This week’s Pack Pride recognizes our wonderful volunteer Esther. Esther has volunteered here at Texas Humane Heroes for almost 10 years now! She is one of our longest helping volunteers and we very much appreciate all of her hard work. Almost every week she comes in on Wednesdays to help our senior vet tech Caitlin clean all our cat isolation kennels! As you can imagine that is a lot of work to do and having Esther here to help out makes a big difference.
Esther originally started volunteering in October of 2007 after meeting one of our staff members at a nonprofit event held by her workplace to gather donations. Esther had recently lost her Boston Terrier and was feeling down when the staff member suggested she volunteer to get her dog fix. And so Esther did just that, went to orientation and started volunteering. She did not, however, get her dog fix in like she’d expected. Day one of volunteering as Esther phrased it, she was “thrown to the wolves, no tigers!” and ended up in our cat area instead of dogs. At the point in her life she hadn’t interacted much with cats in the past and had a lot to learn about them. Getting experienced with cat behavior and handling has been one of Esther’s favorite things about volunteering here. Another perk is all the friends she’s made over the years.
As a volunteer Esther’s proudest moment is when she decided to make the leap and adopt a dog of her own. Giving Jake a happy home has filled her with a sense of purpose and pride. Esther is now retired from working and has enjoyed having Jake as a companion during all her new free time. Everyone here is grateful to have Esther spend some of that time helping us out. If we’re lucky, we sometimes receive poems written by her dedicated to our animals. It is common knowledge among staff that Esther is one of the sweetest women you’ll ever meet.
Esther can be found at our Leander Adoption Center most Wednesdays helping out in the cat isolation buildings. If you see her, take the time to thank her for her dedication and time spent helping our animals to be clean and comfortable. All of us at Texas Humane Heroes are so very glad to have Esther as a volunteer and we’re sure our animals are, too!