Say "Cheese"

I was really apprehensive about going to the shelter today. Kim is out of town for a week, so I offered to go in and take pictures of the recent arrivals to put on the shelter website. Usually, my major coping mechanism when I go into the shelter is to not look into the eyes of the cats or to handle them unless I'm going to rescue.

The timing had to be just right. I didn't want to take pictures of the cats in the morning, because their cages were dirty and they would be hungry so it would be really hard to get decent pictures. I didn't want to go really late in the afternoon, because tomorrow is a euthanasia day, and the cages would be "marked" on the cats that are to die the next day. I decided that 1 pm would be just about right!

I begged enlisted my friend Kathleen to come with me to play secretary as I took pictures of all the cats, she'd mark down the ID#'s and descriptions so that I could try to take decent pictures. I was armed with a new spiral notebook, and my camera was fully charged.

Imagine my surprise when there were only a few new arrivals from the entire weekend! Maybe it was the great weather and nobody wanted to take the time to dump their cats on a nice day.

As I walked into the cat rooms, imagine my horror as I saw that some of the cat cages had been marked already for the "vet day" tomorrow. The vet tech who usually marks the cages for the vet left early and had already done her job. CRAP. I did NOT want to see these cats the day before they are supposed to die.

Kathleen and I looked into every cage that was marked. Most were feral and some were very very sick. I didn't see any that I felt were really and truly adoptable. Thank God for the winter months - in another 30 days it will be an entirely different story. The only ones that really bothered me were two buff sisters that were together. One was marked for euthanasia because she was very sick and the other sister was to remain alive. They were snuggled together lovingly. Today is their last day together. Kathleen and I couldn't look any more. It was just too painful.

Fortunately, I was able to walk away with rescuing two cats for two foster homes who stepped forward to help:

ZIGGY!
MARLA! (whom I renamed "Jana")

Kathleen couldn't resist a VERY cute neutered/declawed boy named "Louie" that had been in the shelter for more than a month waiting rescue. Usually he would've been euthanized within 3 days, but since he was already fixed and declawed, the staff decided that he was a good candidate for rescue. They were right:

LOUIE! (renamed "Barney"!)

I'm not sure I'll be so fortunate with the slim picture taking later in the week, but it's going to be nice to hit the "Delete" button on 3 pictures that are currently on the shelter's Petfinder site because they've been rescued.