Dawn, CWS’s Director of Operations, maintains a blog, where she shares her experiences working with volunteer care-givers (like btmao and I), skirmishing with complainants, and the bureaucracy.
She offers insightful views and advice on what to do when things happen, very good stuff. So here’s my grand idea: I’m going to post links to Dawn’s blog entries that I think gives good advice or info that’s representative of a given situation (as there’s many on-going ones, and lots of deja-vu ones), and maintain the list on an ongoing basis.
TNRM 101 – the Practical Handbook you can’t buy, but can read for FREE
– The Basics
- Reading up
- No-Kill Communities and the importance of TNRM
- Getting cats sterilised , How am I supposed to know the cat will get pregnant? [added 20061115]
- The importance of management , Caregivers as educators [20061115]
- Sterilising male cats
- Cat Trapping/Lost cats , Complaints about cats [added 20061115], Trappings = Complaints [added 20061115]
- Making a police report
- “I don’t want to feed anymore”
- Battery
- Hungry?
- Cats, Lies and Videotape [added 20060421]
- Irresponsible people , “Cat” Problems , Feeding sometimes the source of the problem
- Bird Flu – what you should know
- Mediations [added 20060425]
- You don’t have to say yes [added 20060518]
- Who decides? [added 20060530]
- Feeding Bowls [added 20060530] : Feeding Bowls , Origami Bowl , Food Bowl
- Monthly Survey/Sterilisation Claims Form [added 20060530] : Tracking – TNRM Reimbursement from CWS , Claim Forms , Statistics
- Think Global, Act Local , They’re not my cats [added 20060530]
- Please sterilise [added 20060530]
– Go forth: do or do not, there is no try
- Guidelines for caregivers
- The importance of statistics , Making numbers up?
- Updating your contact details (VERY IMP) [added 20061110]
- Helping people help cats
- Removing Community cats by adoption
- Taking in too many cats
- “Too Many Cats”
- Hungry
- Feeding cats upstairs
- Working together with other caregivers
- Keeping your word to TCs , Under-estimating number
- “Cat” Problems
- Being Calm when dealing with authorities , Complaints [added 20060530]
- Vacuum effect at Work
- Irresponsible people , “I can’t afford it” , Getting the facts of the case [added 20061110]
- Writing Emails/Letters
- Make friends!
- Contacting the authorities , Another difficult town council official , Change of TC officers
- Flyering added 20060411
- Abuse cases [added 20060517]
- I don’t want to listen [added 20060517]
- CWS is an authority? [added 20060517]
- Catnapped? [added 20060517]
- Don’t overstretch yourself [added 20060523] , Just Say No [added 20060530] , Saying No [added 2o060530]
- Helping irresponsible owners? , Finite resources, unlimited needs [added 20061110]
– When you need help: Before you holler
- Unable to reach CWS
- Get the facts straight
- Just the facts Mam
- Bribery [added 20060530]
- Mothballs
- Reimbursement Cases [added 20060530]
- Evidence [added 20060530]
– The CASE for CESSATION OF TC’s pandering to anonymous complaints [added 20061110]
- Cowards
- Dealing with complaints
- Can I release the cat back?
- SITNews: Stop whining and whingeing, be gracious, MPs urge
– The CASE for NEUTRAL MEDIATORS [added 20061110]
CASE STUDIES FOR THE VOLUNTEER CARE-GIVER
– Dealing with Difficult Property Managers (ongoing saga)
- Difficult Property Manager, Difficult Property Manager again, Meeting, Meeting Part II, Another difficult Property Manager
- Complain, whine and whinge
- Writing to the Town Council
- Meeting without residents
– Town Council By-Laws: Feeding IS NOT Illegal
– On The Perpetual Evil of Culling
– The Curious Case Of The Pregnant Tip-Earred Cats
– Buck Passing
– Self-Delusion, and in more ways than one! [added 20060411]
- Boarding cats
- Mediation tonight
- Mediation last night
- Marc & Kitty
- Sleeping Cat
- Grassroots Leader
- Stubborn
- Woman keeping the cats in [added 20060419]
– A Bad Case Of Uber-DUH [added 20060411]
– The Scourge of the Void [added 20060413]
– Details, Details, Details! [added 20060419]
– Singapore… really OK meh? [added 20060421]
– Info Overload Can Be Cats’ Bane! [added 20060421]
– Denial – it’s really delusionates’ exclusive province [added 20060421]
- Corridor Cat
- Feeding
- Complaints [added 20060425]
- Mediation afternoon [added 20060426]
- Mediation this afternoon [added 20060426]
- Cat fed upstairs [added 20060426]
- More complaints from the same block [added 20060426]
- Grey Cat Update [added 20060517]
– CWS traps only for TNRM [added 20060421]
– Please, whingers, a little tolerance please? And oh, can you grow a bit of heart while you’re at it? [added 20060421]
- Why can’t we be a little more tolerant?
- Which is worse?
- Complaining
- Caregiver helping
- Void Deck cat
- Void Deck
- I don’t live here, but I want to complain [added 20060517]
– Psychology & Politics: A Fatal-Potent concoction for non-humans [added 20060509]
– Cat trapped in escalator! (Rare find: uplifting case) [added 20060518]
- CWS is an authority?
- A big round of applause for the Land Transport Authority
- Cat under Escalator
- Cat trapped in the escalators
– UGLY PEOPLE [added 20060530]
- “Educating the cats”
- Cars and cats again [added 20061110]
– Can you fathom people like this? [added 20060530]
I’ve learnt a lot from reading Dawn’s blog, and gained a few insights about the practical/operational aspects. In a nutshell, when doing TNRM, I think knowledge is power. Remember this credo: “Don’t panic, know your rights. If you haven’t done anything wrong, Big Brother can’t book you.”
(Created: 5 Apr 06. Updated: 10 Nov 06)
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