Volunteer – give a little time, make a big difference.

Here at Exeter Axhayes Adoption Centre we are always looking for dedicated volunteers to join our team. Volunteering is the most worthwhile thing you can ever do. It gives a real sense of achievement, allows the development of new skills and the social possibilities are endless!

Lend a Hand at the centre….

With around 150 to 200 cats and kittens in our care at any one time, this adds up to a lot of cleaning and cats in need of some T.L.C. There are opportunities to get involved here at the centre helping out cleaning pens or socialising cats.

Cat Care Volunteer/Cleaning pens  

As you can imagine, this necessary part of the job can be hard, dirty work and not for the faint hearted, in return it provides an excellent opportunity to learn new skills and get to know more about the nature of cats. If you have a practical mind and are happy to undertake physical work you could become part of our extremely valued team of dedicated volunteers.

Socialising Cats and Kittens

For some cats, especially if they have had little human contact, building trust and confidence can be painstakingly slow. If you have a gentle, patient quiet nature and an affinity with cats perhaps you would enjoy working with our particularly needy cats. Often all that is required initially, is someone to spend time sitting quietly at the back of a pen maybe reading a book, not paying too much attention to the cat, giving it time to simply get used to you being there, in time a cats natural curiosity will get the better of it and it will become more inquisitive. (Cats don’t really like to be ignored!)

 

Alternatively you may like to spend time with some of the many cats in our care who have come from loving homes, they have wonderful personalities and just crave human company, a bit of one to one time again enjoying a bit of a fuss and some cuddles.

Fundraising Volunteers

Our friends of Exeter Axhayes Adoption centre is a group of volunteers who meet monthly to organise fundraising events and activities to help raise essential funds for the centre. Whether you enjoy organising and assisting with coffee mornings and street collections to more high profile events such as our Easter Open Day and Firewalk your contribution will be highly valued. It’s a great way to meet new friends, have some fun and help make a difference to the lives of so many abandoned and unwanted cats and kittens .

 

Green Fingers Volunteers

Our Adoption Centre is set in the Devonshire countryside, with lovely gardens surrounding our outdoor cat pens and adoption centre. If you’re an enthusiastic gardener with a few hours to spare, we’d love to hear from you. We’re looking for volunteers to make our green spaces welcoming for wildlife and visitors alike. You’ll enjoy fresh air, keeping active and meeting new people while making our centres look inviting to potential new adopters. Essentially your passion for all things green will help us focus on all things feline.

As a Green Fingers volunteer you will spend your time cutting grass and hedges, weeding, planting, preparing pots and soil and managing our green spaces all year round. Knowledge and confidence in gardening would be advantageous for this role but more importantly rolling up your sleeves, enjoying being outside and having a creative flair will make this the role for you.

 

DIY Volunteers

If you’re handy with a hammer or skilled with a spanner, we’d love to hear from you. We’re looking for DIY volunteers willing to spare a few hours to help with a range of practical tasks in our centre; from painting and basic maintenance to checking alarms and basic checks on our vans. You don’t have to be qualified tradesman, we are looking for people with confidence in their abilities, a working knowledge of health and safety, people skills and a can-do attitude.

By keeping busy, meeting new people and putting your skills to great use you’ll keep our 27 year old adoption centre safe, maintained and welcoming, helping us to focus fully on the cats in our care.

If you are interested in getting involved and have a few hours to spare a week, please contact us on 01395 232377. Thank you.