My Average Day - By Richard Lim

Daily

1. Help to clean at least one zone of the shelter (Each zone ranges from 35 – 40 dogs to 50 – 60 cats, kittens and puppies)

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2. Exchange emails with the committee to keep them informed of shelter situation. This is done intermittenly throughout the day. Most people don't realize that a shelter which costs over RM20,000 to run each month cannot depend on volunteers, a few paid staff and donation boxes alone. There are many things going on in the background to keep things alive and running

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3. Answer calls on neutering, handovers, vet contact numbers / addresses, advice on animals, etc.

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4. Check on the sick / weak animals throughout the shelter to see whether they've responded to treatment / extra food

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5. Give the sick / weak / nursing animals (dogs and puppies get priority because the cats and kittens are usually fed canned food since they don't eat much) a second meal around 1600 – 1630 hrs

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6. Administer 2nd round of antibiotics as necessary (1st round is usually around 0900hrs so we try to administer the 2nd as late as possible AFTER official operation hours which end at 1600hrs)

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7. Check Zone M (aka council pound) to ensure animals are eating well because many of them are highly stressed after their recent captures. Also have to ensure it's clean and that there are empty cages on standby for new handovers from the 3 councils which drop in daily from Mondays to Saturdays and occasionally Sundays

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8. Check email and Facebook for complaints or enquiries and respond to them. Also highlight cases to the public

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When necessary

1. Go out on rescue / abuse case checks. These usually take up quite a lot of time due to the jam going into town especially at the Jalan Tun Jugah / Jalan Song intersection and along�Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce

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2. Assist vet with restraining animals for sedating

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3. Clean / stitch up wounds

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4. Spend time with stressed / weak animals if time permits

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5. Take photos of animals for highlighting to public

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6. Release rescued animals which have recovered / healed satisfactorily

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7. Administer medication to new cases which were not detected previously so were not on animal healthcare assistant's daily list

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8. Make house calls to assist with troublesome pets

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9. Collect large donations of food from regular donors like The Salvation Army