EITHNE

Please tell us a little bit about yourself

Hi, I'm Eithne and I love dogs, and most of them really like me, and that's a great mix. A few years back, I was lucky enough to work from home. I live in a very rural location and have a fenced garden. I've nearly always had dogs in my life and I'm so lucky at the moment as I have 2 former KLAWS dogs in my life, Scruffy

and Gráinne.

Yes, I'm a failed fosterer, but you do stop after 2 or 3 – honestly😊 I'll tell you their stories soon.

How do you volunteer for KLAWS?

Friends of mine were active members in KLAWS, and they encouraged me to join, and I've been a member since. I started as Secretary at a time when KLAWS really did need help in that area, we were applying for charity status, and I had skills that suited the cause. It's so important to know that the charities that you donate your hard-earned money to are being run above board and under the Charities Regulator's guidelines. So, you can rest assured when you donate at our street collections, online through our website, or visit our shop at 23 Main Street, Kenmare. (Just in case you didn't realise it, our KLAWS shop is no longer based in the Supervalu shopping centre in Kenmare.)

I've been Vice Secretary, Secretary, and I'm back in the Vice Secretary position again. It's really important in a volunteer-run charity to give other people a break as everybody is working, rearing families, minding their pets etc. I've always stayed an active member, because the work KLAWS does is so necessary and it's important to see that standards are maintained because it's not easy to comply with all the government and EU regulations.

So, if you feel you can help in any way, even for a short period, please do consider it.

Why did you decide to become a volunteer with an animal rescue charity?

KLAWS always needs fosterers, so I found myself fostering a pup, or two, or three (27 one year!). I find Lyric FM to be the best radio station for them, very calming.

To sit and watch these 2 pups sleeping with their full bellies to the sounds of classical music! How could you not volunteer after that - just to have a few moments like this in your life!

Yes, there's all those pees and poos to be collected but train them early and they'll be doing them outdoors just like the big dogs in no time.

People always say, oh how can you bear to part with them after you've fostered them. Well, after the first one or two it really sinks in that you can't keep them all and that you're doing a better job for the pups/dogs by nurturing, socialising, toilet training and lead training, which helps them find the best forever homes for them.

It's all about the dogs.  And what's so nice is that lots of forever families keep in touch by sending you updates on their life journeys, e.g. being taken to work, their birthdays.

All my own dogs have been rescues and I was the luckiest girl to have a Border Collie/Labrador called Suilín, she ran the kennels for me, keeping them all in check, especially the pups.

It's my experience that when dogs have been rescues themselves that they recognise this in the fosters and help them along.

What have you learnt from volunteering? Is there anything about volunteering that you didn’t expect?

I suppose that I've been volunteering for so long in so many groups that I haven't thought about it for a while, but here goes my experience.

I've been lucky to volunteer with a number of organisations besides KLAWS, including a Children's Festival, Cancer fundraisers, our local Heritage group. You get to meet a wide range of people you probably would never have met otherwise, and although there's a lot of work in organising, there's also a lot of craic and comradery. They've all been good causes and would never have happened unless people volunteered to run them, and it's a lovely thing to realise that I've been a small part of that.

The one thing that really is sad is when people volunteer to have their egos massaged, misappropriate funds, and are rude and hostile to fellow volunteers. I know some volunteers who had to endure so much just to ensure the charities etc. were run legitimately. Unfortunately, you find these people in all walks of life, but it's so disheartening when you are just trying to give some of the very little spare time that you have. You expect that you will be volunteering with like-minded people. Thankfully KLAWS is a wonderful place to volunteer in now.

What have been the high and low points of your time as a volunteer? Maybe you have some standout (foster) stories to tell?

So, now I get to tell you about Scruffs and Gráinne as they are typical KLAWS rescue stories.

Scruffs was one of 4 pups, called Pip's pups. Pip herself was a rescue and came to KLAWS pregnant, she died while giving birth to Scruffs and her siblings (despite our best efforts). They were immediately fostered by a wonderful Fairy puppy nurse, called Bernie who kept them until they were 5 weeks old and then they came to me.

Well, that was a bit of a baptism as you normally wouldn't foster the pups until they are weaned from the mother at 6-8 weeks. Let's just say it was a bit lively here alright during their upbringing😉 I have to say that I failed miserably at leash training this gang, as it's impossible to leash train 4 puppies together, so apologies to their forever families, but I got all the rest right.

So why Scruffy and not any of the others? Because she was special and still is. Scruffy was blind for the first 17 weeks, she was the last of the litter. KLAWS brought her to several vets, and we were recommended to give her a high dose of Vitamin A. You'd barely notice it when they were all clambering around but once we had rehomed her siblings, she was left to follow my Newfoundland, Bruno - they were quite a pair. I knew in my heart and my soul that she would be staying with me as I just needed to know that she would always be minded.

One day I was sitting in the back garden and Scruffy was lazing beside me and a white butterfly went past and I suddenly realised that Scruff's head had turned following it. Yes, you guessed it, she could see, and her eyesight is 100%. And that was 9 years ago...

As for Gráinne, she's a COVID puppy, I fostered both her and her sister. They're kind of special as they're one of a kind. Their mother was a greyhound, and their dad was a Welsh hound in the garden next door, so you end up with a grey curly-haired lurcher type dog.

Gráinne and her sister went to a forever home to experienced dog owners. However, they and their neighbours had hens. I found out quite quickly that hens and these girlies are not a good mix, so I was called to come and collect the little hounds the next day.

We then decided that they would probably be better rehomed separately, and her sister went to a lovely home in Limerick. Gráinne's next family unfortunately split up and they couldn't keep her. She then got another chance at a lovely home but the hound in her was too strong, and she was dropped back to me at my workplace rather promptly. That was it, no more rehoming – she was staying with Scruffs and me. And that's how you become a failed fosterer, we all have these stories.

What would you say to someone who’s thinking about volunteering? Would you recommend it?

Whatever skills you have – just get in contact, don't overthink it. We're a lovely bunch and we've very strict rules about being nice to one another, so you'll be guaranteed a friendly welcome to KLAWS and a purr and a wag, or two, or three:)