What is Wrong With You

Everyone in rescue at some point has thought about the owners who leave behind their animals, and thought, "What is wrong with you?" Well, yesterday was a hat trick. We had three new arrivals leaving me asking the same thing.

This is Donald (the big fuzzball) and his presumed son, 2-month-old Dexter. Both of them are super cute, and very skittish. But then I can't really blame them, seeing as they were left at a bus stop. In November. Who leaves any animal at a bus stop, much less a baby?

We also got a transfer from Scarborough of 14 dwarf hamsters. Yup, fourteen! Someone surrendered them to Scarborough last week: a mom with seven newborns, and six older dwarves whom we suspect to be her previous litter. I understand accidental pregnancies happen all the time, especially with pet store animals. Still. Two litters? Learn to sex your animals, people!

The babies are about 14 days old, but still a bit too young for shelter life, so they're staying with me for the next two weeks. The upside is that they'll all sweet and remarkably gentle, except for the mom. In my experience, dwarf hamster moms are always nasty when they have little ones, and who can blame them? She's had to deal with raising her kids while being brought to a shelter, kept in a shelter, transported to another shelter and then moved to a foster home. It's a tough life.

But this is what really burned me yesterday.  We got two new rabbits  from an owner surrender. Bugsy (in the photo) is seven years old. That is an old rabbit. He may only have a few more years in him. He is an affectionate, gentle boy, moves a little slower than most of our others, and is utterly confused by the shelter. And why did his owner give him up? Her new roommate owned cats, and didn't want rabbits because that would be 'too many pets'.

So she gave them up, just like that. Not only her old boy, but her younger boy too. This is Spirit, who is five years old. He came in with the name Precious, which is ironic, because clearly these two were not precious at all to their owner.

Spirit is one of the most loving rabbits I've met. As soon as you touch him, he starts to tooth-purr, grinding his teeth lightly and happily. He pushes his face under your hand to get attention and just melts once you start to pet him. He reminds me a lot of my boy Giles, actually. He just needs people to love him.

Bugsy, on the other hand, just looks sad. He's very sweet, but he is confused and scared in the shelter, and he just seemed depressed.
We almost never get older rabbits at the shelter. Usually we get young rabbits that were bought on a whim, or that grew up and stopped being cute. Who gives up a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old? And to a public shelter?
What is wrong with people?

It's a Family Affair

We got a family of rats from TAS West a couple of days ago. I don't know what the story is, but I assume someone got two rats without realizing they were male and female, then six babies later, decided to give up on the whole thing. And this is why I'm strongly in favour of learning to sex whatever animal you own - it is an invaluable skill, people.

 Here's the dad, Clark Gable. As always, I couldn't resist naming the family in a theme. I think it's nice to give them a connection to each other, and it also makes it easier to keep track of who is related to who. Clark Gable here is a dashing gentleman, as befits his name, and quite an easy-going fellow.

We also have momma, Grace Kelley. It's funny, we don't normally get to see both parents, but in this case it didn't help much because the kids look almost nothing like either of them. Mrs Kelley is looking very round around the middle so it's probable she's pregnant again (of course), which means she is off to stay with the amazing Grace and Casey for a little bit.

And then we have the kids! Bogart here is the only one who looks like mom at all, and the easiest to pick out of the litter. He's a super active boy and it was a pain trying to get a photo of him, which is why he looks like he's being strangled (I swear he's not).

Pacino is the other easy one to spot. He's the only Berkshire rat in the litter, and stands out easily from his brothers. I think he's probably the smallest - he's a sweetie but fast as lightning!

And then we get into the hooded boys. The other four brothers are all hooded rats, although their markings make them easy enough to tell apart when you take a closer look. This is DiCaprio, who has almost no markings on his back, and is probably the shyest in the litter (based on the five minutes I spent with him taking his photo!).

You can't really see it in this photo, but Nicholson here has a thick black line running straight down his back that is pretty unmistakable.

I left the names of the last two up to the Facebook page - this is Sinatra, who can be ID'd due to the big patch on his back, and also the incredibly offended expression he gives you if you stop him from crawling off a chair.

And lastly we have Hoffman, whom I ID through process of elimination. No thick line, no big patch, but still has markings on his back? Must be Hoffman!

In the days of yore, receiving this many rats would have been a big problem for TAS, but now it's no sweat. Someone is supposed to adopt two today, I'll post them on the rat rescue forum, and we'll send half of them to Pet Valu. I bet they'll be gone in a week! Hey, even Jiminy & Cricket, who were older and quieter, were adopted within a week.

Speaking of adoptions - our "Fall in Love" cat campaign was CRAZY successful! We basically cleared out the shelter. For a day there, we actually didn't have any cats available. Every cat in this post has now been adopted! So awesome.
I can't wait for our Christmas campaign!

Pressure Cooker

Recently, there has been talk about a by-law in Toronto allowing people to keep chickens in their backyards. It might have already passed, actually, I haven't been following it very closely. It was certainly expected to pass, and because of that, TAS started to prepare to receive surrendered chickens. This preparation involved building a chicken coop at North York, which is all well and good, because these chickens do need somewhere to go. Unfortunately, the trade-off is that the North region is no longer accepting small animals.

In all honesty, North never took many small animals and they weren't very successful at adopting them, despite some excellent efforts by a few staff. Still, this development means there are only two shelters in the entire city that are open admissions for small animals - East region, and us.

We were already feeling overwhelmed long before this happened. Our rabbit intake in particular has been skyrocketing over the last year. Is this because rabbits are becoming more popular? Or is it because we now have a reputation as a small animal shelter? Whatever it is, it's too much, and with North's small animal intake shrinking rapidly, it's threatening to overflow.

A couple of weeks ago, we got 14 rabbits from a hoarder. The staff asked me about the foster situation, and I said we could keep six. We ended up keeping five.
When I asked why, the staff member shook her head. "We only got 5 out of that bunch. They were in terrible condition - teeth growing out of their mouths and everything. This one kind of went after me, but he's really cute and he was good for the vet, so we saved him - maybe it was just stress."
So we kept five out of fourteen.

They are nice rabbits. They're actually in fairly good conditions, although that is why they're the survivors. Their nails were disgusting when they arrived - I took some pictures (above), but they were much worse than they look there. They are pretty good-natured (with one exception) and somehow, without explanation since they lived in filthy cages, they are perfectly litter trained.

Almost all of them are Netherland Dwarves (or Netherland mixes), so they are incredibly tiny with itty bitty ears. Blackjack here is staying with another foster home. He is a sweet boy although a little shy.

Boris is his twin, basically, except in grey instead of black. He's also a total bully to other bunnies and had to be shipped off to the amazing Grace because he was beating up his companions. With people, he's perfectly nice and laid back, he'll just need to go alone. He's ridiculously dominant considering I can fit him in one hand.

Raven breaks the mold a bit. He's a tiny bit bigger, his fur is thicker and fluffier, and his ears are a little larger. Raven is still with me, although I'd like to get rid of him because I've run out of big cages and the poor guy is stuck in a little cage. He's a sweetie, much quieter than the other two and very gentle. Anyone want to foster him for a bit?

Then we have Abeline, who completely busts out of the mold. She's the only female who was saved, and she's about twice the size of the boys. No Netherland Dwarf here. She's a big, chunky girl with absolutely beautiful eyes. She is so sweet and so timid, I just love her. Poor thing will not show off well in the shelter, she's so easily startled, but she really is just lovely.

And then we have Poe.
This tiny little scruff is the one who 'went after' the staff on the first day. It wasn't just stress. Poe is a territorial little bugger. He also fits in one hand, and he has beautiful colouring although his coat's a mess and good nutrition is doing a slow job of clearing it up.
It's not really his fault. From what I understand, he lived in a tiny cage on his own, probably for most of his life. It's not surprising he's territorial. Hell, it's more surprising they're not all territorial.

Poe is an angry little rabbit. He grunts, he kicks and probably the only reason he hasn't bitten is because I'm much experienced at avoiding bites.
Part of me asks why I'm bothering to try and fix this guy when there are rabbits being turned away at the door. Why spend the time to calm this one down when there are perfectly nice rabbits who don't get the chance to find a home? But for whatever reason, I'm trying. I think there's a nice rabbit in there somewhere - once you get him out of the pen, he really likes to give kisses. As long as you don't upset him, which is ridiculously easy to do. We'll see what happens.

All five of these guys are still in foster care. Abeline and the delightful Poe are at my house for the long-run, Raven is also at my house but hopefully leaving soon (?), Blackjack is at another foster home and Boris is living the sweet life with Grace.

They're not in foster care because they're waiting for anything. Blackjack and Abeline need to be fixed, but Raven, Poe and Boris are all neutered and ready to go. They're still in foster care because there is simply no room for them in Room. There hasn't been room for them for three weeks now.

I think my posts are becoming gradually more gloomy and negative, but the Room feels like a pressure cooker these days. It's meant for on average, 6-8 rabbits, but these days we regularly have over 15. Who knows when these guys will get a chance to find a home?

Quack

Guess what showed up at the shelter the other day?
Okay, the title might have given it away.

Yup, a lost little duckling! And she is cute as heck.
I'm not entirely sure where she came from, although she's marked as a 'stray'. She's pretty freaked out in the shelter and when I touched her, she tried to scare me off by nibbling my fingers.

It was terrifying.
Luckily, this little one will be leaving on the weekend to go to a nice farm where she can grow up and live a happy duck life.

Less unusually, but still exciting, we recently had two white doves at the shelter. I always enjoy doves, even though they're one of those species that takes forever to get adopted. They are gentle birds, and while I love parrots, doves are so much less drama.

I named them Snowbell and Sunrise. My naming lately has not been up to par, I must admit, but I'm not totally crazy. Sunrise got her name because her eyes were a beautiful red/gold colour. I've never seen bird eyes like that, it was really neat.

They were a very sweet pair, super gentle and easy to handle. They really liked that swing, which was kind of neat because we've given it to pretty much every dove we've had and none of them ever use it.

I'm happy to say Snowbell and Sunrise were adopted just yesterday, which is amazingly quickly for doves. They were adopted by friends of staff, so I know they're in good hands!

All in all it's been a pretty good week for the birds!
Now if we could only move the rabbits out the door this fast...

By the way, we're having an adopt-a-thon this weekend at Petsmart Laird & Eglinton! Thanks to the $25 campaign, we have pretty much run out cats (how crazy is that??), but there are a handful left, plus three bunnies and I believe some dogs. If you're in the area, stop by and say hi!

Jiminy Cricket!

"Do the rats have names?" One of the staff members asked me the other day.
"The brown one's Jiminy and the white one's Cricket." I replied. She groaned.
"What?" I demanded. "It's like Jiminy Cricket! From Pinocchio!"
"Yeah, I know." She said in exasperation.

You know you've got good names when you make the staff groan. I am immensely proud of these particular ridiculous names, however, so they're staying.
In case you haven't guessed, we have two rats at the moment. Non-rabbits at last! Meet Jiminy and Cricket:

They are older than our rats usually are, at about one year old each. Accordingly, they are a little less full of frenzied energy than our usual rats. They actually have quite lovely personalities, which is lucky for them, because they aren't the most attractive rats.

I mean, I think they're very handsome. However, to the general public, these guys just aren't the beauty queens of the rat world. Cricket is a pink-eyed white, and they always have a tough time, while Jiminy bears an unfortunate resemblance to a sewer rat.

On the other hand, they are marvellous at posing. I mean, look at that!
All kidding aside, they are super sweet boys. They aren't too active, but they like being picked up and they're very easy to handle. Their personalities can pretty much be summed up as 'laid back and gentle'. Jiminy is a little more outgoing than Cricket, but they're pretty much even.

I don't really worry about rats anymore; since we tapped into the rat rescue comunity in Ontario, we've never had to wait too long for rat adoptions. Still, I hope these two middle-aged guys don't have to wait around the shelter too long!

Worth a Thousand Words

It's commonly accepted in rescue, I think, that cats get the short end of the stick. They don't enjoy quite the cherished position in society that dogs have received, and while small animals are even less valued, the number of homeless small animals is dwarfed by the number of homeless cats. Cats are rarely claimed, rarely fixed, and constantly multiplying. It's hard for them to stand out in the mewing, cage-climbing crowd.

Recently I was at the shelter and I was all up to date on the small animal photos and I thought, why not do the same for the cats?
With dogs, they get their photo taken by the incredibly talented Fred, and the staff do a write-up on the website for each one. For small animals, I do a photo and write-up for each one on the website, and I write a printed bio to attach to each cage.
People looking for a dog or small animal get to know each one individually before they even reach the shelter. But the cats are a blurry mass of intake photos, with no bios - most of them are lucky to get names on the site. This is certainly not the fault of staff. They are way too busy actually caring for these animals to write bios or wait and wait for the perfect photo.
That's why we have volunteers!

 I've done cat photos here and there for a while, but a few weeks ago I decided to try and get photos of every available cat, make sure their names are on the site and even write some web bios for the ones I knew.

It's really amazing what a difference a photo makes. When someone is looking for an animal, a good photo can catch their eye. People can connect to a cat through a photo alone. Intake photos are not great for this:

How can you resist this cat???
Intake photos are quick, taken for the purpose of letting people see if the cat matches their own cat who is missing.
Then hopefully when they move into adoption, volunteers update the photo. This cat in particular is absolutely gorgeous, I'm not sure my photo did her justice:

People also tend to make judgements on a cat based on a photo. If the cat looks angry in the photo, it must be an angry cat. It's a silly thing but a human tendency. This photo of Rose, for instance, could leave a very negative impression:

She looks simultaneously angry and scared out of her mind. And while Rose is a shy cat, and not the cuddliest girl in the world, she's not that bad. Plus she's absolutely gorgeous! She wasn't too pleased with posing for a photo but I think it turned out okay:

The point of this post is not to give myself a huge pat on the back or anything. My photos aren't mind-blowingly professional - the point is that they're an upgrade on the intake photos. They're more likely to catch adopter's eyes. They form a good impression before they even come to the shelter, and they say "these cats matter." They have names, photos and sometimes bios - they matter as individuals and they should be valued.
It's very easy to do photos at a shelter if you have a camera. You have more time than staff, so you're pretty much guaranteed to get some upgrades. A lot of people say they don't have time to volunteer weekly, they wish they could get involved, etc etc. Well here you go - take a couple of hours out of your day and head down to the local shelter with your camera. It doesn't take long and it might make a huge difference.
Out of the 27 cats listed on the website for TAS South, 17 of the photos are mine, and it only took a few quick sessions. They aren't great, but they're an improvement and maybe they'll catch someone's eye.
Anyway, enough preaching. There's another reason for posting cats right now:

TAS is having a big campaign for cats! Until November 13th, all cat adoptions are just $25. And of course they still come microchipped, spayed/neutered, licensed, dewormed and vaccinated. With that in mind, why don't we meet some of South's cats:

Cisco is a huge cuddler. He's only a year old, and such a lovebug. He also has his independent side, but pick him up and he'll melt in your arms.

Rosemary here is about 4 years old and has a lovely dignified way about her. She likes people (although she seems iffy with other cats) but she also likes to be on her own.

Czar looks magnificent, but is kind of a wimp. He has the most pathetic meow if you're not paying attention to him. I've actually photographed him twice - I did his photo at West a few months ago, and now he's at South because he was returned for some stupid reason. I think his owners got divorced? Anyway he's not very happy about being back. Plus he needs a shave now, poor guy.

Jewels is one of my favourites. She too looks magnificent, but her personality lives up to her looks. She is quite aloof and rather queenly, but she's a nice girl who will lie beside you to get her ears scratched, and she has a great deal of patience with being picked up or brushed.

This post is kind of all over the place but to sum up: If you have a camera and you want to get involved at a local shelter, offer to do photos. If you want a cat, there's a great deal at TAS and our cats are awesome!

That Same Old Story

One of the staff members calls me to the desk to ask me if we have room for a new rabbit.
"I guess, we have an empty cage. I guess my fosters can wait a while." I shrug. "What is it?"
"A really cute Lionhead." The staff member replies. "Go check him out."
There's a little girl and her mother standing in the lobby, next to a blue carrier. I go to investigate.
"He's a really nice rabbit," The woman says immediately. "He's very nice with my daughter. It's just these allergies, you know..."
"Is that why you're giving him up?" I asked. I always try to be careful not to offend surrendering owners, although sometimes I don't know why.
"Well, you know, I'm allergic and the landlord's not too happy about him." The woman pulls up a sleeve, showing me an angry, red, bumpy arm. "You see? It's really the allergies. We'd keep him if it weren't for the allergies."
She looks expectantly at me, her arm in my face. "See?"
"Uh, yes." I say. "Allergies do happen."
I turn away to look at the bunny and she pulls her sleeve back down. "So how old is he? How long have you had him?"
"Oh about 5 months." The woman leans forward, watching me as I pick up the little fluffball. He's certainly cute. "You get bunnies adopted right? They find homes?"
"We do our very best." I say, lifting up the rabbit and staring into his eyes. He stares back, wide round eyes filled with anxiety, but not the stark terror of most new rabbits. He seems almost confident in the humans around him. Even though I have little patience for surrendering owners, this was clearly a bunny who was loved. He feels no fear toward me or his owners. But then, he has no idea what's just happened to him.
"People adopt rabbits, right?" The woman asks again as I stare at her rabbit. She wants me to say we won't euthanize him. We probably won't, but no one can say for sure. Such is the reality of shelters.
"It's slow but steady." That's my standard answer. "We try to get as many adopted as we can."
She wants me to clarify and spell it out, but she doesn't ask any more questions. Probably because her daughter is standing there. I always feel bad for the kids in these situations.
"What's his name?" I ask.
"Thumper." Says the girl firmly. "His name is Thumper."
Of course it is.
"Is he neutered?" I ask, trying to keep a straight face. The answer has never been 'yes' unless it's a return.
"We don't know how to neuter rabbits." The woman says with a bit of a laugh. "Is he a boy? We think he's a boy."
"Uh, yeah. He's a boy." I say.
"Oh we really wouldn't be giving him up except for the allergies." Says the woman once again. "You know, we did research on the Internet before we got him, and no one said anything. Nothing said people could be allergic to rabbits."
Of course it didn't.

We take the little one upstairs and set up a new cage for him.
"Oh, bigger than at home." Says the woman.
Of course it is.
The little girl, silent and solemn, helps me put him into the cage. She is hard to read and very stoic. The woman asks one more time about adoptions, then they go.
"You okay, hun?" The woman asks as they leave. The girl gives a solemn nod.
Thumper, who is due for a name change, sits in his new cage and munches on his hay, looking as solemn as the girl who has just left.
I never know how I feel about these surrenders.