I post a lot of cats. If that makes me crazy for them, I'm okay with that. If you think my place is a banging cat party though, I have to let you down.
I have been volunteering with a cat shelter for 5 years. When I started there was around 75 in the facility. Since then we have moved and the number of cats on the premises exceeds 250. More are in foster care. It's intense.
It's also really incredible though. The shelter is 100% run by volunteers. Not a single person on the team gets paid. 100% of the donations go to the cats directly. It's also really incredible because it's a no-kill shelter. Any cat that comes through the door is adopted out or spends the rest of their life in the shelter. Cats are not euthanized unless they are beyond vet care and it is the only humane option. This means that even the feral cats that are "nasty" will live their lives in the shelter cared for. If they need vet care we get them the vet care, even at the cost of our health, no exceptions. There are cats that have been in the shelter for over a decade.
In addition to the shelter and foster we also feed colonies (groups of feral cats), trap them when we can to make sure they are safe and when trapping isn't an option, supply them with food, water and additional shelters that are weather safe. This is my favourite work. Caring for and rehabilitating feral cats. Getting up at 5 in the morning, crawling under trailers, into barns and sheds and getting these guys fed. The early time slot means i usually get to see one or two. Sitting under trailers in the dirt with the wild ones and having them develop a relationship with you when there is no one but each other that they trust. That is an exceptional feeling. When they finally trust you to come within 10ft of you, those moments steal my breath. Feral cats are very secretive and because of their fear they come across mean. I've been able to have momma cats let me approach them and their litters. When possible we trap the mom and the litter and get them into safety. We have countless volunteers who are fostering mommas they will never be able to touch, but they focus their attention on getting the kittens used to being handled when they are old enough so they can be adopted.
At the shelter I work in "the med room." This place is exceptional in the way that everyone who is up there is a little bit crazy but fuelled by passion. The med room doesn't have a single vet in it. It has a group of dedicated folk who love cats enough to have learned how to safely handle and medicate them to keep the vet costs low and the foster homes open. We bring each one (even the crazies) to the vet for examination and when the vet prescribes them something, we take them back to the shelters med room and the people in it brave bloodshed to ensure they receive the medical attention they deserve. We must be pretty good at it because there isn't really much bloodshed. In the five years I have been there I have only been bitten twice that needed medical attention. In more than 5000hrs. Pretty good.
My soft spot for the ferals also means I foster. When everyone is afraid to handle one, I'm the crazy one that steps up and brings them home. I brought home a feral cat named Peanut (oh yea, all of them have names!) that had diabetes and needed needles twice daily, he was with me for two years, when it was time to say goodbye he was so gentle my neighbours 2 year old could pick him up.
Another I took home didn't have the time to come around as well as Peanut. I was told by a volunteer he was "the meanest cat she had ever met." Curley didn't end up sweet like Peanut, but he did come out and hang around. I wasn't as lucky with the time I got to spend with him, he was about 10yrs and less than 6 months after I brought him home his health turned for the worse but he knew what life in a home was.
Currently I am fostering a cat I've named Deej (his name was Diamond Jay... too may syllables). Again, called mean, nasty, scary etc. I refuse to accept that. He's been here almost 4 months and he sleeps on the bed and eats out of your hand. I intend to pet him by 6mo and clip his nails a year from now.
Some people foster kittens, but I've done that once and they were way too much effort. Give me a colony of ferals before kittens, please. Though these ones were tempting to take home.
We are also lucky enough to have a 2 week monthly spot at the local PetSmart doing adoptions through their store. I've worked there and fill in when needed but I would rather be in the thick of it.
So that's it. That's the story behind why I have pictures of so many cats, because I interact with over 250 of them in a week. And I love it. I love it enough to have been there for 5yrs of unpaid work scooping shit, changing food/water, cleaning up puke, getting scratched so much it looks like I've been crawling through a rose garden. The only thing I would do differently is dedicate more time if I had it.
