June 1, 2005

A new ‘leash’ on life

62-year-old Diana Castro spends time helping Humane Society find new homes for loving pets

By Diego Abeloos
Staff Writer

When Diana Castro of Willow Glen has the itch to hit the road, she never forgets her faithful companion, Ruby, a 5-year-old Cavalier King Charles dog.

NEW ADDITIONS TO THE FAMILY. Humane Society volunteer Diana Castro is currently serving as a foster parent for two kittens, Buster and Brutus. The Humane Society has a program where volunteers help nurture and socialize young pets in preparation for a future adoption. Photo by Diego Abeloos

Castro, who retired seven years ago after working for 35 years at Pacific Bell and another five years at Wells Fargo, often hits America’s highways in her motor home with her fury friend by her side, traveling to places such as Las Vegas to get away for a while from the cozy confines of her Willow Glen home. However, when Castro isn’t traveling, she’s doing her part to make the lives of animals better as a volunteer for the Humane Society Silicon Valley.

“I joined a group for these Cavalier King Charles dogs. The people who were keeping the group together were volunteers at the Humane Society and I got into it that way,” Castro said of joining the Humane Society, where she has volunteered for the past 18 months. “They were telling me about it so I filled out an application and went to the classes (for volunteer training) and started out cleaning cages. I loved it.”

Naturally good-natured with a big heart for animals, Castro spends one day a week working in the Humane Society’s health check department where incoming animals— mostly dogs, cats and rabbits—are checked for general health, temperament and food aggression. Although her duties include other not-so-fun tasks such as cleaning out rabbit cages, Castro’s positive attitude toward the job and her loving demeanor toward all the animals at the Humane Society have made an impact on the people who work with her.

“She’s been able to maintain a sense of humor through some of the toughest times as well as a strength that gives animals more opportunities. She sees something special in the animals and helps to translate that to a staff member to better enable that animal to get adopted,” said Beth Ward, Humane Society Silicon Valley Vice President of animal care.

Volunteers have become the lifeblood of the Humane Society Silicon Valley. The facility, located on 2530 Lafayette St. in Santa Clara, runs strictly on donations. With a daily operating cost of about $15,000, getting people to work out of the kindness of their hearts is an important ingredient in keeping the facility’s door open.

“Each volunteer serves as the eyes, ears and voice for animals at our shelter,” Ward said. “They help us to see what an animal’s needs are, they help us to fulfill those needs, they provide us with so many resources to enable us to do more things for the animals than we would be able to do without them.”

To that end, Castro fits in just fine with the crew at the Humane Society Silicon Valley. Because she works in the health check department, Castro sees more animals come in and out of the facility than almost anyone else.

The Humane Society Silicon Valley routinely gets anywhere from 10 to 30 owners surrendering their pets on a daily basis. During spring, the facility receives up to 100 kittens per day as well.

Complicating matters even more are the animals that are already there. Ward said older dogs and cats often have a harder time getting adopted because people interested in owning a pet often opt for kittens, puppies and young small dogs first. While those overwhelming numbers may seem like a tall task for Castro and her fellow volunteers, she always seems to do it with a smile on her face.

“I’ve always been interested in animals,” said Castro. “It’s just that they’re so helpless. Other people are helping people, and I think the animals need it too. This way I can get all the animals I want, I can love all the animals I want and then go home.”

But when volunteers leave, like Castro did for several weeks last summer to go through radiation and chemotherapy treatments after being diagnosed with a cancerous tumor, things get tougher for Ward and others at the facility to keep things running smoothly.

“It’s very difficult because we begin to depend on these volunteers,” Ward said. “Our volunteers who come in on a consistent basis, we depend on them just like we depend on a staff member. It’s difficult when anyone is out for any length of time.”

For Castro, returning to the Humane Society after her bout with cancer was healing in itself.

“They’re great and they appreciate us more than you can even imagine,” said Castro. “They appreciate the volunteers because when Monterey (the new Humane Society facility on Monterey Road in San Jose) opened, they took away a lot of the staff and they took a lot of the animals over there … so the volunteers are appreciated even more now. There are such great people there.”

With renewed health and an ever-positive outlook on things, Castro has also started a new venture with the Humane Society as a foster parent to a pair of young kittens. For the past few weeks, Castro has been caring for two eight-week-old kittens named Buster and Brutus, getting them socialized and ready for adoption. The new additions to the family have fit in well at Castro’s house, even though they take turns annoying Ruby now and then.

“It’s been great,” Castro said of having Buster and Brutus at her home. “It’s been a joy to have those little guys around.”

When Castro is not working at the Humane Society, she often serves—out of her own free will—as an unofficial spokesperson for the Humane Society, touting the virtues of adopting a pet there. The message to people is always the same; know what you’re getting into when adopting a pet.

“I would like to get across to people to spay or neuter your pets,” Castro said. “That is so important, otherwise we wouldn’t be getting all these kittens in. Make sure you want the pet before you get it. Also, microchip your animals.”

This summer, Castro plans on taking Ruby on road trips to North Dakota and Colorado. When she returns home, she’ll go back to doing what she loves best at the Humane Society—helping to give animals a new lease on life.

“It gives me great pleasure when we’re in health check, and we can put the dogs and the cats out to the public and give them a chance to a better life than they had,” Castro said. “To me, the hardest part is seeing people bring them in and hand them over … It’s not something I could ever do.”