This time of year is a busy one for local shelters...especially with the over abundance of cats. Last week the shelter adopted out 14 cats while 11 more came in (strays or surrenders). During the adoption frenzy I jumped in to help the cat counseling team match cats with adopters. The next thing I knew, it was decided that I would be trained as a 'cat counselor'. Today was my first day of training, and let me tell you...its not as easy as it sounds.
My trainer Karen is incredibly patient and is just about the nicest person I have ever met. Each prospective adopter fills out a Meet Your Match survey and, depending on their answers, are matched with a cat whose behavior has been tested. The color/description the cat is assigned to (purple, green or orange) depends on the outcome of the behavior test. And thus, a feline-ality is born. But then there are other considerations. Such as the people having kids (and ages), other pets, if they want an indoor or outdoor cat...etc
Since my vet tech days many moons ago I never thought I would ever work with cats so closely. Don't get me wrong, I love cats! I have one. Isaac is 15 and, unfortunately, his kidneys are not well. A sign of old age. But I think I am going to enjoy the kitties as a nice change of pace from the dogs I train and the volunteers I coordinate. There is no 'cat wrangling' here, just matching nice people with nice cats. The picture is of my pal Julie who is too sensitive for the adoption floor and lives in our office. She is looking for a home with no other cats and a person who will forgive her idiosyncrasies and accept her for who she is.
2 comments:
WOW julie is gorgeous. If I didn't have a mother and a sister who were horribly allergic to cats and therefore could never set foot in my house ever again if I got a cat, I would probably have a nice orange neutered tom cat of some sort. good luck with your new job description :-)
Thanks Katrin! Orange toms are my favorite...Isaac is an orange tom and he is one cool customer!
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