Volunteer Centre

I know I’ve written quite a bit about the cat caretaking at the Volunteer Centre but I find it so interesting. And it is three hours, at least, out of my week — every week.

A recent weekend had a pretty full house with an interesting sampling of the kind of cats we get in:

Caroline — brought in to Toronto Animal Services from a feral colony for TNR but friendly enough to be fostered and adopted. VERY talkative girl!

Cora — severe allergies (it doesn’t say but I assume owner surrender). One of those so-ugly-she’s-cute cats! She has the smallest ears I’ve ever seen (I had trouble holding on to them to get her meds in!) and huge eyes. Hopefully she’ll get fostered and adopted once we have her allergies under control; she’s doing well so far.

Tic Tac/Amber — 8 week old strays 😦  These cuties are under-socialized so hard to tell if they were born outside or abandoned. They have CH but we don’t seem to have trouble adopting out CH cats. And these two are gorgeous and will be socialized in no time.

Cash — little dude has been there a while. He has some congenital problems we’re hoping are solvable.

Pumpkin — stray; needs socialization. Very handsome orange boy!

(Annabeth) — wasn’t in the VC when I was there; she’d gone to the vet clinic because she wasn’t eating. Poor thing had a fall from the third floor balcony.  Fortunately she had only minor injuries, however she may be an abuse case. She was evaluated as “pretty shut down emotionally at this time and acting quite catatonic” but it’s not the kind of thing we can be sure of. We don’t see many abuse cases I’m relieved to say. Hopefully she starts to realize she’s safe and we can bring her around.

Teddy — 10 year old stray with frostbitten ears. This gorgeous girl has clearly been a pet. She may have lost (half) her ears in an early life, pre-home, or more recently. She has the sweetest nature and is very friendly.

Blanca — stray; lynx point cross. She’s very shy. She was hiding in the back of the cage but as soon as I opened the door she came up to me! She loves petting and attention but I think she finds the world a scary place.

Jada — chocolate point cross owner surrender for “house soiling”. Poor Jada has had two homes, bathroom issues in both. NO ONE has ever taken her to a vet to see if there’s a physical cause. As a purebred, she’s probably a little neurotic (she won’t eat unless you sit with her!) but she should have been checked out. THIS is the kind of surrender we’re hoping to reduce — even eliminate — with our behaviour helpline.

This is the kind of cross section of cat life we get: assumed-feral-but-not-really (though anyone who follows Tinykittens knows by now that there are ferals and ferals!); strays (at varying levels of socialization; abandoned kittens (whether by felines or humans); and surrenders.

Not surprisingly, the surrenders tend to be the most traumatized. They have such a hard time trying to cope/comprehend what’s happened to them. The others, maybe because of their precarious life on the street, seem to adjust better to change.