Sometimes a Little Change is Good

So this last week at the shelter has been a little different for me. With no more worries about bringing home cat diseases I took the opportunity to cuddle some cats. I also got to bottle feed my first kitten. She was "the crazy one" as she constantly scrabbled at the bottle with her front paws all the while meowing up a storm about how hungry she was. At one point it was a true human experience as I tried to push the nipple in her mouth, she clamped her lips shut and meowed through her closed mouth as if to say "you can't make me eat it."

On Thursday when I went in to photograph dogs there were even more itty-bitty kitties in the office area. The shelter must have received a couple (or several) litters of kittens who still need to be bottle fed; it seemed like half of the staff was fostering two to four of these little babies. One kennel had four little ones in it that were howling to beat the band … they were HUNGRY! Their foster mom was busy running around the shelter so I offered to feed them. Then she said I also needed to "express them" … uh, what? She showed me how to take a towel and act as a momma cat massaging their private areas to get them to pee. I learn something new every day!

I expressed and fed all four of them before I headed out to the dog kennels. The next day I started thinking about the rabies clinic their foster mom had to run on Saturday and perhaps she could use a "kitten sitter." I got the okay from Charlie and soon arrangements were made for me to pick them up early Saturday morning at the shelter and bring them back that afternoon.

Of course, about the time I got them home and decided I wanted to sneak in a nap they were ready to be fed again. I decided I had to give them little names so I could keep track of who had been fed and who hadn't; so I named them after their looks … Brindle, Boots, White Belly, and Calico Fade. Tippi was quite distressed by all the meowing. I let her really sniff a couple of them and the little brindle colored one actually started purring when she did that … I think they have some big brother and sister dogs in their foster home. Tippi was actually whining loud enough that it made a great big chorus to wake up Charlie.

I posted on Facebook that anyone in the neighborhood should stop by and help me socialize these little darlings. My neighbors Sarah and Jamie stopped by first. We had great fun. Check out Charlie's little video. Our friends, Paul and Valerie, also stopped by with their daughter, Elizabeth. She was very good with the kittens and it was so cute to watch her go from person to person to interact with all the different kittens. At this point the kittens decided that they were hungry again so we had a little feeding party and then they snuggled down in our laps and went to sleep.

Early on Jamie commented that he'd have lots of kittens, puppies, and kids as long as they were this kind of tiny and cute. Then he watched me "express them" and he retracted his statement. LOL!

And then kittens and I had a very nice nap. I woke them up and took them out on the front porch for some good light to get some photographs before I returned them to their foster mom. They were hungry again and so I fed them one more time. All in all it was a great morning.

I did have some good puppy time this week too. After feeding the four kittens on Thursday, I didn't have as much time as I might like to photograph pups. I started with Thelma as the photo on the website only showed her snout; in fact, her biography described her as her litter mate since he was more prominent in the picture. She was very sweet and looked like she'd be the kind of dog that would be great running around with kids in a back yard.

Thelma (ID: 51118)

Next I decided to photograph Charlie. He was a smaller puppy in a kennel by himself even though his intake photo showed that he came in with a whole passel of pups. Once I got in the kennel I found out why he was on his own. He was skinny and a little weak. Poor little guy. As I sat down with him I saw that he had a little nose drip as well, not a good sign after my recent experience with Sienna. I decided I couldn't take the chance and go to other kennels after this and potentially spread something and then I remember some advice Tracy got when she was trained in Fido Fitness at the shelter.

Charlie (ID: 51687)

"Think about it this way: If it is their last day on earth, at least you made it a good one."

So that's what I did. I sat there with Charlie; cuddled him; fed him all the treats in my pockets and basically tried to make him feel all kinds of love and affection. I am ecstatic to say that he is being adopted … woo hoo!

Some of them you won't be able to save as they get taken up in the process … and some of them you will feel like you had a hand in making the rest of their life better.