a nearby park and when. When the volunteer bank
was really low, the dogs only got a long walk every five weeks. Now a dog
typically ventures out once or twice a week.
“Walking is very important for a dog’s physical and mental health,”
she said, as one eager shepherd mix named Cher pulled a volunteer out the
door.
Gillian, who has always been an animal lover, feels quite strongly
about the treatment of these dogs and cats.
“I wish people who turn in their pets could see how much it affects
the animal,” she said, pointing out a gentle pit bull named Monster who
came as a stray, but was not picked up by his owners.
“Here is a loving dog who needs a little boy to play ball with,” she
said. “But because he’s a pit bull, it might be awhile before he finds a
home.”
Gillian and the other volunteers not only take turns walking the dogs,
but also take the animals to pet adoption days at local pet stores and to
Pet Place where they can be filmed for TV adoption segments. One of their
new projects is a matchmaking program for prospective owners. She hopes
it will help people make educated decisions about the type of animal they
bring into their lives and the responsibilities that comes with pets.
Although it is sometimes sad, volunteering at the society is not
without its rewards.
“The most exciting thing is when a long-term resident finally goes to
a good home,” she said.
* MARY A. CASTILLO is a news assistant with Times Community News. She
can be reached at (714) 965-7177 or by e-mail at o7
mary.castillo@latimes.com
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