Writing Contest: Volunteering at a Cat Shelter

Do you or have you ever volunteered at a Cat Shelter? Maybe you foster kittens, help out with raising funds or just come in to lend a hand cleaning the litter boxes and playing with kittens. Whatever your volunteering is like, we want to hear about it!

Write us a short story about volunteering at/for a cat shelter.

Rules and Guidelines:

1. Story should be 250-800 words long.

2. Story should reflect your own personal experience. It can focus on a particular cat or event, or just share your volunteering routine.

3. Story should not have been published anywhere else on the web.

4. Up to two submissions per member.

5. Last submission date: Midnight of Tuesday, June 19th 2012. The thread will be closed for further submissions on that date.

Posts will be judged by a special committee made of TCS team members. What we're looking for is an interesting story and good story telling. Have cat lovers as your audience and try to move your readers. Decent grammar, punctuation and spelling are required.

From the time of submission and until the winner is announced, all participants in this contest get this badge attached to their profile:



The winner gets:

• Your story gets published as an article on TCS!
• Winner badge added to your profile for a month -
• A TCS T-Shirt  with the design of your choice from our CafePress store

To submit - simply add your story as a post in this thread.

Please do not respond to stories in this thread.

Can the story be about volunteering for a rescue/foster based group? I did such but the group does not have a permanent shelter, so all the animals are housed in foster homes.

This contest is for Adopt a Shelter Cat Month,but I do think adopting from rescue groups where the cats are fostered is just as good, so yes, rescue groups, as long as they adopt out, be it from a shelter or foster homes.

 In January I became homeless after being unemployed for three years (local job market very poor), and I found living in my car to be boring to say the least. I also thought it would look better on my resume if I showed I was using my time productively rather than just "job-hunting".  In Feruary I became a volunteer at Animal Samaritans, a no kill shelter. I love animals, especially cats, so I really enjoy being here.

My very first assignment was to assist with an offsite adoption event which included three kittens. As we sat at PetCo with them, I held each in my lap for a while. One of them, Alfie, was terrified. I felt very sad for him.

At the shelter, Alfie was in the "kitten room" with many other cats, and would run away if I tried to approach him.

A week or so later, those kittens came down with ringworm and had to be quarantined for several weeks.  I took to going in and petting them for a short time each day because they were so distraught at being in small cages. I had to wear a plastic gown and gloves and leave immediately after visiting them. Alfie, so unapproachable in the Kitten Room, was lonely and bored in iso, so he became more amenable to being handled.

Over the course of time I fell more and more in love with Alfie. In turn, he became attached to me and clearly enjoyed being petted. The unexpected benefit of ringworm!

The upshot, of course, is that I decided to adopt him! I have to wait though, until I get a job and have a home again. I'm at the shelter every day and visit him often. He's become so affectionate! I can hardly wait to take him home! I hope it's soon!

I started volunteering at my local shelter probably about fifteen years ago.  I read about fostering kittens and I asked the shelter about that, but they did not do it at the time and were afraid of liability.  I guess they kept hearing or researching it because ten years ago they started a foster program and I was one of the first people to sign up.

Fostering kittens is one of the easiest, funnest, funniest, hardest, emotional, challenging things I've ever done.  Kittens are cute and funny and adorable and are such an amazing stress relief.  Having more then one at a time makes it exponentially more so.  But as I have become more and more experienced with neonatal kittens, I've volunteered to take on some of the more challenging cases.  I've cared for kittens that needed enemas, some that were on fluids, and too many with URI.  I've lost more then I care to discuss, but those that I am able to save make it all worth while.  The wins carry your spirit through many of the lows.  One little kitten in particular "Buffy" was so close to death she had to spend the night in an oxygen tank.  Today she is a beautiful adult in a home with her two brothers (yes, I was so happy to find a home to take three kittens)

I've fostered almost 300 kittens in the ten years since, and ended up adopting eight of them.  Seven of them are still with me.  And yes, I currently have five little foster kittens as well.

Every day of the year, I look forward to logging on to do my volunteer sharing, crossposting, tagging and rescue contacting for cats incarcerated in Animal Control and elsewhere.  I'm one of hundreds or perhaps thousands of people all over the world who do this work.  We crosspost on the most popular social media websites, greatly increasing the chances of cats needing loving, forever homes of finding them.  It's a labor of great love and hope.

I don't really remember when or even how I started crossposting for cats; but I do know that once I started, it was impossible to stop, and I looked forward to mid-afternoon each day, when the "E(uthanasia)-List" comes out at the New York City Animal Care and Control for the city's facilities.  Though I live on the West Coast of the United States, I've chosen to work the New York ACC for a couple of reasons, one being that, some time ago, I befriended someone who "pulled" (rescued) cats from this system, who had become more and more dejected at what she saw as massive disinterest on the part of New Yorkers and the city's powerful regarding these most blameless and vulnerable of citizens. In fact, she was thinking strongly of getting out of the "business" because of the toll it was taking on her psyche and the lack of success she was having in saving the lives we both feel are precious.  After talking online with her at length and being unable to cheer her up or make a difference in the plight of the cats, I jumped on this opportunity to become part of a growing "underground army" of computer-savvy people who are putting our caring where our hearts (and fingers) are and making a definite difference for the voiceless.

The amazing thing about what we do is that anyone, anywhere in the world, with a computer can do what we do.  All you have to have besides a PC, MAC or smartphone is compassion, caring, and a little time.  The reward you will reap is huge not only in terms of being part of a global group implementing positive change, but also in relation to your own self-esteem.  Every life that is saved is a major victory; and the knowledge that we are growing in numbers and determination fuels our resolve to continue until each and every adoptable cat and kitten has the loving, forever home (s)he so richly deserves.  Gorgeous cats and kittens of every persuasion find themselves incarcerated through no fault of their own; they have only those of us who care and who are willing to put that caring into positive action to be their champions.

Tiny neonatal kittens barely able to crawl; new mothers and mothers-to-be; lovely cats in their prime; sweet seniors awaiting another chance at comfort and love -- they all pass through the NYACC's facilities.  Stray and feral, pampered and purebred, you will see them all, waiting patiently for the protection and good homes that a compassionate and progressive society would provide them all.  Fragile injured cats, abused and neglected, also find their way into the metal cages and it is our wish and our aim to see them pulled to rescue, given the medical care they need and deserve, and comforted and protected, if not in a loving, forever home, at least in a caring rescue where they will be loved as the individuals they are.  

Of course, our work is not done without sorrow.  The backgrounds of each and every one of the cats and kittens who end up in the NYACC are sad.  They do not belong in these places at all, and the fact that they ARE here is heartbreaking and maddening to us all.  Some find the work too stressful or depressing, but most are committed, as I am, to making the difference we can and do make in the precious lives of these most innocent of souls.  They have only us.  And those of you who wish to join us.  In return, you will get the unparalleled feeling of knowing you are helping to save the lives of those we all love so much.  You will also have the great feeling of camaraderie, of being part of an ever-growing network of people of all ages, nationalities, and persuasions who believe we can end the senseless taking of innocent lives.  Won't you join us?

I spent the last eight years with homeless cats because of a gray and white tabby domestic shorthair named Wilbur.

When my sister needed to volunteer somewhere five hours for school credit, she naturally chose Citizens for Humane Action (CHA), a private no-kill shelter for cats and dogs. Mom asked me if I want to tag along with her and of course I said yes. So for three days I cleaned cages and gave cats food, water, and litter. A note on Wilbur's cage scared everyone: he tested positive for feline leukemia. Only I wanted to hold him. It was love at first sight just like the romance movies: the first time I held Wilbur, he purred and licked my ear. At that moment, I knew he should be mine if his FLV test result was wrong. I begged for a retest because he had no symptoms and waited more than five months for him to test negative twice while living in a foster home.

That was in April 2002. In June 2003, CHA opened a badly-needed new building. I was at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for that and decided to become a regular volunteer there in August. My first day was September 5, 2003. I will never forget what I heard another volunteer tell one of the cats that night: "You're going home!" That was one of my favorite moments because she said that to a blind cat, so I would have expected it to stay at the shelter a long time.

Other memories were not so good: kittens meowing nonstop to get out of their cages a second time, 16 kittens having diarrhea the same day, and putting cats back in their cages because they hated other residents. There also were surprises: one cat who scratched and bit me when I took her back to her cage delivered five kittens in a foster home the next week and nobody knew she was pregnant! What kept me going was my huge heart for cats, strong desire to help them, and dream to someday start a cageless no-kill cats shelter.

When I moved from Ohio to Florida in December, one thing I did not leave behind was a string of good memories made at CHA - memories of kittens playing with me, adults walking on my lap, being smacked on the head from a cage above me, and countless purrs when I took cats to the little playroom. But the best memory of all will always be meeting Wilbur because he spent the rest of his life with me.

I will never forget Harry.

Harry was an older tabby with a huge heart for humans. He would crawl into your lap and purr, purr, and purr as you pet and hold him. He was the softest cat I have ever felt and I could tell by his affections that all he wanted was to be loved by you. He had one blind eye, and the other was going blind as well, thanks to neglected eye care from previous owners, but that did not affect Harry one bit.

He was in the shelter for more than a year. Alone in the storage room for the later part of the year. Why would a sweetheart like Harry be left alone, so far from other cats? One reason. He hated other cats. He would hiss and swat and purposely try to hurt another cat that gets close enough to him. He slowly grew more aggressive to other cats over the months which landed him in the back room. I believe the real reason is the stress of being at the shelter all this time. He did not handle well living with other cats, dealing with their smells and fighting for food. No one wanted to adopt Harry for two reasons - he did not get along with other cats, and his eye issues would be long-term care and no adopter wanted to deal with it.

I remember coming to the shelter's free-roaming room, finding one of the shelter cats had a nice bite wound on her back. After calling the shelter coordinator to arrange a vet visit, I realized Harry had escaped from the back room and immediately knew it was him that had bitten the poor female. He had blood on his nose, growling as he glared at all of the cats in the free-roaming room. My heart sank, I knew what this could mean for Harry's future.

I spoke to the coordinator, and told her it was Harry who bit the female. I could hear her voice breaking as she took this news. She had to speak to the owner of the shelter and she was SURE the owner would have to humanely euthanize Harry. He was just not adoptable anymore. From that point on, the coordinator, other volunteers and myself, did everything in our power to save Harry. We've posted messages across all forums, we've made flyers, and called other shelters and other foster volunteers in desperate attempt to at least get him fostered, get him out of the shelter for a while. Things were looking very grim for this sweetheart cat as his time was running out and we were running out of options.

Then something amazing happened. The coordinator bit the bullet, and she took Harry home on the day of his dreaded vet appointment. She already had 6 cats and she knew she was taking a huge chance by fostering Harry. Now I am not sure exactly what happened since she took Harry home, but updates tells me that Harry had settled in very nicely in her home. He has his own room, away from the other cats. He was getting the time away from the shelter he deserves.

A Christmas Miracle happened. An email from the coordinator announced that Harry has found a forever home! An elderly woman had just recently lost her feline companion, and she was more than happy to take Harry into her home as an only cat.

From the foster who brought Harry to his new home shares these words:

"It was one of the best deliveries yet.. those who know Harry know how tough he has had it- when we left him with his new mom yesterday, he was playing with his new catnip sock puppet and curled up on the couch!"

If this isn't a picture of a happy Harry, I don't know what it is!:

We have some excellent entries and participation badges have been awarded. - thank you, everyone!

Four more days, so plenty of time to submit more stories. Keep them coming until Tuesday, June 19th!

Those of you who know me from TheCatSite are probably aware that I lived in Japan for four years. That is where I found my precious kitty Aya and rescued her from an early death by taxi in the streets. Japan, and Okinawa in particular, have a huge feral/stray kitty problem. Japan does not seem to be quite as up-to-speed with the West in regards to animal welfare. One figure I heard quoted was a spay/neuter rate of 30 percent whereas in the USA its 70 percent.

That’s not to say people don’t like the cats. There are Japanese people who put out food for them; (we all know how that helps the problem!). And I knew a group of ladies who fed several colonies in the park. But most people consider the mura neko (stray cats) outdoor pets, much like barn cats where they multiply like rabbits, while the dogs get to live inside with the family.

Aya was the first orphaned kitten I took home, and I kept her, but it wasn’t too long before I found another one, a little black and white boy on the sidewalk as I was out on my bike. He had an abscessed infection on his back and his 3^rd eyelid was swollen and stuck out. I couldn’t leave him, but when I brought him home, Aya reacted very aggressively toward the kitten and to me. I was able to temporarily place him with a friend, but clearly it was not going to work for me in a small studio apartment.

One of the groups doing their little bit to help the animal welfare situation in Okinawa Japan is OOARS Okinawa. The group was founded in 2004 and its volunteers are mostly members of US military and family stationed in Okinawa. Their primary mission is to prevent the abandonment of unwanted pets when service members have to relocate, but they will take in stray kitties provided they have a foster home (the group does not have a fixed shelter location) and the cat tests negative for FELV/FIV. They came to my rescue for poor little Goma, when Aya decided she did not want to share our apartment with another cat. They were also there for Spiral and Sayuri, a pair of orphan siblings I found sitting forlornly without a momma on the side of the bike trail in the park.

Because the group has no shelter they organize adoption events on the Bases every month or so where people can meet and greet the available dogs and kitties. These little ones I found have long since found their fur-ever homes thanks to OOARS adoptions.

Not long after I turned in the pair of kittens, I found out I would be leaving Okinawa in half a year’s time. The timing of my contract and departure meant that I had to fly Aya home 3 ½ months before I did. It would be a long 3 ½ months without a cat. But I had a “pets ok” apartment. What to do to alleviate a little bit of my sadness at having to leave Aya with my folks in Vermont? I contacted OOARS and volunteered to foster for the few months I had remaining.

Their kitty person, Becky, called me right back to say they had the perfect cat for me. “She’s a sweetie,” Becky told me, “but right now she’s living on top of my refrigerator because she doesn’t get along with my other cats.” Her name was Cuddles, and she lived up to her name. Her favorite pastime was giving head-butts to get your attention and wedging herself in between you and the sofa any way she could. When she was happy she would give you one of her “creaky-squeaky” meows that sounded more like someone torturing a squeaky toy, but it was her happy kitty noise.

The only issue Becky warned me about was that she had to be on special food for a sensitive tummy. I told her that was fine I was used to dealing with a special needs cat (Aya). The selection of cat food in Japan is more limited than in the States, so Becky had to bring me her food from the Base when she ran out. What I wasn’t told and quickly figured out was that this is most likely the reason why Cuddles had been in their foster system for over a year. She was a barf-o-matic. If she ate too much, or anything besides her Purina food, or for no reason at all, she would spontaneously projectile vomit wherever she was. I quickly learned to not feed her anything but her food and to limit her portion sizes so she wouldn’t puke. But still, I would wake up in the middle of the night to gagging noises or come home to find my floor decorated with regurgitated kibble.

Her favorite spot was the TV set. It sat in front of the sliding doors to the balcony and it was her favorite perch and by default the location she covered the most in vomit. A lot of people wouldn’t put up with this and that no doubt was why Cuddles did not have a permanent home. I didn’t care. I missed Aya and I had been dealing with a cat that intermittently peed on things including myself while sleeping, and demolished all the wallpaper in the apartment prior to Cuddles coming to live with me, so her ‘problem’ seemed small by comparison. And what she gave me was immense in return. I just had to do vomit cleanup detail every other day. Thank god for vinyl floors!

I’d like to tell you there was a happy ending to the story, but at the end of my stay there were no volunteers to take Cuddles. I had already paid $3000 to export Aya and I knew I couldn’t afford another cat. Becky came to pick her up along with all the kitty “stuff” I had accumulated over the course of 3 years with a cat in Japan that I donated to the organization. Becky was a saint. She did her best with 4-5 other animals in her house, but I assume Cuddles went back to being her refrigerator cat.

As of this morning when I checked the OOARS website Cuddles was still available for adoption.

We can’t save everyone.

Why is it that when I click on my badge, I go to the pet sitting stories instead of this contest?

EmilyMayWilcha said:

Why is it that when I click on my badge, I go to the pet sitting stories instead of this contest?

Click to expand...

Good catch! I'll fix that right away!

Anne said:

Good catch! I'll fix that right away!

Click to expand...

Thank you Anne!

Two more days left - bumping for more submissions!

Pushing up. Reminding people to enter!

I entered -- did you???

I never would have imagined becoming so involved with volunteering at a local shelter, but thanks to TCS, I'm glad I am. It all began six years ago when I responded to a thread on TCS from a young woman looking for help with newborn kittens in inner-city Cincinnati, not far from where I lived. I responded and ended up meeting this young woman and her family who were desperately trying to care for the stray and feral cats in their neighborhood with limited resources. I already knew a little bit about TNR, but had never done any trapping myself, so we learned together and were able to get eight of the cats fixed and returned to the neighborhood. It didn't take long to realize that there were other cats who also needed to be fixed, but I didn't have the resources to take the project on myself. Fortunately, a friend put me in touch with a local group then called O'Bryonville Animal Rescue (OAR), that had been doing TNR in Cincinnati neighborhoods for years. OAR has since expanded and changed its name to Ohio Alleycat Resource and now operates a small shelter for adoptable cats and kittens, a low-cost spay/neuter clinic, which just completed its 15,000 surgery, and TNR resource center for the local community, offering educational programs and loaning out traps. I absolutely love this organization, its mission and the compassionate, dedicated volunteers who keep it going. My own involvement includes continuing to care for the original colony where I started doing TNR. There are currently eight cats living there (all fixed and provided with shelter and food and water daily). Since 2006, more than 40 cats and kittens from that site have been fixed and either returned to the colony or placed in loving homes. I'm also a regular Saturday volunteer at the rescue, helping to care for and socialize the resident cats. In addition, I serve on the adoption and TNR committees, write and edit OAR's newsletter and foster cats and kittens. I love every aspect of volunteering with OAR, but the most rewarding for me is fostering and socializing feral kittens. I get the hissy, spitty, growling babies, and there's nothing like seeing them transform into happy, affectionate kitties. One of my favorite fosters from last year was Boo, a little buff-colored boy who was so scared when he came into the rescue last summer that he could only be handled with gloves. He and his brother, Scout, spent about six weeks with me before going back to the rescue. They were adopted together into a loving home on Christmas Eve - the best present I could have received. I recently received a picture of Boo contentedly curled up on his adopter's lap. Kitties like Boo are why I do what I do. I'm so grateful for the advice and encouragement I've received on TCS over the years and for that one thread that paved the way for me to become involved at OAR.

When will the winner be announced?

the submission deadline is tonight. I am sure the judges need a few days to pick the winner.

I'm closing the thread for submissions. The winner will be announced as soon as we have the votes from all of our esteemed judges and no later than Monday.

Good luck everyone and thank you for participating!

I couldn't find a good picture of cats sitting in a committee, so in the meantime, here's a cute picture of a sleeping cat (figured it can't hurt )