Volunteer Spotlight: Amanda
Volunteers are the heart of HRN. This issue’s featured volunteer is Amanda Bosh. Amanda began working with HRN four years ago as a foster and is currently a training coordinator and shelter volunteer. Amanda’s family loves animals but their heavy travel schedule kept them away for months at a time, making it impossible to keep a pet of their own, so Amanda began looking for opportunities to foster. She contacted HRN after seeing a flyer at Starbucks, found HRN to be well-organized and brought her first foster bunny, Cooper, home shortly thereafter. Amanda found the experience very rewarding, even though it was hard to part with the bunnies. Fostering made her want to get even more involved, so she also began volunteering at the shelter.
“Buns are such sweet, social creatures,” she said. One obstacle for shelter volunteers is that some of the shelter bunnies have gone through hardships in life and volunteers don’t always know what the buns have experienced. Sometimes bunnies need extra help getting to trust people. The simple acts of talking to the buns and petting those who aren’t afraid to be touched make all the difference to the ones who are scared or traumatized. With enough love and attention, they go from withdrawn to social and being part of that process is rewarding for Amanda. “Because they’ve been at the shelter with great volunteers, our buns know that people are kind and will take care of them, so when families come to adopt, the buns are ready to trust and become a part of a new family,” she said. “Helping to connect families with buns –it’s a great feeling!”
When the job of training coordinator became available two years ago, Amanda thought it was a perfect fit for her. She provides information and sets up training sessions for new volunteers. “I talk with potential volunteers, explain how the shifts at the shelter work, and arrange for them to go through the training process that we have before becoming full volunteers,” she said. Talking to and occasionally meeting new volunteers and keeping in touch with current ones is fun for Amanda because she gets to hear each person’s reason for wanting to get involved with HRN. Amanda is also an astronomer and often up late, so the email-based nature of the position allows her to respond at times when it would be too late to call. She notes that astronomy and bunnies go together in the form of a rabbit constellation called Lepus, which is under Orion’s feet. She describes it as “a loaf with ears sticking out – not unlike real buns!”
Due to her son developing an allergy, Amanda can’t keep buns at home anymore but she does have two cats, Gertie and Peaches. Gertie was a “stick thin” stray who was taken in after she showed up at the house fifteen years ago. Peaches is a year-and-a-half-old and started out as a foster who became a permanent member of the family. Amanda also became particularly attached to Dorie, her last foster bunny. Dorie, who is now Maisy, found her forever home and Amanda still keeps in touch with Maisy’s family.
From preparing a foster bun to find a forever home, to helping a shelter bun learn to love again, to assisting new volunteers, Amanda has seen the importance of the rescue process from many aspects. The volunteers themselves, who Amanda describes as “an amazing and dedicated bunch of people,” are part of the reason she enjoys working at HRN. Seeing people come together to help bunnies, “strengthens my faith in humanity,” she said.
If you’re interested in volunteering or adopting a bunny, contact HRN at info@rabbitnetwork.org. Available volunteer positions are also listed at www.rabbitnetwork.org/support/volunteering.
— A.A.