The Eyes Have it!
And Opening up, Little by Little, with masks and disinfecting, and a lot of love
-Helen Morrison
I don’t know if you have experienced this. “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” In these times, I am finding this true. So many folks are being considerate of their friends, neighbors, and even those they don’t know….by wearing a mask. People are getting creative in the masks they have. There are good ones, with wonderful designs, washable, comfortable. We have found some absolutely cute ones with cats on them.. It is interesting, meeting folks, here and there, and having to give a good look into the eyes so that you know who they are. There isn’t the whole face to read, the expressions are missing, the actual smiles. But you can see the smiles in the eyes, read the expressions in the eyebrows, see the crows’ feet at the corners of the eyes that signal awareness, recognition, joy in seeing someone you know. It is quite sweet, this journey into being more sensitive and aware in meeting up with those you know, those you love.
As you may know, we moved all the kitties in the Shelter to foster with volunteers in mid-March. These volunteers have been so loving and accommodating in their care. And we have done quite a number of adoptions by accepting applications, processing those, and those that pass muster on paper with phone calls to references are then invited to Zoom with counselors. This has been wonderful because we get to meet the applicants and their families and their pets, see their homes...and they get to meet the fosters and the kitties in the home.
Just recently, in the past several weeks, rather than say no to new cats in need, we have taken four cats back into the Shelter. They are kitties that appeared to have some issues...age, health, reclusive behavior, etc., and would have been difficult to find fosters for. We then reached out to five morning duty volunteers to see if they would begin to come in again and tend to these kitties. These folks have been wonderful. They feed, medicate, clean, and then spend time socializing with the cats...reading to them, playing with them, singing to them, dancing for them. In all they spend 3-4 hours in the morning with them. Three of these cats are 14 year old siblings.
Aslan: We were told at first that Aslan could be very aggressive. But with the magic touch of Deb Moore, our Board member behavior specialist, Aslan now comes right out of his cubby for loving and play.
Nyla and Simba are in a different room, siblings of Aslan. Nyla is a long haired dilute torti and Simba is a soft grey long haired tabby. They were very shy, but are beginning to allow petting and even enjoy it.
And Opening up, Little by Little, with masks and disinfecting, and a lot of love
-Helen Morrison
I don’t know if you have experienced this. “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” In these times, I am finding this true. So many folks are being considerate of their friends, neighbors, and even those they don’t know….by wearing a mask. People are getting creative in the masks they have. There are good ones, with wonderful designs, washable, comfortable. We have found some absolutely cute ones with cats on them.. It is interesting, meeting folks, here and there, and having to give a good look into the eyes so that you know who they are. There isn’t the whole face to read, the expressions are missing, the actual smiles. But you can see the smiles in the eyes, read the expressions in the eyebrows, see the crows’ feet at the corners of the eyes that signal awareness, recognition, joy in seeing someone you know. It is quite sweet, this journey into being more sensitive and aware in meeting up with those you know, those you love.
As you may know, we moved all the kitties in the Shelter to foster with volunteers in mid-March. These volunteers have been so loving and accommodating in their care. And we have done quite a number of adoptions by accepting applications, processing those, and those that pass muster on paper with phone calls to references are then invited to Zoom with counselors. This has been wonderful because we get to meet the applicants and their families and their pets, see their homes...and they get to meet the fosters and the kitties in the home.
Just recently, in the past several weeks, rather than say no to new cats in need, we have taken four cats back into the Shelter. They are kitties that appeared to have some issues...age, health, reclusive behavior, etc., and would have been difficult to find fosters for. We then reached out to five morning duty volunteers to see if they would begin to come in again and tend to these kitties. These folks have been wonderful. They feed, medicate, clean, and then spend time socializing with the cats...reading to them, playing with them, singing to them, dancing for them. In all they spend 3-4 hours in the morning with them. Three of these cats are 14 year old siblings.
Aslan: We were told at first that Aslan could be very aggressive. But with the magic touch of Deb Moore, our Board member behavior specialist, Aslan now comes right out of his cubby for loving and play.
Nyla and Simba are in a different room, siblings of Aslan. Nyla is a long haired dilute torti and Simba is a soft grey long haired tabby. They were very shy, but are beginning to allow petting and even enjoy it.
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Jill is a very friendly soft silver grey tabby. She was stuck in a second floor space for two years with little attention. But she is just blossoming with the attention she is getting and the space.
Little by little, we are learning new ways of doing adoptions, of being safe at the Shelter using masks, and opening up our sweet space to some very needy cats. It is all a work in progress, we are not sure yet where it is going...but we are taking it all on with a feeling of hope and cautious adventure.
It feels quite good, I must say.
Little by little, we are learning new ways of doing adoptions, of being safe at the Shelter using masks, and opening up our sweet space to some very needy cats. It is all a work in progress, we are not sure yet where it is going...but we are taking it all on with a feeling of hope and cautious adventure.
It feels quite good, I must say.