Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Summer of the Cat

This summer has been absolutely dreadful for...well, everybody at the shelter. But especially cats. As I've mentioned before. Over this last weekend, I believe we received about 20 cats. Perhaps we did 2 adoptions. You don't need to be good at numbers to know how quickly that is going downhill. The especially irritating part is that the vast majority of our cats right now are completely wonderful. There's just no one coming in.
This stunning boy is Oscar, and I just adore him. He's really new, he arrived August 5 and just got out of the stray room. He is super handsome, with gorgeous fur and the friendliest personality ever. I could spend all day with this guy, he's wonderful.
And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, this is Madden. Madden has been waiting the longest of all our cats - he's been there since February. That's almost six months! He's a complete nutcase, bursting with energy and very bossy to other cats, but he's also very affectionate and has been waiting way too long for his chance.
Speaking of waiting way too long, this is Cloudia. Cloudia is a shy girl, although she's improved a lot while at the shelter. She is very sweet and loves to be cuddled. She's been waiting for almost four months now!
Charlie is just awesome and it makes absolutely no sense that she's been waiting two months. She is a pudgy cuddler, and she loves everybody. She is one of the most laid-back cats I've ever seen. This is not a very good photo, but she also happens to be super-cute.
And finally there's Katia, who is a bit aloof for about 3 minutes, before she becomes a total cuddler. She also happens to be gorgeous - I just love her markings. I can never resist stopping to say hi to this girl.

Here's something cool - every Tuesday, CP24 airs a program called 'Animal House Calls'. Nicola, one of our workers, goes on it fairly often, and she's started showing my cat photos! It's pretty cool to see my photos on TV, but even better, one of our cats got adopted specifically because someone saw her photo - and that is what it's all about!

6 comments:

Caroline said...

Hi Laura,

Great cat pics. The cats at the south TAS are lucky because most of them are free range. I saw Charlie on Animal House Calls on Monday night, she looked great!

Caroline

Laura HP said...

Hi Caroline,

Thanks! Unfortunately, most of the cats at TAS South aren't free range (I wish!) - they just get let out regularly by the volunteers. I rarely take cage photos because they're gloomy and it's easier to people to picture the cats as pets when they're out free. We do have four 'window rooms' where long-term cats, or cats that aren't doing well living in a cage, can live in a larger room.

Charlie is a tv star, she's been on so many times! :)

Sabrina said...

Hi Laura: I'm one of your silent readers. I've been reading your blog ever since its inception and I just wanted to say I really enjoy your updates. I really admire you for being able to balance school work and volunteer work; I wish I could do the same!

Caroline said...

Hey Laura,

Did Oscar find a home I noticed he's no longer on the TAS site?

Thanks,

Caroline

Anonymous said...

Hey, I'm an anonymous reader who loves your blog. I was known as a "rabbit person" for years as I had a bunny for 6 years who was adopted from THS. He was free range and had aggression issues with strangers ( so cuddly with me though) so to the uninitiated, who could forget a rabbit who lived like a cat and lunged and growled?
Anyway, towards the end of his life I adopted two kittens (all tolerated each other). This was last summer. This recent summer we acquired two more kittens, both were found on the street by themselves at very young ages. So now I'm the "cat lady" (funny how things change), but my point is, perhaps with the weather and kitten season a lot of people who may have adopted cats found themselves with surprises. Surprises who otherwise could have ended up at shelters. The cats at TAS are lucky to have ended up somewhere with people like you, and soon someone will come to adopt them. It sucks they have to wait so long, but the wait is short compared to the long and happy life they will live when their adopters come.
Good luck to these animals, thanks to you for helping them. I also would like to say my rabbit Neal was a loving, faithful and hilarious companion, he changed my life and was an ambassador for rabbits, I miss him a lot, and it does my heart good to read from someone else who loves rabbits.

Laura HP said...

Hi Sabrina - thank you for reading! I'm always thrilled to hear from 'silent readers'!

Caroline - Oscar was taken off the website for a while because he got quite sick and had to be unavailable, but I'm happy to say he's back online now!

Hi Anonymous - thanks for reading! I'm glad Neal got such a great home with you - always good to hear from rabbit-lovers :)