New Thread for shelter, fosters, and Jade59 (cause it's all about her...LOL)

[nancyjac]

Just kidding Jade...LOL

So I'm taking Tucker in to be neutered tomorrow.  While waiting for him to be ready to come home again, will be dipping several of the shelter dog and cats who have ringworm.  The shelter honored me as Volunteer of the Month for August.  (Photos at http://wilcopets.org/Volunteer/VolunteeroftheMonth/VOTMAugust2010/tabid/2287/language/en-US/Default.aspx ).  Oreo, the cat in the photos is one of the shelter cats who is the feline equivalent of a Walmart Greeter.  He hangs out in the lobby and smoozes with potential adopters.

[nancyjac]

Whew....what a day.  Got 30 kittens spayed or neutered, 2 of which have already been adopted.  The shelter has lots of volunteers on the books, but maybe only about 10% of those regularly volunteer.  There are maybe 4-5 of us that do what I call "project work"...stuff that is above and beyond just basic day to day operations.  But there are several others that do a lot of day to day stuff like cleaning kennels, doing laundry, feeding, etc. And then there are the foster parent volunteers.  They may not work at the shelter much, but they temporarily take animals into their home that need socialization, recovery from illness or injury, etc. before they can be adopted.  

One of my projects in the planning stage is to get volunteers to cover customer service during the hours the shelter is open to the public.  There just isn't enough staff to show animals, answer questions, etc. and we lose too many potential adopters simply because they just can't get help in finding out about the animals available.

Tucker is doing great.  I plan to take him to the shelter on Saturday morning hoping he will get adopted over the weekend.  GHM has had a little congestions again this week but nothing near as bad as it was before.  Been using the nebulizer on him and rinsing out his nose with saline or camomile tea and that has kept it from getting any worse.  He doesn't seem to have a very good sneeze reflex so instead of blowing the congestion out, it just stays in his sinuses unless I help with the nebulizer and the feline version of a neti pot.

[Jade59]

Good luck with the current promo, Nancy.  Will keep fingers crossed more people will want to adopt these little gems.  Over 300 kittens - very sad to envision.  You are so incredibly busy with this - how many other volunteers work at this shelter?  You seem to have your hands so full - just you, alone.

How's Tucker doing 6days after surgery and of course, how is GHM?  Has your husband completely agreed to keep him????

[nancyjac]

I'm working a special project for the shelter this week.  We still have over 450 cats, over 300 of which are kittens.  Most of the kittens and adults have not been spay/neutered and lately our surgery schedule has been full with those that have been adopted so the cats at the shelter  are getting fixed.  The shelter director agreed to add an extra spay day this week just for kittens who are now getting old enough to reproduce.  So I spent yesterday weighing and examining about 100 kittens in preparation for surgery.  We will only be able to do about 30 of them this week, but that will still be a big improvement.  Then starting next week, I will keep a rolling list of kittens and adult cats in need of spay/neuter so that whenever we have any vacancies on the regular Monday and Thursday surgery schedule, there will be cats/kittens that are already prepped that can be added.  We are also planning a promotional kitten adoption event for September, so I'm hoping that having kittens that have already been altered combine with the pre-altering will give us a really good adoption rate between now and the end of September.  

[spirit3]

congrats on volunteer of the month and congrats to Oreo!! Well done!

[nancyjac]

Thanks all.  Yes, Oreo is quite a lover and loves his "job" as Shelter Greeter.  He has some chronic eye problems which is why he was "adopted" as a shelter cat.  He gets the treatment he needs and in return he really does a wonderful job of showing potential adopters how great having a cat can be.  He is our best "salesman" LOL.

Toby and Jo Jo did end up being solid black.  Jess, last time I saw her at least, did retain a bit of her silver tipping.  Jess was the first to be adopted.  Toby and Jo Jo were adopted by a lady who runs a cat rescue out of her home.  She adopts out some of the cats she has rescued but will keep and care for any that are not.

Tucker's neutering this morning went well.  I just checked and you can barely tell he had surgery just a few hours ago.  He had a less than pleasant encounter with a pit bull while we were at the shelter today, but no harm, just a momentary freaked out.  I just fed all of the cats their evening meal and Tucker chowed down big time since he had to forgo his morning meal today and was still a bit out of it for a while after the surgery so didn't really want to each much right away.  He is making up for that tonight,,....LOL.

[zodiacqueen]

Congrats to you......from following your posts, that honor is so well deserved!!!  =)

Nancy, just wondering...how are Toby and Jes doing?  Did they turn all black or did they keep the shades of white?  Geeeze, I hope I didn't miss a thread about them!

[opus88]

yes Nancy 'congrats' to you...well deserved!
Oh that Oreo is a beautiful cat...oh I love him, I've always have been such a sucker for big b/w cats, I would take him home in a heartbeat.
sounds like he's happy there being the 'greeter' tho, sure looks happy!!

[Jade59]

LOL!  Hahaha...you're the best, Nancy!

Congrats on your Volunteer of the Month!!  You deserve it, no doubt about that :)  I went to the website and great to see you!  Oreo is gorgeous and looks like a big lover. He sure seems to love You, anyway.

Thanks for starting the new thread.  Look forward to hearing your continuing updates.