Tag Archives: Cats

Volunteering Again

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The SPCA announced recently that they were allowing the volunteers to come back. I took that opportunity to trade my 4-7 shift on Thursdays for a 1-4 shift on Fridays. This means that I will be volunteering at the same time I am on call at the Red Cross but I have gone on two calls in six months so I thoght it would be no problem.

When I walked into the cat room I noticed that all of the pods were empty, at least all that I could see.

I thought maybe they moved the cats and didn’t tell me but as I continued I saw a pod with four cats in it. I was pleasantly surprised to find seven of the eight cat pods empty. The next room has the smaller cages where cats are kept in isolation, either because they are recovering from surgery, they have a special diet, or the don’t play well with others.

There were four cats in that room, including a very friendly black cat named Sassy who had a skin condition from a flea allergy. I took her photo but it is too blurry to post.

There were also six kittens in the room in three separate cages, probably separated by litter. There were two black kittens that I failed to get pictures of. There was also a single gold and white kitten who was curious but shy.

Then there was three kittens together in one cage, a ginger boy and two females including one tabby and one tortie.

The ginger kitten was the most outgoing of the three and would come down from the shelf for attention.

The four cats inside the pod were pretty shy except for a white and gold cat named Max.

When Max wasn’t busy catching some rays he was busy looking for attention

While I was there, a man and his two boys came in shortly before a woman. All of them decided they wanted to adopt the ginger kitten but the woman recognized that the man was first and let him take the kitten. Perhaps if he didn’t have two young boys who wanted the kitten, he might have let her have him. Unfortunately, the woman left without a cat.

Another woman, who had been in earlier, decided to adopt an eight year old male Siamese cat named Sage. He was hiding under their homemade cat tree so I had to pull him out and put him in a carrier. I’m sure he wasn’t happy about it then but today he is living the good life.

While I was there I spoke with someone about doing animal transports. It is an on call position that I know almost nothing about yet but she did ask if I would be comfortable handling wildlife and mentioned birds of prey and a few others that I don’t remember. My guess is these are animals that are injured and need medical attention but I don’t know. I have an appointment to meet with her at 7:00 am this morning where I will learn more about the job. I think it will be interesting.

Happy Father’s Day

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Happy Father’s Day to all the Dad’s reading this.

In our house, as far as our cat’s are concerned, Chris is like the father figure, especially to Floki.

My father passed away in 1999, but I still miss him. Here he is with his father in 1988.

While it is sad that my dad was gone before his time, there is also reason to celebrate because my son is celebrating his first Father’s Day as a new dad.

Photo Friday: Balcony Cats

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My wife was promoted to property manager in 2009 and transferred to Myrtle Beach to run a property there. We got a third-floor apartment at the back of the property. If I remember correctly she wanted to be out of the way so most residents wouldnt know where we lived.

I rigged screening around the balcony railing with double-sided tape so the cats could go outside without the temptation to jump down. I also attached screening to long pieces of wood and hung them from the top of the balcony so the cats couldn’t jump onto the railing and possibly hurt themselves by falling off. That screening was then rolled up when not in use so nobody would notice it was there.

Bottom to top: Tigger, Alex and Abbey

All of these photos were taken almost ten years ago on June 21, 2010 using a digital camera that was outdated even for the time, so forgive the quality.

Abbey

The pool noodles were added after we adopted Chris because he was able to squeeze his body under the railing and jump down from the third floor. (see here).

Chris and Tigger
Tigger and Alex

So what do you think of our little trip to the past?

The Battle for Fort Box

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I made a new Fort Box for the cats. This time I did not put a hole on the top because it just invites conflict. Instead, I put an entrance hole in the front and a smaller escape hatch on the side near the back. I also put several small peepholes around the perimeter so that the occupant could see if an enemy was approaching.

Naturally, Chris took over the fort which left Frankie on the outside planning his attack strategy.

After a successful defense of the fort, peace was restored in the kingdom . . . for now.

Photo Friday: Frankie Tolerating Chris

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Chris is a very needy cat and always has to be touching someone. He can be quite annoying, especially to Frankie, but Frankie is usually pretty good about tolerating Chris.

“Usually” means about 70% of the time. About 20% of the time Frankie just gets up and leaves. The rest of the time there is hissing and whacking going on.

Memories of Shelter Cats

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It has been over two months since the local SPCA told all of us volunteers to stay home. They are still taking care of and adopting pets but they are doing it with just their paid staff. That means the cats and dogs are still finding homes but they have fewer people around to pay attention to them while they are there.

While I was volunteering, I took photos of some of the cats almost every time I was there and I thought this would be a good time to share some of the ones from this year. The last time I was there was March 19th, over two months ago, so I’m sure all of these kitties have found homes by now. At least I hope so. I also have forgotten all of their names except Grampa Hulu who was unusual because he was a male tortie.


Grandpa Hulu


Hopefully they will be letting us volunteers come back pretty soon.

National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day

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Today is National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day.

During this difficult time people have stepped up and have been fostering or adopting pets at a much higher level than I anticipated, but there are still many pets stuck at shelters.

Volunteer duties have been suspended at the SPCA where I volunteer, but they are still open with paid staff and the shelter is taking reservations for people who want to adopt.

I hope to see an empty shelter when I am able to return.

That probably won’t happen but hopefully the pets at the shelter will be kept to a minimum.

That could happen. I am sometimes almost embarrassed to be human because of all the stupid, mean things that people do but during a time of crisis people tend to put the humane in humanity.