After our morning
canine greetings, we started each day of volunteering at the shelter by doing
rounds in the car wards. There are four separate wards, each with probably 15
to 30 cats. I was very impressed by the areas in which the cats live. Each ward
has an indoor component as well as several outside areas that are fenced in to
keep the dogs and any wildlife from getting in. Outside, there are fences to
climb up, various wooden perches, beds on different levels, and most
importantly, places to sunbathe. The cats also enjoy rubbing against the fence to greet people who walk by.
Each room differs, but inside there are bunk
beds in several of the rooms, as well as platforms at many different levels and
boxes for the cats to hide in. The more timid cats are free to keep to
themselves, and the social cats are able to interact with each other as they
please and watch the people and dogs go by outside.
We brought in a
few balls for the cats to play with one afternoon. Many of them were uncertain
of what to do with them, but one cat figured it out and soon many of the others
joined in, happily passing the balls back and forth between each other or
chasing them across the room. Others couldn’t care less about the balls but
just wanted human attention.
We started off
each morning in what we deemed the social ward. When we approached, nearly all
of the cats would move to the door to greet us, meowing away. If we sat down,
we’d often be swarmed by cats as they inquisitively inspected our clothing and
shoes and faces.
We named some of them with not-so-creative names based on their
looks or behavior, but there were too many to keep track of. Scrapper, Little
Scrapper, Ms. Mustache, Tripper, Lemur, Leo... We check on how everyone is
doing, observing them for any obvious physical or behavioral abnormalities.
It’s a challenge with such a large group, but definitely got easier as we grew
to know the individual cats and their behavior. We treated some of the cats for
various acute and ongoing conditions. There were two cats with kidney
conditions that we placed in a separate treatment area for closer monitoring
until they resumed their normal appetite and behavior.
After we were
satisfied with how all the cats were doing in the social ward, it was on to
visit the other three wards. Rubber and Orange Guy were pleased to see us in one
of the wards, but all of the others there are absolutely terrified and hid in
their little boxes, darting away when we approached - especially Scaredy, whose
eyes seem to be eternally dilated. There's another room dominated by torties
and calicos. There, all of the cats were initially extremely timid, but I made
friends with one tortie who always sat on the same bench outside and happily
rubbed against me, purring, whenever I came to visit her. By the end of my time
volunteering, a few of her friends were brave enough to visit me as well.
Upstairs is the room made up of mostly orange cats, where
they weren't so sure about us at first but soon many of them were very happy to
have us. TomTom and Creamy were usually the first to say hello. As the cats got
used to our presence, we usually were swarmed in orange fluff as we sat on the
ground to observe them and spend time with them.
It's funny how much the colors here correlate to behavior.
Almost all of the black and whites who are brave enough to approach us love to
lick our shoes. None of the black cats will get anywhere near us, though that's
more understandable based on how they are treated out in the world. Most of the
calicos and torties are also very afraid, and most of the orange cats are
fairly social and quite the rubbers. There are a number of the cats living at
the VSPCA who are extremely social and would do very well in homes with people
to constantly love. Others will thrive for life in their colorful rooms at the
shelter, but would certainly appreciate more volunteers to spend some time with
them!
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