HKG158: Scaredy Cats

gratuitous pic of waffle falafel la fu, our favorite graduate of the SPCA wanchai

this morning, i volunteered at the SPCA with the kitties. this time, i worked in a different cattery...this one is for newbies that have been there only a few days and are working on socialization.

the first room, which contained 15 kitties, included some very sweet and affectionate newbies with a couple that were shy and a tiny bit aggressive. the second room, which contained another 15 kitties, included some of the most heartbreaking kitties i have ever met. almost all of the occupants of the second room were so aggressive and freaked out that they destroyed their cages...they upturned their litter boxes, food, and water...and sometimes their beds, too. several of them had made deposits on the walls and floor of their little rooms. almost all of them growled a very deep, scared-out-of-their wits growl and/or hissed and spit. it was heartbreaking to see these beautiful animals driven to this state. one whole side of room two contained cats that were brought in on a single raid...i could not determine if they were rescued from the street or a building or a hoarding situation (due to language barrier).

i fell pretty much head over heels in love with three of the kitties in the first room, and i am pretty damn proud of myself for not bringing all of them home with me :-) one of these kitties was a short-haired black and white tuxedo kitty with the cutest little mow i have ever heard. he did not me-ow. he mow'd. the next kitty i fell in love with is the SPITTING image of la fu, only she's a girl, has a full-length tail, and looks as though someone put her through a bleach cycle as her orange spots are lighter than la fu's. she has almost identical markings to his, though, and looks to be around the same age. if i could have guaranteed no upset to la fu or the kids and tolerance from josh, i would have packed her up and brought her home with me today. she was super affectionate...kept reaching through her cage to paw at my shirt or hair as i worked on the cages below her and tried to round up some roustabouts from the shelf above her. the roustabouts were these two very tiny (no more than six weeks old) kittens who were extremely mischievous. they scampered up and through and around EVERYTHING. i had a heck of a time catching these two to put them back in their cage. they wore themselves out scampering away from me...as soon as i got them back into their cage, they curled up next to one another in their bed and crashed out.

as hard and stinky and sad as this work was today, i definitely want to work in these rooms again. i think i might even prefer these rooms to the ready-to-adopt cattery. i like to root for the underdog (or undercat, as the case may be).

after i finished up at the SPCA, i grabbed a quick lunch and headed over to a red cross donation site to donate blood. i was trying to participate in a blood drive being organized by some dear friends in wichita falls. i have not tried to donate since before my pregnancy with olivia, and it turns out that i have a lifetime restriction against donating because i rec'd platelets during and after olivia's birth. i find it a bit ironic that i can no longer repay the gift that was given to me, but apparently clotting factor products are not screened the same way that blood is, and there is enough risk of infection from having rec'd clotting factors that recipients can not donate after they've rec'd them. long ago, in my twenties, i donated blood every six weeks because my employer at the time had close ties to a local hospital and had the donation bus come to our building every six weeks. i had NO concept then of what the little bit of blood i donated could mean to someone, but i am so very glad i donated.

**if you are well and able, please please please donate blood as often as you can. you never know when your gift will give someone the chance to live or give their loved ones more time with them.**