If you've never done any steady volunteer work for an animal rescue group, the whole prospect can seem daunting. Most groups need all the help they can get and more, so it can be difficult to find your niche and draw a line. However, I believe it's vital to decide what you're willing and capable of doing and communicate your boundaries clearly.

I volunteer for a foster-based rescue group that keeps adoptable cats at three different pet stores in my area. They also have dogs, but I am much more of a cat person, so I confine my volunteer activity to the cats.

Over the years, I have found the perfect mix of volunteer activities that play to my strong suits and do not overtax me emotionally, financially or physically:

• I have a Saturday evening shift at one of the pet stores, scooping the litter boxes, refilling the food and water dishes, cleaning the floors and playing with the cats.
• During adoption events, I often volunteer at another store on Saturday mornings, mainly playing with the cats in their dog training room and letting customers meet them.
• I maintain the organization's Facebook page.
• When cats need to be added or removed from the group's website, Petfinder and other sites, I work with the cat team lead, photographer and foster family to get the necessary information and post it.
• Schedule permitting, I'll occasionally volunteer to transport cats from one store to the other or arrange to meet potential adoptive families at one of the stores.
• Claw-clipping is my super power and I'm always happy to trim nails when I visit any of the stores. (That said, I got a wild one last weekend and ended up with a hole in my shirt and a scratch on my arm. It happens.)

I've also come to the conclusion that there are some things I don't want to do, including:

• Process adoption paperwork. It's just too time-consuming for someone with a day job and it would make me unhappy to have to turn people down.
• Foster animals. I "fostered" my dog before I adopted him, but that was just a technicality because I knew I'd be adopting him all along. We have four cats and a dog in our house and my husband and I just do not want to open the Pandora's Box of foster animal care.
• Walk dogs. I used to handle dogs during adoption events, but inevitably I'd find myself at the chiropractor the next week wondering why I was sore all over. I'm much more of a cat person and I don't know how to deal with an untrained dog on a leash, so it's best if I stick with the felines.

So I do put in quite a lot of time volunteering, but because it's on my terms, I don't find myself burning out or resenting the time spent.

I've heard people say, "I couldn't volunteer - I'd get too attached to the animals," or "I couldn't volunteer, I'd end up taking all of them home." If that's really the case, maybe you're better off just donating money. However, once you start working with the animals, you realize that finding them good families is plenty satisfying. You don't have to take on all the responsibility to make a huge difference in each animal's life. That's the great thing about working as part of a team.

Photo credit: Cathy Prather