The Way of Cats

Three Thursdays this month I will be featuring a segment from a three part essay from S.H. Jacobsen, who spent a vacation in animal rescue.

On surgery days my friend would start answering telephone messages and making sure the OR was ready while I scooped the poop and did other chores. A bit later the veterinarian would arrive and patients would be dropped off. This is not a fancy place, mainly for the pets of low income people and ferals brought in by volunteers, but it works. The animal is given an anesthetic and then the vet operates carefully but efficiently.

This year I learned how to apply surgical glue over the absorbable stitches to help keep the incision closed. I’d then carry the patient to the heating pads in the waiting room and keep an eye on it while it recovered enough to be picked up by the owner.

The anesthetic is a diuretic, especially with dogs, so a few patients would let loose floods of urine, and once, while trying to move a recovering cat out of one carrier into another, I got a mouthful of spray of some mixture of body fluids so I rushed to get a Coke to wash out the taste (it was my third soda of 2008 - ordinarily I am not a soda drinker).

Aside from a few scratches that was the worst of my “wounds”. I now know the proper way to hold a cat while it’s being given its shots (sometimes using thick leather gauntlets). I also broadened my repertoire to include cleaning up cat vomit (it’s not all joy and kittens).

We had one day with seven operations and on two other days thirteen operations were performed on both cats and dogs. At the end of the day we’d be exhausted but it was a good exhaustion knowing that we were helping to make a difference — my friend says there already appears to be a slight drop in the number of ferals in the Fargo-Moorhead area. When I think of the number of kittens and puppies that will not be born to suffer short, miserable lives on the streets (with only a small percentage surviving the brutal North Dakota winters) or euthanised in a “shelter”, I wish there was a PAAWS-like organization in every town and city in the world.

All photos copyright 2008 by S.H. Jacobsen

Read Volunteer Vacations, and Volunteer Vacations, part ii. (Links will work once post is published.)

If you enjoyed this series, here’s the page with the donation link.

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There’s more to choosing a cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my CHOOSING A CAT.

To get a great cat in the easiest, most direct way, consider the Over Eights.

From eight on up, they have known great stretches of good care, or they wouldn’t have gotten this far. A eight year old cat is almost fifty human years, true. But that could be ten more years of life in the cat. They are just as deserving of a good home for the second half of their life, aren’t they?

We could provide that.

more animals

Because the older the cat is, the more quickly we will be trained. Then we start enjoying the cat. Because you know the secret about older cats?

They don’t have a dark past. Older cats have known qualities.

Older cats know a lot of our tricks already. They can communicate very well. They are eager to start the dialogue, because they know that is the way to get what we both want. This makes them great cats for newbies to start with; this is a case of the cat knowing far more than we do, and they make eager teachers.

Being human, we often feel we want to start with a kitten and look forward to a long life of companionship. But there are no guarantees in life. With every beloved cat companion, we know the fun must end. The hesitancy at taking on an older cat springs from the anxiety that the end will come too soon.

But the end always comes too soon.

It breaks my heart to see the cats many consider unadoptable, simply because of their age. When these are fantastic cats who have so much love to give. They are perfect for many people who are not up to kittens, but would love a sweet, quiet, companionable cat.

I placed such cats with those people who most need a companion in their life; the elderly, those differently-abled, those dealing with illnesses that interfere with full enjoyment of a more active social life.

Two lonely beings, lonely no more; it’s one of the great joys of rescue.

If there’s a slot open in our own home, we can add an older cat with the proper introductions. An already functioning cat civilization (three or more cats) will reform in fascinating ways when we bring in a older cat.

They come with the gravitas and pre-formed interests that will not demand attention the way a kitten or younger cat will. Older cats will let friendships form at their own pace, seek and find their own mellow niche, and assert their dignity in a way that calms skittish cats and provides a role model for the wilder ones.

If you know a cat-deprived person who needs more company, talk to them about providing it with a cat who is already trained, won’t rampage through their stuff, and is just as eager as they are to create a happy family.

Everything these people might be looking for is right there at the local shelter.

Waiting for them.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more to choosing a cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my CHOOSING A CAT.

Three Thursdays this month I will be featuring a segment from a three part essay from S.H. Jacobsen, who spent a vacation in animal rescue.

My favorites were Speedway Mama, Gypsy and Stella. Gypsy (a black and white) and Stella (a tortoiseshell) will probably find homes easier than Mama as she appears black though, like a black tiger, you can see stripes in the sunlight. Her fur is smooth and silken and she’s the friendliest little thing but unfortunately black cats are hard to place.

In another couple of rooms were kittens, small adorable balls of fluff especially two white ones named Thief and River who purred up a storm and one of them, apparently weaned too soon, loved to nurse on my hands and arms until I’d get tiny kitten hickeys. I’m happy to report that they were adopted but that still leaves Hobo and Lovey and Cooper and ….

Being feral many of the cats had been afraid of people but PAAWS attracts volunteers who do nothing (or so it seems) but play with and socialize the kittens and cats so they may find homes. One of the volunteers has an 11 year old son who was there for a while on a couple of days. He’s been there a lot helping out the past few months and I do mean helping out. He’ll thoroughly clean the cages recovering animal have been in and do other semi-yucky stuff, cheerfully and without complaint. Part of it is the kind of boy he is and part of it is that he’s really doing grown-up stuff and is treated with respect for what he contributes.

All photos copyright 2008 by S.H. Jacobsen

Read Volunteer Vacations, and Volunteer Vacations, part iii. (Links will work once post is published.)

If you enjoyed this series, here’s the page with the donation link.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more to choosing a cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my CHOOSING A CAT.

This is a lovely video, and a dream shelter. Thanks to the faithful reader who sent it to me!

Well, it’s my dream… Dear Husband is still in recovery from the thought.

Though he’s coming along. For a while, he cited our small apartment and budget as sensible reasons for two cats being the right number in our present circumstances.

Post Reverend Jim, he agrees that three is the perfect number.

Got here from a Link or Search?
There’s more to The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See my LATEST CAT ADVICE.