So.... a few people have heard about the volunteer drama going on here, and others have asked about it, so I might as well post, as that does relate to other things going on lately.
I had a male volunteer come by to help multiple times. First time he was here, mentioned he wanted to go out with me. I told him I have a boyfriend, and he told me that if it didn't work out, he wanted to date me, but regardless, whether we dated or not, whether we dated and it worked out or not, he didn't want to let that interfere with volunteering. I thought, how mature. But he said he wouldn't be a pest about hanging out or dating or whatever.
Apparently not so much. Cause he kept bugging me every time he was here about hanging out, going out. He acted towards me the way I've had MOST of my boyfriends act towards me, until it got to the point where I had to nicely tell him, I mean nothing mean by it, but I told him, he's my volunteer, and I don't see him as anything else. Told him, I don't "like" him like that, and really, we didn't even get along that great with him just being a volunteer, and I told him, because of our disagreements when he was at the rescue, I didn't really want to hang out with him for any longer than that. I told him, I appreciated his help, but I didn't want anything further than volunteer help from him.
Well, in typical guy fashion, I've never heard from him since. Which I feel is so immature, especially because he specifically said, no matter what, he wanted to volunteer. Funny, cause it's looking to me like he thought that the more he volunteered, the more I'd like him, and maybe end up going out with him and all that... uhh... no. Oh and he unfriended me on facebook. Personally, I don't care, but if he supported the rescue and all (which he said he did, ALL the time)... doesn't quite add up.
Now, don't get me wrong, he did help. He wasn't quite up to my speed on helping (something that I can easily do in 40 minutes, he took 3-4 hours to do). But he did help as best he could. But when I say we didn't get along well, we did not get along. I totally get, when people are here, they want to pet the chins, hold the chins, all that. I get it. But if you come to volunteer... volunteer. You can hold the chins, but I'd like to get something done as well. The 40 mins vs. 3-4 hours thing... was cleaning the runs. There are 23 pans, so in 40 minutes, that's 1.7 minutes per pan. Dump, scrape, refill, slide back in. 3-4 hours is 8-12 minutes per pan. We are talking mostly 15" x 22" pans here, nothing huge or difficult to move around or anything. And so the once, I asked him something about how long it was taking and he went into this whole thing about, well, he comes over after work, because I'm never home when he's available, and he's tired, but he comes over when I'm available. And he said, if I didn't go to Ohio, he could come over more when he's not tired. Um... excuse me? It's not like I'm going to give someone a key to the house so they can come by and help only when is perfectly convenient for them. I told him, if he's tired or whatever, he doesn't have to come, I don't want people wearing themselves out on account of me. And going to Ohio is paying the bills, so I'm sorry if I won't cancel that just because someone wants to volunteer. I appreciate having volunteers (the few I get!) but I can't rearrange my life for them.
One more thing. Sort of one of those last straw things, was I had another volunteer coming over, the one day right after he was leaving. They had adopted Oreo (rabbit) here and they brought her with them so I could see how she was doing. Well, he immediately texted me and said he didn't think they'd work out, and he had a bad feeling about them, and they'd probably spend the entire visit playing with Cookie (the current rabbit here). Now... mind you... he said all of this before they had even started helping me. So, nothing to go on except that they brought their rabbit with for me to see how she was doing. Now, I know I assume lots of things. But I hate when people assume the worst, especially when they have next to nothing to go on. And, also, mind you, this coming from someone who told me that he "took lots of great pics while you (being me) were cleaning" -- when HE was supposed to be cleaning. Anyway, that volunteer turned out to be just great, she was more my pace and we got a lot done. Well, so I told the male volunteer that (in response to him saying that they probably wouldn't work and had a bad feeling), and he got all huffy and started with the excuses again about why he's slower and all that.
The thing is, if people really don't want to volunteer, not like I can make them. But it does me no good to have people around who I really don't get along with. Volunteering shouldn't be all work. It shouldn't -- but it shouldn't be all play either. There can be a happy mix. I'm not a slave driver by any means, if a volunteer is here long enough (as in time, like if you come for 30 minutes, you won't be doing probably more than one thing), I try to throw some fun things in there so it's not all boring stuff. But... I also will limit volunteers to things they actually can do. And I mean that in the nicest way, but it's the truth -- if you prove to me that you cannot sand wood and I have to go over every piece I give you to sand... you will not be sanding. If you leave cages open when you think you've closed them, once or twice, not a big deal. All the time, you won't be closing cages yourself so I don't have to catch all sorts of loose chins when you're gone. If you can't sand wood blocks, unfortunately, that means you can't help me make houses, because those are more difficult (and naturally, I could use more help with that). In general, I don't have these problems. Usually, I'll see someone have a hard time closing a cage, and I'll show them how. I'll see someone having a problem with sanding, and I'll show them how I do it. Or like with this more recent volunteer (different than the ones talked about above), she was helping me with houses and I felt she could use a bit more glue. So I told her, and the next stuff she glued she used plenty of glue. That's how simple it is. But like with some people, some people will literally argue and tell me, oh they're using enough glue. Maybe so, but if I ask that you use more, can you just please use more?
All this said, moving along, I now have a NEW volunteer that I love. Love love love. She's the daughter of one of my adoptive homes... never met her til she came to volunteer. But she is awesome! She was here both days this weekend, and we got so much done! She fed the chins and gave them supplement, she put together toys to be hung in my holding cages, she helped me clean the holding cages, she helped me make several houses, we made a bridge for a custom order, she helped me make shelves for an order. I asked her to wash some food bowls that I had in the sink while I cut some wood, and she washed the bowls... and everything else I had in the sink! She passed out some toss toys and toilet paper rolls and hay to all the chins. She cleaned the guinea pig cage when Leo & Jeffrey went to their new home, so that Marble could be moved over into the bigger cage. She helped get bedding for some of the smaller cages that I was setting up, she sifted the dust that was in the dusters and added dust to them. She helped me weigh chins. I took apart a dog gate that had been in my parents house (all pine wood) and she helped me move all the wood to the shop room. She helped me move some packaging materials over to the shop room. She cleaned and refilled with bedding the prairie dog cage. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but she helped with just oodles and oodles of stuff. And we get along wonderfully, and she does this stuff at my pace. A lot of people are iffy on catching chins (to weigh), but she just reached right in and grabbed em and it was great. I'm very thankful I have someone helping out like this. Let's all give a hand to Brooke for being so kind as to spend her time helping out.
Now to figure out what I'm going to say tomorrow.... I am presenting on chinchilla and small animal care at the HeadStart program at Lake Ridge School. They told me today that I can set up in their gym. I thought I was doing it like in front of a class, now I'm worried lol. Off to write my "speech"....
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