A day in the Life of a Cat Shelter

icklemiss21

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Rather than all our small posts I thought we could have an ongoing shelter worker thread.

To start, a day in the life of the shelter for those who are thinking about volunteering but aren't too sure what is involved and how they can help. This isn't any one particular day, just the whole range of what can go on, there are busy days and quiet days

8am - show up to find a taped up box of kittens or cat in carrier sitting at the front door, call the vet to make an appointment for them, call the volunteers to see if anyone can take them to the vet so they don't have to come inside in case they are sick.

Do a room check to make sure all the kitties are ok and not really sick / out of their cages / whatever else can go wrong since last night.

8:30am - volunteers start arriving for feeding and cleaning. Each cat has a chart that says what food they get, how much food each feeding. Empty their litter box, fill their water bowls and give them a fresh blanket to sleep on. While the volunteer sprays down the cage with disinfectant, the cat gets 5 mins out of the cage to run around.

9:30am - reception and adoption volunteers arrive. They answer the phones, do the laundry, show potential adopters each room of cats once the person has been ok'ed by the adoption counsellor.

10:00am - doors open and phone starts ringing. The usual calls, lost kitties, found kitties, can I give up my pet, vet calls about current shelter cats.

11:00am - someone walks in with cat saying they have to give it up because it is sick. Ask person to leave and come back in without cat as we don't want it spreading to other cats in the shelter (all animals spend a few days at the vet before coming to the shelter to be claimed by their owners if it happens and to be sure they are healthy). Find a vet and ask owner to take it there after filling out surrender papers.

11:30 feed & clean is finally finished, and gets to work on anything else that needs doing if they have the time, photos for petfinder, laundry etc.

12:00 eat lunch while catching up on adoption paperwork at desk. Quick check of all rooms to make sure all the cats are ok and haven't spilled their water, upturned their litter boxes or anything else.

1:00pm - afternoon reception / adoption volunteers come in to replace morning ones. Have a quick meeting to make sure everything is handed over properly and everyone knows what is going on.

1:30-2:00pm - TLC volunteers arrive and spend some time with each of the cats, making sure they all get some play time out of the cage and some hugs, pets, scritches, grooming, whatever else needs doing.

3:00pm - volunteer tells adoption counsellor that cats are acting 'off' and sure enough we have several kitties for a vet visit, probably sick from the surrender who was brought in despite the sign on the door asking people not to come in with animals.

3:00 - 3:30pm - afternoon feed & clean arrive and refill bowls, scoop litter and whatever else needs doing in cat rooms.

4:00 - someone adopts a long term resident and all volunteers want to say goodbye.

5:00 - someone walks in just as shelter is closing with last minute problem.

6:00 - adoption counsellor finishes paperwork an hour after finish time and finally gets to go home to see their own cats.
 

white cat lover

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Tuesdays & Thursdays we are open from 6-8PM. In that 2 hour span of time, right now I am cleaning 70+ cats cages....and helping anyone interested in adopting(what few people we have) pick out cats.

I regularly go through & mentally pick kitties I would choose to euthanize for overpopulation "just in case".

Check out everyone's stools, watch for ringworm, evaluate mental status of kitties....are all done as I clean cages. Since we have giardia, coccidia, & ringworm going around, nobody comes out of their cage.

Everyone gets a few quick pets as I clean their cage, then I move on to the next one. I average about one minute per cage.

In the quarantine room, I evaluate purr-sonlities. Most are the ferals we have to euthanize, we've got no place for them to go live if we were to fix them.

We aren't taking kitty surrenders right now, no space. Only cats adopted from us will we take as surrenders. We just keep stacking cages higher & making more room by combining kittens in cages. We will make things work somehow.

Before I leave, I'll spend a few extra minutes with the newest surrender kitty who is still hissing/growling/biting....he doesn't understand why he's here.
 

addiebee

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Very hard work, emotionally draining, but you are obviously so dedicated. I fall into the volunteer spectrum, so I see a small part of this - people wanting to dump animals, bringing in sick animals, wanting to adopt in an inappropriate situation. I'm lucky in that I don't make the decisions about potential adoptors, but if I talk to someone and see red flags, I do pass that on.


I also check poop, body condition, eyes, noses, general demeanor and report anything unusual that I see. And I tend to spend a lot of time with the shyer cats or the ones who have been given up/dumped b/c they really don't know what's going on and need extra love.


Just the other day the store manager approached me with the phone saying the woman wanted to adopt a 6-8 week old kitten if we had one. Well, even if we did, that wouldn't happen. The information I have learned here, plus our own house rules about spay/neuter woud prevent that. I informed the manager about the why-nots - she really didn't want to hear it, but too bad.

Im sure that lady will get what she wants eventually.
 
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icklemiss21

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Natalie and I are also volunteers, we just have taken on more duties over time.

We get quite a few of the 'I want a 6 week old speutered kitten' ones
 

white cat lover

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I won't say anything about the 6 week old kittens thing.
Because my arguments for not placing them are falling on deaf ears.
 
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icklemiss21

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We don't even place ours on the website that early, they are in foster homes and get photos taken at 8 weeks and usually come over to the shelter between 9-12 weeks depending on how they are doing
 

white cat lover

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We don't have foster homes. It's me, another regular volunteer(our vice president), & I think 2 other ladies. And with all the bottle babies we get in...stretching them between all of us fills the foster homes.
 

sweet72947

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I worked in an animal shelter for two months, and here is what I experienced in regards to cats:

You had to be careful when cleaning the cages, because the cats would stick their paws out and bat at your hair, and you sometimes got a claw in the head.

Kittens are the dirtiest creatures on the face of the Earth. Most mornings I was wrist deep in kitten diarrhea because they would play in it during the night and get it all over the cage and the bars.
And you had to wake up and do it all over again the next day.


The ACO's picked up lots of stray cats. The saddest thing I saw was a grey & white cat who had been left in a carrier overnight and was drenched in his own waste. He had something wrong with his jaw which made it look painful when he meowed. He was a very sweet cat, never gave me any trouble when I had to move him to clean his cage. He was kept for the mandatory two-week stray hold and then put to sleep. He was never cleaned up because I guess they figured "why bother?" since he was going to be put down anyway.


There was also an orange tabby who I called "Satan's Kitty". He would act all nice and sweet, and then do a complete 180 and try to claw your face off. And this cat was put up for adoption!


And there's always the temptation to snatch a kitten and bring it home. There was a little grey & white kitten I could have fit in my pocket, but then they would have wondered why my pocket was mewing.
 
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icklemiss21

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Our kittens tend not to be that dirty, but they do make a huge mess of their cages


I often get batted on the head or screamed at for attention while cleaning a different cage, but I just laugh at them and am thankful they want the attention because those that do catch the attention of adopters.

We have a Satan kitty - I already brought her home and she is no longer Satan and sleeps with me
 

white cat lover

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Originally Posted by Sweet72947

There was also an orange tabby who I called "Satan's Kitty". He would act all nice and sweet, and then do a complete 180 and try to claw your face off. And this cat was put up for adoption!
Our version was named Priscilla....she was the orange/white Siamese like markings....and I called her Lucy short for Lucifer!
She was bipolar like that. Then there was the one named Sugar Cane.....who finally did bite someone.

Then there are ones like this boy:


In his teens, in need of a dental, has an ear infection. Neutered & a stray.
Hopefully, we can place him.


I think the impound places are the worst ones to be with....that's what we are. Take in all strays found within the county. And some of the kitties you see.....you just
 

addiebee

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I don't think I could do this full time. It would just kill me! We have had our share of Satan kitties - usually the fault of the humans in their lives prior to arriving into our care. One was dumped on us with such terrible ear infections that the vet had to do surgery to remove the hearing parts of his ears and sew the flaps shut. So he was deaf - he would want affection one minute and bite and claw the next. Another I recall was taken from mom and sibs waaaaaaay too soon and was never properly socialized. I stopped trying with him... to get him back in his cage after cleaning, I would toss a ball in there and he would jump in after it. Worked every time!!
 

ninacaliente

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Originally Posted by white cat lover

Then there are ones like this boy:


In his teens, in need of a dental, has an ear infection. Neutered & a stray.
Hopefully, we can place him.


I think the impound places are the worst ones to be with....that's what we are. Take in all strays found within the county. And some of the kitties you see.....you just
Aw, the poor guy. I wish I could take in an old kitty like this - I just worry that Delilah would make everyone miserable.
I hope he finds a good home.

I admire you all who give so much of your time and energy to helping all these animals. I hope someday I'll be in a position to do the same.
 

white cat lover

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Actually, realisitically, the old boy will likely be euthanized.

That's a hard fact of this. People suck & cats often die because people suck. Cats who deserve homes.
 

rescuecatsrule

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Originally Posted by white cat lover

Actually, realisitically, the old boy will likely be euthanized.

That's a hard fact of this. People suck & cats often die because people suck. Cats who deserve homes.
That is so true!

At the moment we have got a cat at the rescue centre who's scared stiff of people so she hisses, growls, spits and tries to lash out at us all. We don't know her history, all we know is she was found on the streets so heaven knows what she's been through.
 
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icklemiss21

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Originally Posted by white cat lover

That's a hard fact of this. People suck & cats often die because people suck. Cats who deserve homes.


The way they are found, in some cases, just breaks my heart.

The ones in taped up boxes thrown out in the garbage, or in bags found by the lake
or in some cases, worse, the ones who are much older and obviously owned who have been thrown out because they are sick and the vet bills are too much.
 

hollow

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I humbly bow to all of you. I don't know how you do it. When I went to the shelter to Adopt Callie and Baloo, I just wanted to take every kitty home with me. It just broke my heart to see them. All of you have hearts of gold and of steel. God bless each one of you!
 

rescuecatsrule

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Originally Posted by hollow

I humbly bow to all of you. I don't know how you do it. When I went to the shelter to Adopt Callie and Baloo, I just wanted to take every kitty home with me. It just broke my heart to see them. All of you have hearts of gold and of steel. God bless each one of you!
Well I wanted to take every single one of the cats home but it just isn't possible. We took an elderly one (Beauty) and she's still here now.

There was another one I would have brought home as well but we could only have one so he stayed
until someone else took him.
 

glitch

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OMG, I worked in the humane society for a couple years. We use newspapers as blankets. Nice eh? If the animal control dude was called to pick up a pet, he shot it or did other nasty stuff. (I found their remains personally, I hate that guy) There is no backgroud check, you walk in and two minutes later walk out with a pet. Instead of getting new cages, thats what it said on the little donate thingy, they bought a new van. And instead of expanding area, now they want to put up a garage for the van. Keep in mind that the lady takes the darn van home every night! Where they gonna build the garage? AT HER HOUSE! Meanwhile the jerk animal control guy is still working there and you still find bodies outside of his shop. Doesn't even bother to bring some of them in. He once shot some ladies cat off of her roof.
 

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Here's my experiences as the weekend "Cat lady" Adoptable cats are free in a large room, except for those who do not get along. They are caged
8:00 am: Arrive. Little faces are peeking out the windows at me. Tap glass and say hello.
8:10: Have armload of blankets and cleaning supplies, enter the warzone. Cats appear out of all corners, looking for love. Pick up a favorite and find that someone has used the floor to poop on. After finding it with my sneaker. Wash sneaker, pick up poop.
8:30: Scrub all litter boxes.
8:50: Refill litter boxes and say hello to cats. Check each for ringworm/sneezing/other icky symptoms.
9:30: Refill food/water dishes. Say goodbye to cats.
9:45: Go to other end of building and start on cat isolation. Find that poor starved/sick persian has died despite everything we could do. Say goodbye and ask that his soul stay in heaven until overpopulation is less. Give first round of medications.
10:15: Start cleaning each cage, scrub litterboxes and food dishes, replace blankets. Make notes of any changes on chart.
10:30: Have to go up front and tell someone we cannot accept their litter of 5 week old kittens. Explain we are not licsenced for that and Animal Control is next door. Have to sit through sob story that could have been prevented entirely
10:45: Find that I have forgotten to close one cage entirely and cat is now teasing me from the top of it. Sigh and figure he has to come down eventually.
1:30: All cages are clean. Second round of medications. Catch renagade kitty and put him away.
1:45: Explain to someone of phone we cannot take their kittens, the exact same thing I've told 5 other people this morning. Hang up when they start swearing.
2:00: Lunch and potential adopters arrive at same time. Lunch gets cold, but cat goes home. Will miss the fuzzy butt.
2:30: New arrival is leukemia tested and put in the back. Cute older fellow, will go quickly once he's neutered
3:45: Feed feral population. Call shelter cat back inside. 3rd round of medications.
4:00: Refill all food/water bowls in large cat room. Change blankets again. Scoop litter.
4:45: Patiently explain that the kitten must be fixed before it can leave. Listen to long lecture on how the kids need to see the miracle of birth. Wonder if they would like to see the miracle of death down at Animal Control. Mom says she will get a free kitten out of the paper. Look forward to it's babies in 6 months.
5:10: Late adopter has driven and hour to get a specific special needs cat. Is absolutley thrilled at the though of this furbaby being hers forever.
5:30: Pick cats to go to Petsmart the next day. Write adoption cards and put all health records on table. Get ready to go home.
6:00: Home and hour late and Puss is waiting. Know day was well spent.
 
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