Page 158 - Book about Friendship and Future.Stories of Volunteers.

Irina Kaisina

KFC Leningradsky vokzal
Moscow

Helping Animals Is My Favorite Activity

When I was a child all my coevals wanted to have a pet at
home. Some got lucky, their parents letting them have furry and
scaly pets, and some continued dreaming. It was something
very natural among my mates to be keen on animals. With years
I started noticing that it was not common for everyone, I saw
cruelty, anger and injustice… And an unfulfilled desire to give
warmth and shelter to every small creature was tearing my soul
apart and often made me cry desperately.
I grew up, became a medical college student and it was there
that I learnt about various funds and projects. Everything started
with medical volunteering: a donor’s day, participating in the fo-
rums on palliative medicine, seminars for school children about
healthy lifestyle, etc. I graduated, and the knowledge and experi-
ence, and the desire to help remained.
Having joined KFC, I got acquainted with wonderful people,
and when I was invited to join a cross-partners project to help
animals in the shelter “Eco-Biryulevo” I found where I belong! My
peers and just acquaintances often ask me why I need that, even
my parents do not understand why I am spending time with “the
lovely tails”. I cannot describe the feeling when you enter a shel-
ter of an animal which has not seen anything except the cage
and the street, had not experienced anything except fear, pain,
and hunger and still has not lost the ability to trust, be happy
with simple things and be grateful. Every month I am looking
forward to our visit, because the joy in the dog’s eyes when you
give it something tasty or when it wags its furry tail being pat-
ted behind the ear return me back to my childhood when I truly
believed that everything would be fine. The shelter wards have
taught me not to lose hope even in a most desperate situation,
demonstrating that there are a lot of wonderful people around
who can be trusted and who would always give a helping hand.
Just like that. And this is the most important lesson which every-
one should learn, I believe.