Hands firmly on the steering wheel and a steaming cup of coffee close by, Kirstie cheerily speaks to her friend from work who has just paged an emergency call to her.

When you're working on the frontline for animal welfare charity the RSPCA, you have to take everything in your stride - and that's exactly what the 27-year-old has learnt to do.

Since joining the team four years ago, Kirstie Gillard has rescued escaped tortoises, abandoned nine-foot boa constrictors and a peregrine falcon with a broken leg. But like all jobs, there's a less glamorous side - she's been unable to save the life of a young deer hit by a car, a fox cub tangled up in a football net and another fox which was crippled in pain after being caught in an illegal trap for more than one week.

Kirstie Gilliard, 27, is one of the three RSPCA collections officers in south east London

While there's the relief and satisfaction in the knowledge you've done your best, staff also experience the overwhelming sadness which washes over you when you're unable to give an innocent animal a second chance in life.

It's safe to say being an RSPCA collections officer isn't for the faint hearted.

You might start your day being called to help an injured pigeon but before you know it you're on your way to collect a litter of kittens from an overcrowded home and then end the day with a heartbreakingly tough decision whether to put a suffering animal out of its misery.

I certainly learnt a lot when I joined Kirstie on a sunny autumn day on her calls in south east London.

Kirstie joined the animal welfare charity as a front line officer in 2004

Kirstie is one of three officers covering the charity's south east London patch which stretches from the River Thames to Dartford and Croydon - a vast area for the trio to cover.

Learning on the job

To put it bluntly, they are the paramedics of the animal world. It's their responsibility to respond to emergency calls, deal with the unfolding situation in front of them and do their best to help, whether it be rushing the animal to the nearest vet, contacting the fire service for assistance or rescuing the animal themselves.

While the team are vigorously trained, it's not surprising to hear it's a "learn on the job" kind of role.

"We often don't know where we're going to or what we're going to find there," said Kirstie while she drives to Welling for our first call of the day.

"You start the morning not knowing what the day will bring, it's good to mix it up and you have to be ready for anything.

Kirstie tactfully caught the cat and her kittens from an overcrowded home

"Sometimes it's difficult when you try and plan to go somewhere specific and then an emergency comes up, but it does keep you interested and you're always on your toes. I honestly think, if I didn't do this I don't know what I'd do now, I really don't."

The first call wasn't quite as exciting as I hoped for - we made our way to a residential street after receiving reports of an injured pigeon and, before you scoff, this job demonstrates the charity's important approach which shouldn't be dismissed.

All animals are treated the same, Kirstie explained to me. An officer's priorities lies in how serious an emergency is and usually the location too. So, an unwell pigeon might make you stifle a laugh but the RSPCA argues it has just as much right to live as any other animal.

Unsurprisingly, most people don't realise this, including the 21-year-old caller who told me he often found pigeons and squirrels injured from fighting, being attacked or malnutrition but didn't realise they were "important enough" to bother the RSPCA about.

While we made our way to Greenwich for another job, I asked Kirstie more probing questions. We're all aware of the horrifying documentaries that show police officers kicking down doors to discover a traumatised and neglected dog, but to me, the less glamorous role of collections officers, who mainly deal with wildlife, is under-reported and underrated.

The injured pigeon was attacked by other birds outside a home in Welling

"I have my work head on and it's usually when you get to the vets you take a step back and that's when I find I'm like 'oh, this is actually really upsetting," Kirstie explained.

"You take a step back and see the sad situation, but then there's also the relief you have passing the animal over to the vet for treatment.

"A lot of wildlife get themselves into such sticky situations and end up with horrific injuries, all they want to do is escape. They can become so ill before you can get near them or anyone notices because all they want to do is hide away.

"There was a fox in the Southwark and Camberwell area which had a gin trap caught on its bottom jaw," she recalled when I asked if any particular jobs stood out in her mind.

"It was completely severed, broken and full of maggots. I don't know how it survived that long - we think it could have been like that for more than a week. It couldn't eat or drink and you can't even imagine the pain.

A number of geese suffer from 'Angel Wing' which is caused by the bird eating too much bread

"Gin traps are horrendous, they are illegal but you can buy them on the internet. Usually they are attached to the ground but the fox has pulled it off and was running around with it clenched onto its jaw. It is such a horrible death.

'You learn how to deal with it'

"Sometimes you go home and that's when you think about it. When I first started I found it really hard to go home and switch off but now, although you still care you learn how to deal with it.

"When I first started I cried on almost every job but I don't have enough tears for all of them, I'd be emotionally exhausted."

Kirstie said dealing with injured deer can be particularly difficult because of the stress and trauma they experience, but it's the situations caused by humans, such as when a fox cub strangled itself in a football net which was left outside, that are always tricky to take in.

One goose was ran over by a group of young thugs in the park in Orpington

"When you think of London, you don't always think of wildlife," she continued.

More than just wildlife

"But we also get a lot of escaped reptiles, corn snakes are common - they are such escape artists. I have picked up a sulcata tortoise which was found walking down a street in Southwark and we get bearded dragons too," she chuckled.

"I think people are a bit scared of snakes and you think people exaggerate about the size, but sometimes they really are massive. We were called to a park in Bexleyheath to two boa constrictors. One of them was dead, which was about 9 foot and it was right near a kids' playground.

"We think they were dumped, because there were two of them in the same place but we don't know - people do these things in places without CCTV. All you can do is what is in front of you but if there is evidence, it will be followed up by the inspectors."

After a brief stop in Greenwich to see if two abandoned cats had emerged from a deserted house and to a nearby park to check on a recovering goose which was run over by a group of youths, we finally headed to Beckenham to the job I'd been looking forward to all day.

The adorable kittens were being taken away from an overcrowded home in Beckenham

Kirstie didn't hesitate to tell me about this particular lady who by all accounts was lovely, but had fallen into a sticky situation of owning more cats than she could handle. Her modest property was home to eight adult cats, three of which were pregnant and 12 kittens. Oh, and a dog.

To my relief, the animals were healthy and their owner had willingly agreed to hand them over to the RSPCA. Even better was it meant lots of cuddles with the adorable kittens and the realisation that being a collections officer is a lot more than simply loving animals - you have to understand people too.

An emotional end to the day

So far the day had gone smoothly, until an emergency call came through. A young deer was injured after being knocked over by a car in Orpington.

The poor thing sought refuge in someone's garden close to the main road and after checking it over, Kirstie came to the conclusion it had suffered a fractured pelvis. Sadly, she explained, injuries which would usually be solvable for domestic animals aren't always for those who rely on their hunting abilities to survive in the wild.

Reluctantly, she made the decision to put the young deer out of its misery. I agreed to witness it and after doing so, I understood what Kirstie then began to explain to me.

Kirstie Gilliard, 27, is one of the three RSPCA collections officers in south east London

"It's a huge responsibility, it's you taking that decision. If you're not sure, you can ring the vet but with wildlife it's difficult," she said.

"At the end of the day they are a wild animal, they can get stressed over long recoveries and they need to be able to go back into the wild. They have to be on their A game to survive.

"Sometimes people don't understand the difference. Pet dogs don't need to hunt or find its own bed but a fox for example, has to look after itself, find its own dinner and keep itself warm."

I'm not sure what I was expecting but I did find it mind-boggling and admirable that people like Kirstie, who have been animal lovers all their lives are so passionate about helping relieve an animal's suffering that they'll put themselves through the emotional trauma of putting one down.

On average, she has to do this around once a month, Kirstie explained.

Sadly, not everyone was up for a cuddle

"You feel bad because at the end of the day, you are putting something down but what was the other option? It's a weird feeling," she continued.

"You instinctively don't want to do it, no one wants to do it. It's for best but it's still a sad situation to be in. You want to make their last minutes as easy as possible. You can't help but you can do it as quickly as possible. Who else is there to do it? It's a big responsibility.

"As much as it's good to go home and offload to your family, they don't really understand so your colleagues are so important. Everyone jokes that we are an RSPCA family but we are. You have to rely on each other to work together on some of the rescues, you can't do everything by yourself. If you have had a hard job you can ring someone up for reassurance."

Kirstie dropped me off at the train station and I've got to say, I was pretty exhausted. The day felt so long because we went from a seemingly small job helping an injured pigeon to an emotional end.

But, this is her everyday life and while she admitted it wasn't the most glamorous job, it's an important one.

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