The life and adventures of a crazy little cat and company.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
KITTENS!
Today was my first day working at the cat shelter where we adopted Cherry. It was awesome. It didn't start out very good. First, my GPS decided to freeze about 10 seconds into my drive. Seriously, we didn't even get off my street before it stopped. Luckily, my mom used to live on the street the shelter is on and I was able to get directions. I found the street fine, but finding the actual shelter was another story. It really looks nothing like a shelter and they don't have a sign. I did make it on time though.
My first thought about the place was how welcoming they were. I tentatively walked into what I figured was the main entrance (after sadly deciding to leave the shelter "mascot" that I was petting) and right away they knew who I was. My first day at the last shelter I worked at was full of questions like 'What are you doing here?' Don't get me wrong, the other shelter was fine. I just didn't feel very welcomed there. The person I worked with was nice, but everyone else seemed to give me a cold shoulder. At this new shelter they were very quick to introduce me to everyone.
Anyway, they have me working in the isolation room. So basically I got to play with kittens today. A lot had ringworm, so we couldn't cuddle them much, but the healthy ones were so much fun! It was crazy to watch them all bouncing around.
I think my favorite part today was cleaning a cage with five kittens (don't worry, they're big cages and temporary). The cleaning wasn't much fun, but the kittens sure made me laugh. This particular cage had healthy kittens, so I could cuddle them all I wanted.
For cleaning the cages, we have to take all the kittens out and put them in a cat carrier on top of the cage. Do you have any idea how hard it is to transfer five kittens into a carrier? Especially when one is blind? It is definitely a challenge. Luckily I didn't get the cage with ten ringworm kittens. They were going everywhere. Two were pretty shy and didn't like being held, so I quickly put them up in the carrier. The other two "normal" ones were pretty indifferent. I mainly focused on holding the blind one. It was such a cutie and really adventurous. I cuddled it for a bit before placing it with its siblings and going to cleaning.
The cleaning was not much fun. Kitten diarrhea is not much fun to clean up. Just take my word for it. And as much as getting the kittens into the carrier, getting them back into the cage was even worse. I opened the little carrier door and almost had the blind kitten(long haired orange tabby) walk right off the edge of the cage. I grabbed that one first and placed it on the bedding. The little cutie just rolled around. Who knows what the tiny kitten was imagining. The two indifferent ones(long haired, light orange&white tabby and darker orange&white tabby) were easy to get into the crate, but then they wanted back out. I easily grabbed one of the shy kittens(black&white kitten) and got it back in the cage, but the other one(black kitten) wouldn't come out. I really didn't want to just reach in and grab it, but that's what I ended up doing. The two shy kittens went off exploring their cage while I was occupied with the long haired light orange&white tabby. This one was really begging for attention! It was rolling all around and letting me pet its belly. It didn't want to be held, but it definitely wanted love.
I seriously wish I knew the genders of these kittens. They don't have names either. My understanding is that they're new to the shelter and I don't think the kittens are really told apart by gender until they're fixed. The fixed ones get paper collars that are color coded by gender. Usually they get a name and their age is written on the collar too.
So yeah, that was my first day. I cleaned some cages and played with some kittens. I enjoyed it a lot. I've never really played with a kitten before and it was a lot of fun being in rooms full of them. It was like a dream come true.
My first thought about the place was how welcoming they were. I tentatively walked into what I figured was the main entrance (after sadly deciding to leave the shelter "mascot" that I was petting) and right away they knew who I was. My first day at the last shelter I worked at was full of questions like 'What are you doing here?' Don't get me wrong, the other shelter was fine. I just didn't feel very welcomed there. The person I worked with was nice, but everyone else seemed to give me a cold shoulder. At this new shelter they were very quick to introduce me to everyone.
Anyway, they have me working in the isolation room. So basically I got to play with kittens today. A lot had ringworm, so we couldn't cuddle them much, but the healthy ones were so much fun! It was crazy to watch them all bouncing around.
I think my favorite part today was cleaning a cage with five kittens (don't worry, they're big cages and temporary). The cleaning wasn't much fun, but the kittens sure made me laugh. This particular cage had healthy kittens, so I could cuddle them all I wanted.
For cleaning the cages, we have to take all the kittens out and put them in a cat carrier on top of the cage. Do you have any idea how hard it is to transfer five kittens into a carrier? Especially when one is blind? It is definitely a challenge. Luckily I didn't get the cage with ten ringworm kittens. They were going everywhere. Two were pretty shy and didn't like being held, so I quickly put them up in the carrier. The other two "normal" ones were pretty indifferent. I mainly focused on holding the blind one. It was such a cutie and really adventurous. I cuddled it for a bit before placing it with its siblings and going to cleaning.
The cleaning was not much fun. Kitten diarrhea is not much fun to clean up. Just take my word for it. And as much as getting the kittens into the carrier, getting them back into the cage was even worse. I opened the little carrier door and almost had the blind kitten(long haired orange tabby) walk right off the edge of the cage. I grabbed that one first and placed it on the bedding. The little cutie just rolled around. Who knows what the tiny kitten was imagining. The two indifferent ones(long haired, light orange&white tabby and darker orange&white tabby) were easy to get into the crate, but then they wanted back out. I easily grabbed one of the shy kittens(black&white kitten) and got it back in the cage, but the other one(black kitten) wouldn't come out. I really didn't want to just reach in and grab it, but that's what I ended up doing. The two shy kittens went off exploring their cage while I was occupied with the long haired light orange&white tabby. This one was really begging for attention! It was rolling all around and letting me pet its belly. It didn't want to be held, but it definitely wanted love.
I seriously wish I knew the genders of these kittens. They don't have names either. My understanding is that they're new to the shelter and I don't think the kittens are really told apart by gender until they're fixed. The fixed ones get paper collars that are color coded by gender. Usually they get a name and their age is written on the collar too.
So yeah, that was my first day. I cleaned some cages and played with some kittens. I enjoyed it a lot. I've never really played with a kitten before and it was a lot of fun being in rooms full of them. It was like a dream come true.
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