Dee Wroblewski, of Niles, has been volunteering at the Cass County Animal Shelter in Cassopolis for around seven years.

What do you do for the shelter?

Pretty much anything they need me to do. Primarily I work with the cats. I don’t do much with the dogs because there are always volunteers for the dogs to take them out for a walk or whatever. Hardly anybody volunteers with cats. I wash the cat food dishes, the litter pans, clean the cages and feed them. I take them into a playroom area and socialize them to see how well they get along with other cats. Occasionally we will bring a dog in to see how they get along with dogs to get an idea of what type of a home environment would be a good fit for them.

The county uses inmates from the jail that is just across the yard for the labor part of the kennels. Quite often I am training a new inmate because the turnover is pretty big. Someone needs to work with them and let them know what needs to be done. I enjoy working with them.

 

How often are you there?

When I worked at (Cass County ) district court I used to go there on my lunch hour. I retired about a year ago, so I am there about two, three or four times a week depending on what I have got going on personally. I will spend about four or five hours over there a day, depending on what their needs are. If they don’t have an inmate at the time I will do all the cleaning and the kennel work in the cat area. If they have an inmate but need someone to watch the front desk while they are out for lunch, I’ll do that.

 

How did you first get involved?

My sister had been volunteering there and suggested that I might enjoy it. I met her over there one day and fell in love. I thought: This is it, I want to be here. I continued working there every day on my lunch break. It gave me something to do for an hour.

 

What do you enjoy about it?

I love cats and love the interaction with the animals. I enjoy working with the inmates and have met a wide variety of people doing that. The people that work there, the regular employees, are great too. I can honestly say that I feel my life has been enriched by meeting and interacting with all these people. People tend to think that inmates are all bad and it is not necessarily true. There’s definitely ones that need to be there and there’s some that have had very interesting lives and backgrounds and I actually enjoy interacting with them. I’ve learned a lot about things my life has never touched and probably won’t ever. It’s had an interesting impact on me. It opens my eyes a little bit to a side of the world I was never aware of.

 

Do you know a volunteer worthy of recognition? Nominate him or her as the Volunteer of the Week by calling Craig Haupert, community editor, at (269) 687-7720 or emailing him at craig.haupert@leaderpub.com.