Wendy Wolf has been a solid gold volunteer at Jelly’s Place. photo: Jelly’s Place
Do animal rescue and adoption shelters rely on good volunteers? Does a happy dog wag its tail? Absolutely yes and yes.
Anyone who’s familiar with rescue shelters knows that dedicated volunteers are worth their weight in gold. In this season of gratitude, Jelly’s Place welcomes the opportunity to give a public shout out to one special volunteer who is worth twice that at least: Wendy Wolf.
Jelly’s Place is an animal rescue and no-kill adoption shelter started in 2017. Wendy has been with Jelly’s since the beginning and is one of our most dedicated, talented, and skilled volunteers. In fact, she does so much and wears so many hats that it’s hard to know where to begin.
A dog lover through and through, Wendy looks after and manages the big dogs at Jelly’s. She is on site most days each week, walking and playing with them, introducing them to potential adopters, taking them to appointments, working on behavior training, and arranging foster homes.
Jelly’s pulls adoptable dogs from municipal shelters, and Wendy assesses the dogs at Contra Costa Animal Services for potential rescue into Jelly’s Place. She’s adept at "reading" dogs and intuiting their personalities and is very accurate in her evaluations. She provides transport and advocates for these shelter dogs to find and be adopted into loving homes. Jelly’s Place operates a free public vaccination clinic every Thursday, and Wendy puts her caring hands to work there, too, calming nervous dogs, talking to their owners, and administering their vaccines.
But Wendy’s contributions don’t stop there. Her spirit of shared cooperation leads her to organize successful donation drives in her community and put together wonderful baskets of people and animal goodies for our fundraising auctions. She also uses her artistic talent to create beautiful holiday wreaths each year to benefit Jelly’s Place. Every wreath has an animal theme (of course!) and range in style from the elegant to the whimsical. She’s known, too, for her special memorial rocks, each painted to honor a beloved dog or cat who has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. In addition to making these for animals she has known personally, she paints rocks as commissions for individuals with the proceeds going to Jelly’s. You’ll find many of her lovely creations all around the Jelly’s Place grounds.
Wendy is also generous with her own resources. She has donated personal funds to help animals with special needs who require extensive veterinary care or those who need medication for chronic conditions. Moreover, she sponsors partial or full adoption fees to make it easier for pets to find their best forever homes.
As if all that weren’t enough, Wendy is a wonderful baker. She regularly brings homemade treats for the staff and other volunteers to share, with her delicious zucchini bread being a particular favorite.
Wendy truly does it all and more, and she does it with energetic enthusiasm. Her compassion, creativity, generosity, and tireless commitment to our rescue animals and mission make an enormous difference at Jelly’s Place. Through all the ups and downs of everyday animal rescue life, we are so grateful to have her by our side. Thank you, Wendy, for everything you do for our animals and our community.
As always, Jelly’s Place extends heartfelt thanks to all its dedicated volunteers for their hard work with our rescue animals. We can’t do this without you. If you are interested in volunteering, please visit Jelly’s Place/Volunteer.
Maureen Barnato, who also serves on the board of directors and fundraising team, contributed to this article.