Saturday, Dec 6th was a good day in my beloved Commonwealth of Virginia.
The day was dark, windy and cold. My primary mission on this day was to have a remote-start installed on my Wife's car. After dropping the car off, I hopped on a HRT bus and took a ride down to one of our PetSmart stores where I like to spend my time with the cats up for adoption. There was one there with such striking green eyes and her markings were similar to my road-cat, Zoey.
The folks from Cat Rescue of Virginia Beach arrived and set up "shop" and I finally met Shawn, the intrepid leader of this merry band of cat lovers.We accessed the room where you could open the in-store cages while the other members set up the cages with the other cats brought in for adoption.
There are about 14 cages in all but three had the dividers removed where two cats could keep one another company.
I took to petting a black and white boy-kitty named Floyd, what a lover HE was. Below him was another boy-kitty by the name of Alex and he was going to out-do Floyd for affection! These cats belonged to another agency we share the PetSmart facility with, they have half of the cages and we have the other half.
I looked into the cage and to my horror, the water wasn't clear and there wasn't enough. I know there had been nobody in to clean the cages by the smell and content of Alex's litter box.
So I set to work. As I opened each cage, I took the cat into my arms, sat down and gave them some affection most were more than happy to reciprocate, each got at least 20 minutes(Floyd and Alex demanded and got more!)
I took everything out of their cages, swept them out, cleaned all the litter boxes, topped off the food bowls, washed out and refilled all the water dishes. This consumed most of the morning and the adoption business was slow.
This was the day with Santa and the other agency had some people doing pictures with pets for their benifit just as we did at the other PetSmart location.
Two things kind of hacked me off.
The other agency didn't have anyone come to look in on their cats from the store's opening untill I left at 5pm.
Second, they didn't have someone there to answer adoption inquireies. Had I been able, I could have adopted out 4 of 6 cats available for adoption. I gave the interested parties applications and encouraged them to follow up. I even asked if they wanted me to go grab one of the other agency's folks off the "Santa" detail. I hope the big red-neck didn't "skeer" them too much. "Hey, I'll go git' one of 'um and drag 'um over here if you want me to."
They said that they'd go through the steps and fill out the application.
Cat Rescue had a good day however, We were able to adopt out 4 other cats, two, a brother and sister went together-huray!
I'd never had the chance to spend a day doing this and I really enjoyed it and the best part was, the "product" virtually sells itself! If I'd have had the room and the financial resources, I'd have taken home about 5 of them-they were just too loving to leave there! I was free to answer questions about cat care(as far as I was able) and even got to help one young couple choose the right things they needed to fit their budget.
I was a little disappointed in the agency we share the space with for not having someone check out the condition of their animals. Personally, I think they ought to be cared for at least twice a day, but I understand the constraints of manpower with non-profit agencies.
I couldn't resist having a little fun with some folks, when they asked who I was, I'd tell them I was an inmate from the city jail, serving time for assault with a deadly weapon and I was out on work-release-JUST KIDDING! But the look on their faces was PRICELESS!
"No, I'm just a friend of Cat Rescue, my car's in the shop so I came here to help out"
With that, I got a big sigh of relief!
If you love cats, and I'm sure if you're on this site, you do. If you don't already, might I recommend the most rewarding experience of assisting your local animal rescue in whatever way you can. I was nervous at first, but once I got past that and began talking about my love of cats with other cat lovers, I was right at home.
The day was dark, windy and cold. My primary mission on this day was to have a remote-start installed on my Wife's car. After dropping the car off, I hopped on a HRT bus and took a ride down to one of our PetSmart stores where I like to spend my time with the cats up for adoption. There was one there with such striking green eyes and her markings were similar to my road-cat, Zoey.
The folks from Cat Rescue of Virginia Beach arrived and set up "shop" and I finally met Shawn, the intrepid leader of this merry band of cat lovers.We accessed the room where you could open the in-store cages while the other members set up the cages with the other cats brought in for adoption.
There are about 14 cages in all but three had the dividers removed where two cats could keep one another company.
I took to petting a black and white boy-kitty named Floyd, what a lover HE was. Below him was another boy-kitty by the name of Alex and he was going to out-do Floyd for affection! These cats belonged to another agency we share the PetSmart facility with, they have half of the cages and we have the other half.
I looked into the cage and to my horror, the water wasn't clear and there wasn't enough. I know there had been nobody in to clean the cages by the smell and content of Alex's litter box.
So I set to work. As I opened each cage, I took the cat into my arms, sat down and gave them some affection most were more than happy to reciprocate, each got at least 20 minutes(Floyd and Alex demanded and got more!)
I took everything out of their cages, swept them out, cleaned all the litter boxes, topped off the food bowls, washed out and refilled all the water dishes. This consumed most of the morning and the adoption business was slow.
This was the day with Santa and the other agency had some people doing pictures with pets for their benifit just as we did at the other PetSmart location.
Two things kind of hacked me off.
The other agency didn't have anyone come to look in on their cats from the store's opening untill I left at 5pm.
Second, they didn't have someone there to answer adoption inquireies. Had I been able, I could have adopted out 4 of 6 cats available for adoption. I gave the interested parties applications and encouraged them to follow up. I even asked if they wanted me to go grab one of the other agency's folks off the "Santa" detail. I hope the big red-neck didn't "skeer" them too much. "Hey, I'll go git' one of 'um and drag 'um over here if you want me to."
They said that they'd go through the steps and fill out the application.
Cat Rescue had a good day however, We were able to adopt out 4 other cats, two, a brother and sister went together-huray!
I'd never had the chance to spend a day doing this and I really enjoyed it and the best part was, the "product" virtually sells itself! If I'd have had the room and the financial resources, I'd have taken home about 5 of them-they were just too loving to leave there! I was free to answer questions about cat care(as far as I was able) and even got to help one young couple choose the right things they needed to fit their budget.
I was a little disappointed in the agency we share the space with for not having someone check out the condition of their animals. Personally, I think they ought to be cared for at least twice a day, but I understand the constraints of manpower with non-profit agencies.
I couldn't resist having a little fun with some folks, when they asked who I was, I'd tell them I was an inmate from the city jail, serving time for assault with a deadly weapon and I was out on work-release-JUST KIDDING! But the look on their faces was PRICELESS!
"No, I'm just a friend of Cat Rescue, my car's in the shop so I came here to help out"
With that, I got a big sigh of relief!
If you love cats, and I'm sure if you're on this site, you do. If you don't already, might I recommend the most rewarding experience of assisting your local animal rescue in whatever way you can. I was nervous at first, but once I got past that and began talking about my love of cats with other cat lovers, I was right at home.
