Big Mouth Pays Off!

Finally, my habit of blabbering on and telling people more than they need to know pays off.

Yesterday, the Humane Society e-mailed to ask if I would be bringing the foster kittens back soon.  I said yes, I was hoping to bring them back tonight (last night), but I had a lot of errands to run and it might take me until at least 6 to get there (they close at 5:30), because I had to go home (north end of town) first, then to Bend Pet Express on the west side of town because my finicky cat won't eat anything except ONE brand of food, in one of TWO flavors, that is ONLY available at that one store in all of Central Oregon.  Then I'd be able to head to the far southeast side of town to the shelter, so if they were willing to wait, I'd bring the kittens in at that point.

The Animal Care Coordinator e-mailed me back to ask if I'd be willing to do them a "big" favor (her word, not mine).  They had a dog being groomed literally right next door to the pet store I had to go to--would I be willing to pick him up and bring him to the shelter?

Um, let me think about it...I will be literally 20 feet away from this dog, and will have to drive it exactly where I was driving anyway, and take it exactly where I'm taking the kittens anyway...what a big favor to ask.  Of course I would be willing to do that!

Funnily enough, another errand I had to do (but could do after these, as they're open later) was returning a giant printer to Costco, and since it wouldn't fit in my trunk or through the openings to the back seat, it was occupying the front passenger seat.  So we had me and the printer in the front, and Nathan holding the kittens in their carrier on one side of the back seat, and the dog with his large-ish carrier on the other side of the back seat.  The dog carried on quite the conversation with himself (okay, and with me--I talk to animals all the time) the whole ride, so the kittens were a bit traumatized, but everyone survived the ride in close quarters.

Unrelated to the rest of this story, but on Saturday at the shelter I petted the SOFTEST cat I have ever petted (seriously--softer than a bunny, nearly as soft as a chinchilla; she got adopted while I was there), and last night at the groomers, a customer/friend of one of the employees came in with his four month old puppy (looked like an Australian Shepherd, but I suck at dog breed identification) who was the softest dog I've ever petted.  What a week, huh?  ;-)

Just in case you're curious (I know you are!), my whole evening of errands went:

• Home, to get the kittens and their paperwork
• Pet store, to get Sera's food
• Groomer next door to pet store, to pick up shelter dog
• Shelter, to drop off dog and kittens, plus I still had to fill out the kittens' foster cards
• Costco, to return printer, plus bought some stuff I needed and some stuff I didn't
• Office Max, for Nathan to buy pens
• PetCo, to socialize (aka pet) the shelter cats there, also bought a couple cat beds to put in front of the fireplace for our kitties
• Sonic, because after the rest of those errands, I was not gonna cook
• Finally home again, at like 8:30

(not my kitten, just a cute kitten)

Adoption Day at PetCo

Nathan and I volunteer at the Humane Society, and lately the bulk of our volunteer hours are at PetCo.  We have a standing day of the week that it's our responsibility to go to PetCo and check in on the four cats who live in cages there for extra exposure to the public for potential adoption.  We make sure they seem to be eating and drinking, note any odd behavior, but mostly just play with them and give them some human interaction and touch.

But every once in a while, the stars align such that an adoption day at PetCo falls when I'm not traveling and am available to help.  Today was one of those days, and even better, Nathan was with me, too.  This was only our second time participating.  Last time, someone else brought the stuff and the critters, and all we had to do was show up at PetCo and hang out, available to answer any questions.  Pretty uneventful.

Well, today, the first difference was that there was no one else to haul the supplies and critters.  I live not too far from PetCo, but the Humane Society is on the other side of town, so I asked for me to be the last resort for hauling stuff, not least because my car also wouldn't fit everything, but the volunteer coordinator told me I could drive the HSCO van.  So this morning, Nathan and I headed out around 8:45 and got to the shelter at around 9:10.  We were shown where the supplies were, and I pulled the van around and we loaded up the inanimate cargo.  Then we headed back inside (we got to go into the employee-only areas like the intake and clinic areas, so that was cool) to get the small animals we were supposed to pick up--a guinea pig and two mice.  Then we realized we only had "kennel cards" (sheets of paper with their names, ages, intake dates, and a brief bio) for the mice but not the guinea pig, so we went back and got them.  We got on our way at around 9:25, and I was pleased to realize that we were not only going to get to PetCo on time, but actually early enough to set up before the adoption event was supposed to begin at 10:00.  Yay!

But a mile or two away from the shelter, I commented to Nathan that at least these critters were quiet (we've hauled cats between PetCo and the shelter before, and they are never quiet), and I realized that I was pretty sure we were actually supposed to be taking a cat.  I pulled over, checked my e-mail, and sure enough--there was an empty spot at PetCo, so we were supposed to take a cat over, and possibly a dog if they had an appropriate candidate.  Shoot!

So we headed back to the shelter, asked if they had a cat we should take, and an employee loaded one up for us.  Then for some reason, she wondered aloud whether he had a microchip, checked, and he didn't, so she popped one into him real quick and we were on our way.  Except that as Nathan was loading the cat carrier into the back of the van, he saw movement and realized one of the mice had escaped and was loose in the van.  I shut the side door as quick as I could while he looked for it, then hopped in the driver's door as fast as I could and coached him from the front.  He lifted up the table, found the mouse, and caught it.  Luckily, since it's super tame, all that happened was Nathan got peed on.  I grabbed the hand sanitizer from the glove box of my car, and we headed off in the van, now running late.

We arrived at PetCo without further incident, and ended up only being one minute late (in the door--it took another few minutes to get set up, of course).  Nathan was a great helper, and we quickly got the table set up, tablecloth and other supplies on it, with the small animals' cages on it as well.  We settled the cat into his new abode, and sat down to wait for customers with questions.  Before too long, another volunteer showed up with a dog.  A small dog, but the most mild-mannered small dog I've ever seen.  Daisy is a Bichon Frise mix, and was SO sweet.  She sat nicely, didn't bark, loved attention, and laid down and just calmly watched all the goings-on most of the morning.

Daisy, just chillin'

Daisy, checking out the action, but sitting so quietly

This is our setup--cats are out of the frame to both the left and right

Princess the guinea pig

Penny, the escapee mouse

Sugar, the less adventurous mouse

These mice were SO tame.  They actually LIKED being held, and when we tried to put them back in their cage, they'd cling to our hands rather than go back to hanging out in their usual home.  They never tried to get out of our hands when holding them, and truly seemed to enjoy being held and petted.  So sweet, so tiny, so soft.

We sat around for a while, answering questions, showing people the animals, and so on.  A couple of people asked about kittens.  We didn't have any there at PetCo, and in fact I don't think there are currently any at the shelter, so that's what I told people.  The second person to ask about kittens said that the TV had announced we'd have kittens from CRAFT (a different local cat-only rescue), and I said that must be at PetSmart, not PetCo, because we weren't CRAFT and we didn't have kittens.  She then went into how she'd go over there, then, because she wanted to give them a piece of her mind after she adopted a kitten from them who had to be put down at four months old due to fatal health issues.  Wow, that sucks, but also glad we dodged that bullet since we're not them.

Then a woman came up to us--she had a dog in the kid seat of the shopping cart, and a fairly large bird cage in the basket part.  She asked if we would mind babysitting her bird while she took her dog into the grooming area right near us.  Would we mind?  Nah, it was awesome!  We found out the bird was a female named Pegasus, and spent the next half hour or so (along with three other boys and quite a few other adults) chatting with the bird.  She can say a few words that resemble English, but mostly just speaks jibberish with a very conversational intonation, like a baby does.  She was very friendly, and even very gentle to fingers that poked through the cage toward her beak.

Pegasus

Then, as if that wasn't enough excitement, we spotted a guy with a giant lizard (an Australian Sand Monitor) named Slick.  He wasn't for sale, the guy just does demonstrations to school groups or whatever, and brought him to PetCo to show him off and promote his demonstrations and the fact he'll be on TV later this week.

Slick

THEN, a store employee brought out one of the birds for sale - a conure named Sunny.  The bird was young and not completely used to humans yet, so she kept gently biting my fingers, hand, and arms when I held her, but I think she was just trying to get a feel/taste, not trying to hurt me or anything.  Pretty bird.

Sunny

Sunny

Lastly, there was one more dog brought over from the shelter--Sunny, a male mix of some kind.  Speculation for breeds includes pit or boxer (his head is pretty blocky), husky, or maybe German Shepherd.  He's only 10 months old, and still acts very much like a puppy, but is SOOOooo cute.  I have no doubt he'll be adopted soon.

Sunny (the other one)

Speaking of adoptions, Daisy (the small dog shown at the top) was adopted and is spending tonight in a house with a new human to love, and one of the four cats had had the paperwork finalized Friday, but the new owner came today at the very end of our shift to pick her up. Yay!

Like I mentioned above, in addition to the animals hauled over from the shelter who would also go back there for the night, there are four cages at PetCo for kitties.  They all got plenty of attention, too, though I didn't take photos of them.  Except for Ollie.  He's such a sweet friendly kitty, and he got a LOT of attention throughout the day, and by 1:00, he was passed out, in bliss from all the attention but ready for some hard-core napping.

Ollie

At 2:00, we started packing up, and that's right when the adopted cat's new owner came to pick her up.  I called the volunteer coordinator to see if she'd want to have a new cat brought over to PetCo.  Since I had to go back to the shelter regardless, and since I live near PetCo, it wouldn't be far out of my way to bring another cat back with me.  And another volunteer who'd spent all day there said she'd clean the cage out so it'd be ready to settle the new cat into, so we put the plan into action, and Nathan and I headed back to the shelter.

Nathan had done a GREAT job loading up the back, jigsaw-puzzling the cages and carriers amongst each other and on top of the flatter cargo.  My mom would be so proud.  However, he failed to take into account the (lack of) friction between the folded table and the bottoms of the rodent cages, so when I applied the brakes (gently!), the guinea pig went sliding, and when it reached the edge of the table, it also tipped over, spilling the shredded paper bedding, knocking the water bottle off, and shaking up but not harming the guinea pig herself.  Ugh.  Then the next time I applied the brakes (even MORE gently), the mouse cage slid off the table, though at least it stayed upright.  However, Nathan noticed that Penny had escaped once AGAIN.  So I pulled over and he got the cages and critters all sorted back out again, left them directly on the floor of the van (instead of back on top of the folded table), and we were finally on our way again.

Back at the shelter, we unloaded the critters, unloaded the supplies, and were told just to leave the mess in the van for someone else to vacuum up later.  Oops.  Sorry!  They also didn't have a cat to transport back to PetCo after all, so we were off the hook in that regard, and got to head straight home.

I don't know how people who work retail do it.  I got to sit down for a good portion of the day, didn't have to talk to THAT many people, and thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the different critters, but I am EXHAUSTED.  Wiped out.  Ready for bed.

Humane Society

Even though it was Nathan's week with his dad, since we didn't do much at the Humane Society last weekend because it was so crowded, I picked him up today to go again.

The first thing we did was check on the dog Nathan and his dad, stepmom, and brother had looked at earlier to potentially adopt.  They had filled out the forms, but the HS needed to check with their landlord to verify they were allowed to have a dog.  Unfortunately, the dog got adopted before they reached the landlord (apparently they've been out of the office the entire past week).  That bummed Nathan out, but I think he saw the bright side--he'd actually been pushing for a cat instead of a dog, and now he had a chance to voice that opinion again.  :-)

We looked at the white board on which they list the cats that need their photo taken, and picked Smokey first.  Someone was in the process of putting him back in his cage, but he wanted to keep cuddling.  So I just took him directly from her.  She mentioned something about him only having three legs, and sure enough, he was missing a back leg.  He hopped a little awkwardly when chasing the laser pointer and/or feathers on a fishing pole, and he had a hard time balancing on just the one back leg when trying to reach up high, but it didn't dampen his personality AT ALL.  He was a total love.  Whenever we'd pet him, he'd shove his head into our hands, and raise his head to expose his neck so we could pet his favorite spot--his chin and neck.  In fact, when he got really into it, his leg stump started twitching like if he still had his leg, it would be kicking just like a dog.  Anyway, he was TOTALLY sweet.  Another one that I totally would have brought home if I could have.  On the bright side, a family was interested in him, and when Nathan and I left for the day, was actually filling out the forms in a visiting room with him, hoping to take him home.  Yay!

Here's Smokey:

Unfortunately, his nose is in focus instead of his eyes, but I still thought it was a cute photo.

The only other cat whose name was on the photo list and was also still present in the building was Justine--there were five cats on the list, but apparently the other three had been adopted during their "Black Furday" event (name your own price for any animal).  Justine had much less personality than Smokey, but was still a sweetheart.  There was another young volunteer (but a couple years older than Nathan), who she really seemed to get along with, so most of my photos have that girl's hand and/or arm in the photos.

Then we went into the kitten room for a bit, but there was only one kitten, and she was hiding, then some other volunteers were holding her, so we didn't really get a chance to cuddle her.  She was pretty stinkin' cute, though.  Her name (with unfortunate spelling provided by the Humane Society) is Sassafras.

Next we went into the other "cattery" (they have two rooms dedicated to housing cats, as opposed to the cats living in cages and only getting to visit a larger room when visiting with humans; one is for kittens and the other usually has two or three adult cats), and visited Lia and Fabio.  Lia was not very photogenic.  You know how some dogs look like they're always smiling?  I think some cats always look unhappy, even when they're not.  Lia was agreeable enough to us petting her and whatever, she just didn't LOOK happy.  (My own cat, Cookie, is a total sweetheart, but is not photogenic at all, either.)  Fabio, on the other hand, looked very handsome with his flowing locks.  :-)

This is Lia.

See what I mean?  She was actually purring.

And this is Fabio.

Lastly, we visited with Miss Romeo.  I have no idea why they named her that, but she was also a sweetheart.

And that concludes today's visit to the Humane Society.  I dropped Nathan back off at his dad's house, and thought I'd have to break the news about their potential dog being adopted already, but apparently they'd already figured it out by checking the website and seeing her disappear, and they're pretty ticked at the landlord for not being around.  Once the HS does reach the landlord, though, they'll be able to adopt or place a hold on an animal without waiting.  Hopefully they find a pet that's an even better fit for their family soon.

More Humane Society Photos

Nathan and I went to the Humane Society again today.  When we got there, there weren't any potential adopters, which is always nice--when there are adopters there, we try to hang back and let them have first dibs on the "Get Acquainted" rooms or petting whichever cats they're interested in, so it makes the process of taking photos of the specific list of cats harder.

We went into the cattery first, since when it is full of adopters, it's hard to get good photos.  I got lots of fun photos of kittens of various sizes (it's usually only smaller kittens in that room, but today there were a few larger ones, up to six months old).

We marked the cats whose photos we'd taken off the list on the white board in the volunteer area, and moved on to take photos of the cats in the wall of cages (I should take some photos of the HS itself one of these days).  We pulled Nikki out, but she wasn't in a very good mood, so we were letting her settle into the Get Acquainted room a bit, when I saw someone taking a kitten into one of the rooms that is permanently occupied--a no-no, since they keep cats who live separately separate all the time so they don't spread germs.  Only cats who already live together (like in the cattery) are allowed to be played with together.  I told the potential adopter about the rule and volunteered to let her use the Get Acquainted room I'd been in, and put Nikki away. 

While waiting for the only Get Acquainted room to free up (there are usually two, but they had a cat living in one of them), I noticed that a cat had thrown up in her cage.  Another volunteer told the medical staff while I moved the cat to an empty cage and cleaned out THREE cages--the one she'd made a horrendous mess of (looked like both vomit and diarrhea, and she hadn't eaten any of her food before destroying it, either), the empty one I'd put her in until the staff came to take her to the clinic, and the one below hers which had gotten some drippings.  Eeeew!  The place had reeked when I got there (and it usually doesn't), so hopefully that was the reason and it now smells better.  I wore gloves while cleaning, and both Nathan and I washed our hands after, but I didn't feel safe to handle other cats, since my clothes could have gotten germs from either the cat herself or the cage, and what she had looked NASTY.  Nathan and I washed our hands again and stripped our clothes as soon as we got home so our cats wouldn't get it, but unfortunately our day at the Humane Society was a little shorter than planned, and we didn't get as many photos as we would have liked.

Humane Society

Some time ago, the company I work for, which is very into charity, including allowing us to donate up to 16 hours of our time a year and be paid for it (it works like vacation time but doesn't come out of our bank of vacation time), organized an event at the local Humane Society.  We had to attend a bit of training first, then were turned loose to walk dogs and pet cats.  I learned that they allow children to volunteer as long as they're with a parent, and knew that it would be right up Nathan's alley (he's SUCH an animal lover), so I later attended the training along with him, and we've been volunteering there when we can ever since.

They've also asked if I can take photos of cats, focusing on the cats with crappy intake photos only, to be used on the website.  Now that we have a purpose for being there (petting cats DOES have a purpose, for sure, but it feels more like fun than work), we've actually been going just about every weekend.

Yes, there are the occasional cats that are tempting to bring home.  Sweet cuddly cats that love to be held and petted are especially attractive to both of us, but especially Nathan because he loves giving our cats attention, but they mostly rebuff him.  They are both older than he is, and apparently still think of him as an annoying toddler, even though he gives them wonderful care and is careful with petting them now.  But I always think of how difficult the relationship is between the two I have now, and how stressed they would both be if I brought a new cat home.  It wouldn't be fair to them.  So I've committed myself to not bring any more cats home until at least one of these two is gone, and even then, it will depend on which cat is remaining and how she's doing at that time.

Yesterday, though, was the first time a cat really seemed to choose ME.  I went into the area where they keep multiple kittens in a room that also has access to an enclosed outdoor area, as we do every visit.  I picked up a kitten, took a few photos, snuggled with him, took a few more photos, and started to move along to the other kittens in the room.  However, Harris kept coming back to me, meowing for me to pick him up.  Nathan picked him up, but he wiggled until he put him down.  I picked him up, and while he wiggled out of my hands, he found his way to my lap and settled in for a bit of a nap.  SUCH a sweetheart.  It was harder yesterday to stick to my committment to my two kitties, but I did.  I hope Harris finds a wonderful family to love him.

Here are some photos of Harris:

And some of the many other kitties (and bunnies) we've loved on in the past few weeks.  If you're looking for a pet, please consider your local shelter, whether it's run by the humane society or other organization.