The longest post I ever typed in my life
I typed this up in Word first, and it's 9 pages long. That's one page per day i was gone. I was originally planning on posting this in my other journal, but I figured it really doesn't matter. So, if you're at all interested in my trip, you have plenty to skim through. Here you are:
Alright, as promised, here is an account of my Louisiana trip. I’m sure you are all aware of my affinity for detail, but I will try very, very hard to keep this as concise as possible. I do have accompanying photos, so hopefully they can do some of the talking for me, eh?
Day 0 (it doesn’t really count)
I had planned to leave Friday around 4pm and drive until I was tired, then sleep at a rest stop and continue on in the morning. As it turned out, I didn’t leave until Saturday afternoon, around 3pm, and drove directly to Nicole’s place in Metaire which is just outside New Orleans apparently. Mapquest said this would wake over 10 hours but I made it in exactly 8 including a 30 dinner/gas refill break. I was pleased. I brought Ceres along for Nicole, and everyone is happy. I got to sleep around 12:30 I guess (this being Central time now), after some kitten play time.
Day 1 (Sunday, November 20)
Woke up around 9:30am and played with the kitten some more. I left Nicole’s at about 11. Metaire seemed to be in pretty good condition considering how close to the city it is. There are signs littering in the grass along the medians and shoulders advertising which stores have reopened/are hiring again. It’s odd to see, because it’s obvious that the only reason they exist is the storm and yet the town doesn’t appear as damaged as I’d expected. Granted, this is 3 months later. In any case, I drove and hour and a half north to the basecamp which is located on the southern outskirts of Bogalusa (in other words, in the middle of nowhere). I checked in with Jim Davis, the onsite director, and he gave me a quick tour and explained the general routine. The basecamp is on private [residential] property, so the reason for the secrecy concerning the address was to protect our hostess, Mrs. Cantor, who was nice enough to donate her 300+ acre parcel of land to Alley Cat Allies’ relief efforts. Her house is beautiful, I took a picture of it because I loved the architecture so much.
In any case, there’s a guest house to the right of the main where the ACA “office” is set up.
One of the bedrooms is used for vetting and the other is kind of like an infirmary, where the sicker/special needs cats are (these guys spill over into the living area/office). There is also a bathroom with shower and fully operational kitchen, as one would expect in any house; needless to say, this was hardly “roughing it.”
To the left of Mrs. Cantor’s house there are 2 huge tents that ACA set up. The first/larger one is the cat tent, where the bulk of the animals are housed. They are set up in rows of crates stacked 2 high, 3 on occasion. Every crate is equipped with food/water bowls, a litter box, a litter scoop, and something soft for the kitties to lay on (the feral kitties have carriers in their crates so they can “hide” from us).
The second tent is the supply tent, where all the supplies are. It is pretty full, mostly with things that will not get used by ACA and thusly will be transferred to local rescue groups when the basecamp closes.
There’s also a big dumpster and a few port-a-potties, which no one really used since there’s a real bathroom in the house.
In any case, Jim left me in the cat tent to start working. Cat care in the tent is pretty basic: Feed fresh dry food and water first thing in the morning, then go back through and clean all of the crates (empty litter boxes and sweep up and spills with a dust broom) and then go back through and feed the cats wet food and top off their dry food and water. This whole procedure usually lasts from around 9:30am until 5pm or so, with 4 or 5 people working in there at the same time. Another person goes through in the morning/at night to administer meds as needed. Anyways, I cleaned row 1 (out of 5) and it went pretty well. Most of the cats are very docile housecats, but a few are feral and not friendly. One of the latter, named Onyx, was the very last crate on the row that I cleaned. He got freaked out when I was sweeping the crate and tried to bolt out, but I caught him and turned him around midair so he ended up darting back into the crate. He scratched my arm in the process, but it wasn’t deliberate and it really isn’t bad at all. It was my only injury the whole time, too, so I was pretty lucky.
After we got done cleaning and feeding I met everyone, and I’m going to spend a little while talking about them now since they were all awesome.
**Jim and Claire Davis, and their 4 month old son Nathaniel, were pretty much running the show. Claire is a lawyer and both she and Jim used to work at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah but recently left. Jim, like I said before, was the onsite director at the camp and Claire did a lot of administrative stuff relating to the database. Nathaniel vocalized a lot, and was pretty annoying, but amazingly didn’t cry a lot for an infant I guess.
(from the left: Sean, Jim, Andrea holding Nathaniel, Claire; Ethan and Julia in front)
**The Vanderelzen family from Michigan, Andrea and Sean and their kids Julia (9) and Ethan (7). Andrea and Sean have been together since they were teenagers and have a beautiful relationship, and are awesome parents. Andrea is an ER nurse and Sean works for the HR department of GM. Their kids are amazing, and that means a lot coming from me. Both Julia and Ethan are polite, well-behaved, and hard-working; they worked just as hard as anyone else at the camp, and never once whined or complained. They asked permission to do anything and listened to whoever was in charge. They were really mature too; I could have real conversations with them without feeling the need to dumb things down. They were really just small people rather than kids, and I’m just surprised by how much I liked them. You could tell that Andrea and Sean really took the time to raise them right. The whole family was amazing.
**Sarah was in just for the afternoon, as she lived on New Orleans, but had volunteered a lot when the camp first opened up. She was the only person there who seemed to be around my age, although I’m sure she was a little older. She is a chemist for a paint company.
**Melissa and Ince (I don’t know how to spell it but that’s how it sounds) left the night I arrived so I didn’t get to know them very well, but they were very nice.
**Heather is the Animal Care Manager and has been there a very long time and will be there until the camp closes. She lives in southern California and would have gotten her masters degree this winter if she hadn’t taken time off from school to volunteer.
**Martha and Amy are from Roanoke, VA and I think they got there the same morning I did but it might have been sooner. Martha has been doing TNR for 20 years and Amy works the front desk at a vet clinic. They are two of the most good-natured people I’ve ever met.
(Martha)
(Amy)
**Charles is from Maine, but I get the impression he spends most of his time in VA since his daughters live there. He is the nicest man in the world. I think he has a crush on Mrs. Cantor (they’re both either divorced or widowed, I’m not sure which). Since he’s retired, he’s spending a great deal of time at the basecamp (I think it will have been 2 months when it closes) and after this he’s going to head up to the Best Friends Hurricane Shelter in Tylertown, MS to continue volunteering.
**Kathy came in from Kentucky the night I arrived. She is a very friendly older woman and while I can’t remember what she does for a living I remember thinking it was really cool.
**Gregory left soon after I arrived so I don’t remember much about him, but he was quite an interesting/helpful guy.
**Susan FZ is originally from Minnesota but is going to nursing school in Seattle. She is a Stealth Volunteer, which is something that I’m not able to describe since I don’t fully understand what it is. Anyway, she was a lot of fun to work with and seemingly close to my age.
That’s everyone who was there the first night. We ate pizza for dinner and discussed the next day’s work. The St. Tammany Humane Society in Covington (a commercialized district about 30 minutes south of the camp) had offered to do 10 spays both Monday and Tuesday, which was very helpful since they were out of oxygen at the camp and couldn’t do onsite surgery (at least, nothing more complex than a neuter). Since I had the van, I was volunteered to do the transport so Heather and I walked around the cat tent and figured out which cats needed to go in the morning and pulled their medical files. By this time it was getting late (~11pm) so I unloaded my van and made up a place to sleep in it. It was pretty cozy in there, but I still had a lot of trouble getting to sleep; I’m guessing I didn’t doze off until nearly 1am.
Day 2 (Monday, November 21)
I got up at 7am to load up the cats. I got a little lost on the way because there are no street signs in Covington, at least not on the southbound side of the road. But I did get there and that’s what’s important. Martha and Amy were staying at a bed and breakfast in Covington and Martha was supposed to stay at the Humane Society to act as a vet tech to help them get the cats done, so I met them there and Amy came back with me. We made a trip to Northlake Medical Center on the way back to pick up some new oxygen tanks, and got a little lost on the way there too because the roads that do have street signs all change names about 3 times a piece. But that’s ok. We got back to the basecamp at noon and started working in the cat tent. I did rows 1 and 2 this time, since we were a little shorthanded. Martha got back around 3 I think and started helping us. She had been bitten by a cat at the HS (some of the cats were semi-feral) and while cleaning in the cat tent she was bitten by another cat! That same cat that bit her in the tent had apparently bitten Kathy earlier in the day, so they put him on Rabies watch. Kathy actually had to go to the ER because of it (Gregory was supposed to leave on Monday but since he took Kathy to the ER he ended up leaving on Tuesday instead). We finished up in the tent at 7pm and I drove in to Covington to get some dinner at Chik-fil-A, which is something I got in the habit of doing (mostly because I got no cell reception anywhere near the camp, but I got it in Covington so I drove there about once a day to check messages and call Erik to check in). I had learned of a hotel near the camp that supposedly had vacancies so I decided to check it out on my way back. It did indeed have rooms, so I booked one for 6 nights at 50$/night (mom offered to pay for half of it). I headed back to the basecamp around 9pm to find that they had ordered pizza again, and I ate a slice even though I had just had dinner (not that that means a whole lot, considering I only had time for one meal a day while I was there). I did some more work in the tent with Heather to decide which cats to transport to the HS the next day, and finally headed to the hotel at around 11:30pm. Once again, though, I couldn’t fall asleep. I finally dozed off at about 3am.
Day 3 (Tuesday, November 22)
The plan for Tuesday was pretty much the same as Monday, only Martha didn’t feel comfortable staying at the HS since she couldn’t be of much help with her injured, twice-bitten hand. So she went on to the camp with Amy and I stayed to help vet the cats. It was a nice change of pace, and I now have a bit more vetting experience under my belt, even though I didn’t do a whole lot. I left the HS with the cats at around 2pm and set them up in the house for recovery, then headed down to work in the tent until 6pm. The Vanderelzens had made a trip to the Best Friends camp in MS to trade out some cats (I’ll talk about the trailer park cats soon) so we spent another hour and a half taking the empty crates out to be cleaned and setting new crates up in the tent and getting the new cats settled in. Jim and Claire were set to leave in the morning, and they decided to take us all out to dinner that night, which was very nice. The group included them and Nathaniel, the Vanderelzens, Mrs. Cantor, Charles, myself, and a few new volunteers that had come in either late Monday or earlier Tuesday: *Stacy is from Dallas and does a lot of cat rescue there. She is very knowledgeable about feline behavior. Laurie and Susan came in from New York. Susan does HR work and I don’t remember what Laurie does, but they are both incredibly nice. I don’t know much about Claire (not of Jim and Claire) because she did mostly office/admin work so I didn’t spend a lot of time with her, but she is super sweet and fun to hang out with. She is from DC.* We went to a bar and grill type place in Bogalusa, and the food was really good. Afterwards we headed back to camp and took care of the cats some more. I helped feed and medicate the cats at the house, and then I had some awesome kitten cuddles with one of the new cats that had come in, a young kitten named Hope.
Hope and I took a nap on the couch, and people kept taking pictures of us while I was asleep. I finally headed back to the hotel at 1am, got to sleep around 2:30.
(Laurie)
(Susan)
Day 4 (Wednesday, November 23)
Housekeeping woke me up at 7:30am, but I didn’t get up until 8. I had to be at the basecamp by 8:30 for the daily meeting (which I had been exempt from up to this point do to transporting) but since the camp was literally 5 minutes from the hotel this wasn’t a problem. After the meeting I moved all the recovery cats back down to their crates in the tent and then helped Charles move dirty equipment from the house to the cleaning station. Then I worked in the tent for a while as usual, doing row 2 this time. Jim and Claire left, and Laura came in from Florida. Now I will tell you about the 2 events that made this day stand out. The first is very bad, and the second is very good.
1) While I was taking a break from equipment to chat with Susan FZ outside the house, Mrs. Cantor came rushing over with one of her cats, Ms. Hissy. She had given Ms. Hissy a doggy advantage rather than a kitty advantage and was afraid that the formula wasn’t good for cats. I explained to her that the formula is the same for both dogs and cats just the dose was different; she said that there was a lot, but she’d washed most of it off, and Susan FZ and I agreed that since she washed it off it should be ok, so Mrs. Cantor went back home. Neither Susan FZ nor I are vets, obviously, and while we thought we were giving Mrs. Cantor good advice, we weren’t. About 5 hours later, after the advantage had completely soaked in, Mrs. Hissy started to seizure and they had to rush her to the emergency vet. I didn’t realize how much was in the doggy sized dose, and apparently you cant wash it off with just soap and water as Mrs. Cantor had tried to do; it had poisoned the cat. Ms. Hissy is ok, after spending a few days at the vet getting fluids to flush her system, but I have never been so panicked. My bad advice could have killed Ms. Hissy, so I learned a valuable lesson about keeping my mouth shut. Mrs. Cantor is amazingly nice though, and brushed the whole thing off like it was no big deal. Susan FZ and I were so ashamed/worried… 2) After Charles finished with the equipment he went into Bogalusa to pick up some supplies. While there, he saw a puppy in the parking lot. Now, something that I need to make note of is that there are no leash laws in this part of LA. Dogs roam free everywhere and they aren’t lost and you’ll get in trouble for picking them up the way we would here. But this puppy was so frightened, running from person to person (all of whom ignored him), nearly getting run over 3 different times, that finally Charles called him over and brought him back to camp. The poor pup was terrified and covered in fleas and ticks, so we’re pretty sure he was dumped.
Anyways, we named him Charlie, after Charles of course, and he’s awesome. Since ACA isn’t equipped to handle dogs they were going to transport him up to Best Friends, but I asked them not to since I was supposed to bring back dogs for the Dog House anyways. So Charlie stayed and I was put in charge of him. Since the weather was nice we set up a crate in the yard outside the house, and he stayed there for the day/night.
In the evening we administered dewormer to all of the cats by mixing it with their wet food. After socializing some of the cats for a while I headed back to the hotel and got to sleep around 11:30pm.
Day 5 (Thursday, November 24)
THANKSGIVING! I woke up at 7:45am and got to the basecamp at 8:10. Julia and Ethan has already found a fancy new collar and leash for Charlie and had taken him on a nice walk. I took him on another walk, and then worked in the tent until 2pm. Susan FZ left, and several new people came in: *Diane took over as onsite director (she has played that role earlier, then took a break while Jim and Claire came in, then came back to replace them). She also used to work at Best Friends. Kathy K. came in from Buffalo, she had also volunteered earlier on and came back. She works on film projects and knows Cher and Hulk Hogan. Cheryl I don’t know much about, but she is very sweet and quiet. Adrienne, Alyson and Jovi came in from the DC area but decided to work with a different group inside the city; they still camped out on the ACA site and attended the morning meetings though. Tom and Alex are also repeat volunteers who divide their time between ACA and the other rescue group in the city.* Mrs. Cantor had invited all of us to her house for dinner at 4, so I did random tasks until then. The dinner was very nice, even though I’m very finicky and there wasn’t much there I could eat.
(group photo before dinner)
(Claire, Martha, Stacy and Kathy at dinner)
(Tom and Laurie after dinner)
Her son, his wife and her mother all helped prepare the meal, and it was incredible. We hung around Mrs. Cantor’s house for a few hours, and then Heather, Amy, Martha and I all went down to the tent to feed the cats dinner. After that I took a very special cat, Whip, up to the house to try to socialize her.
Whip’s story: Whip was spotted eating outside of a house where 5 cats were rescued. They saw her there a few days in a row and assumed she might have lived there, but they couldn’t get close enough to pick her up. They set out traps, and she went in, but before they came back to retrieve the traps a pack of dogs dragged the trap 75 feet down the road trying to eat Whip. She is so traumatized from that experience that she will not leave her carrier unless no one is around (ie: at night). Unfortunately, I didn’t have any luck socializing her, because there wasn’t a good place to take her (I tried the bathroom, but the hot water heater was in there and she kept hiding behind it). So after I spent an hour with Whip Julia and Ethan and I all played with Hope and chatted about stuff. They really are awesome kids. Laurie and Susan left in the evening. Since Kathy still wasn’t feeling well from her bite wound, I let her sleep in my hotel room and Charlie and I camped out in my van (he slept in my sleeping bag with me). I got to bed around midnight.
Day 6 (Friday, November 25)
The Vanderelzens left in the morning, as did Martha and Amy. I woke up pretty early to call the local vet to see if they could squeeze Charlie in, since I couldn’t bring him home unvaccinated. They had an opening, so after spending a few minutes at the tent I took Charlie to the vet in Bogalusa. On my way back, I saw a dog wandering down the side of the highway. She had a collar, so I was going to leave her, but then I saw how emaciated she was…. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
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I pulled over and she came right to me. I rushed back to camp to drop Charlie off and tell Heather and Diane about the new dog (I was a little worried they would be upset, since Diane and I had just had a long talk about not picking up dogs the night before) but they could see how bad off she was and were glad that I had saved her. They told me to take her back to the vet, and sent Jeff, a local guy who came by just to volunteer for the day, with me. The dog looked post-partum and we were afraid we might have to go scouring the area for puppies. The vet was less than pleased when we came back, but not because we didn’t have an appointment. The dog, whom I named Fiona, is a pit bull, and this vet is pretty opposed to pit bulls. She ranted to me about it for a while, and I tried my best to be polite with my disagreements, and I did pretty well considering I wanted to punch her in the face. Anyway, Fiona was anemic to the point that her gums were white, and she hadn’t eaten in so long they couldn’t get a stool sample. She was heartworm negative though, and very energetic and affectionate. The vet told us that she was probably used to breed fighting dogs, as she has had multiple litters but none recently enough to be nursing (not that she is in any condition to nurse, having no body fat whatsoever). We took her back to camp and got her set up in an outdoor crate.
2 new volunteers came while I was out, Kim and Debbie from Vermont, and they had rented an RV for the trip. They fell for Fiona immediately and offered to let her stay in their RV rather than in the crate, so that’s where Fiona has been, and still is. After I got the dogs taken care of, I helped vet the cats at the camp. Denise, another repeat volunteer, and her friend/assistant Alicia were getting the cats all up to date with vaccines and microchipping them. One cat pooped on me. His name is Jeparle.
I though it humorous that I was shat on by the French cat. Anyways, after we finished and I got cleaned up a bunch of us went out to eat at this Mexican restaurant in Bogalusa called Maria’s. It sucked, but what can you do? After dinner I walked/fed the dogs, and since Fiona was set up to sleep in the RV I planned on sneaking Charlie into the hotel with me. It turns out they allow dogs, so I didn’t have to be sneaky. I got to bed around 1am.
Day 7 (Saturday, November 26)
Up at 8am, at the basecamp by 8:30. Kathy and Stacy left in the morning and a few new people arrived: Gail and Roy, also repeat volunteers, as were Mark and Wendi, who spent a lot of time working in the city. I worked in the tent until around 10am, at which point I was called up to help with the vetting again. So I did that until about 2 and then headed back down to the tent. It rained all day; it was the first really bad weather we had. After we finished there and the dogs were taken care of I went out to eat at a place called Abita BrewPub (in Abita Springs, near Covington) with Diane, Heather, Kathy K, Denise, Gail, Roy, Mark and Wendi.
(clockwise from left: Denise, Mark, Wendi, Roy, Gail, Heather, Diane, and Kathy)
Great food, and delicious desserts (we ordered a few and shared). We got back to camp just before 11pm, after which Denise and I continued vetting some cats for a while (there were a few cats who had stopped eating due to sickness, so we had to give them subcutaneous fluids and force feed them… it was not fun). Charlie and I got back to our hotel a little before midnight, and I got to bed around 1:30am.
Day 8 (Sunday, November 27)
Up at 7:45 to pack up my stuff. Charlie decided to act like the 5 month old puppy he is for once and chewed through the phone cord in my room. I confessed his sin when I checked out, but luckily the hotel people didn’t care. We got to the basecamp at 8:25am and worked in the tent until 4pm. Some new volunteers came in: Millie, from Cincinnati, who does tons of TNR work there, and Gloria from Detroit, as well as a couple of other women whom I didn’t really get a chance to meet. Gloria actually ended up bailing out when she found out we weren’t doing anymore field work; I ran into her the next day at Best Friends. She didn’t even tell anyone she was leaving. A lot of the newer volunteers were annoyed at the lack of field work, but the basecamp is closing on December 18th and they don’t want to bring in any new cats if they can help it, since they’re busy trying to relocate the ones they have. But oh well. I talked to Diane a bit about making arrangements to take Charlie; I couldn’t take Fiona =( she will need extra care and the Dog House can’t handle that right now. Anyways, since ACA doesn’t do dogs, I had to make arrangements to go up to Best Friends in MS to put Charlie through their system before taking him home, but since I had planned to go there anyways to try to get dogs for TDHR I thought it work out well. I went into Covington to get some food, and when I came back I learned that Fiona had bitten off the tip of her tail. I don’t know why she did that, but it freaked me out. She’s ok though. Tom and Alex came back (they had spent the weekend in the city) and I went through the many, many things that I had brought and didn’t use and gave a bunch of it to Tom. There is a woman in New Orleans who stayed through the storm. Her home was destroyed, so she’s camping out in her own yard, and many neighborhood animals that had been left behind have started accumulating on her property. She tries to take care of them all, but she has no job now and has almost nothing, so Tom tries to help her out. He’s a really nice guy. I spent my last night there sleeping in the van with Charlie. It had rained off and on all day, but that night the sky cleared and I could see every star in the sky. The weather was perfect, and it was a great last night at camp. I got to sleep around 1am.
Day 9 (Monday, November 29)
Strangely enough, the last day was the longest. I woke up at 6:45am to pack up my van. I had brought my own crates in anticipation of transporting dogs back home, so I assembled them before loading the van and it took a while to get everything arranged efficiently. Then we got locked out of the house, and Alex had to climb through the window to let us in. I was supposed to bring Fiona to Best Friends so she could stay there, but Kim and Debbie refused to part with her, so she stayed with them in the RV and they are currently making arrangements to take her home with them (I’m so glad about that; I was so depressed about leaving her behind but knowing she’s in a good home really makes me feel better about it). After talking to Diane and saying goodbye to everyone I left the bascamp and headed to Tylertown. I got there at about 9:30am. The Best Friends camp is enormous; much, much bigger than the ACA camp. They have over 400 dogs there as well as a bunch of cats, and the volunteer staff is extensive. They even have their own chef! This particular morning they were very busy though, and I ended up waiting 6 and a half hours to get everything processed there. Best Friends’ policy is that they have all their animals on 90 day holds to allow then enough time to be relocated with their owners. Since its been 90 days since the storm I thought I would be able to get some, but they didn’t have the time to find out which dogs were ready for adoptions that happened to be under 30 lbs (my one contingency). So at first I was just going to get Charlie ready to go, but by the time that was done (noon) they decided that I could take some puppies that had been owner-relinquished. I called and cleared it with Amelia, but I still had to wait. I actually ended up doing some work for them in the meantime. I got out of there with 3 puppies + Charlie at 4pm and started home. The drive was very very long, and I was very very tired, and I actually had to stop and take a brief nap at one point. Then I saw a kitty as a rest stop when I stopped to walk the dogs, and spent 40 minutes trying to catch her [she would come right up to me and follow me around but she wouldn’t let me pet her or pick her up] before the security guard informed me that she lived there and people took care of her. Anyways, I got home at 2am. By the time I got the dogs settled in it was after 3am. I got up at 8:30am to get them to the vet.
*Charlie is a 5 month old male black lab/beagle mix
*Apollo is a 4 month old male white shepherd mix (it turns out he’s feral… they didn’t mention that, of course, when I got him. So he’ll need some extra socializing)
*Sierra and Sophie are 3 months old mutt sisters. Sierra has kennel cough.
One retarded thing: even though we are positive that Charlie was dumped and thusly will not be reclaimed, since he went through Best Friends he has to be on a 90 day hold. During this time we cannot adopt him out or even neuter him, and he is starting to hump (he favors my leg, but he did try to hump Napolean this morning). I think this is the stupidest thing. Charlie is adorable and super adoptable right now, but in 3 months he’ll be older and less desirable. I think the hold is great for Katrina dogs whose owners really want them back, but Charlie is not one of them and they are doing him a disservice.
So yeah. We will be fostering the boys (Charlie because of the hold and Apollo so I can bring him to work and try to socialize him) and the girls will be staying at Avondale. For now though, we have Sierra while she is being treated for kennel cough and the others are all at Avondale.
And now that I’m done with all that, I’m going to tell you about my favorite cats that I sadly could not bring home:
*Hope, the little cuddle kitten, was adopted by the Vanderelzens! Yay!
*Murphy Brown is a spaz, she was awesome.
*Panther was a “semi-feral” but I think really he was just scared. At first he would hide at the back of his crate, but after a while he started hanging out at the front near the door, and he even let me pet him! He’s a treat whore.
*Tripod is a 3-legged cat that was found hiding out in an AC duct after the hurricane. He rears up on his back legs and waves at people.
*Beverly is the sweetest cat ever. Her owner stayed behind during the hurricane because she didn’t want to leave her cats behind, and she ended up dying. The cats survived though, although Beverly’s kittens, who were very young during the storm, are very frightened and not very social.
*Geek, AKA Muffin, is very playful. She has a heart murmur.
*Sun, Moon and Snowflake are FIV+ siblings, and all are super playful and adorable. Thankfully, they have a good home to go to.
(Sun is the tabby and Moon is the black kitty; Snowflake not pictured)
*Patches is a mean feral who was declawed and can’t go back outside. He was actually living in a house with 80 other cats. So you see guys, I’m not all that bad compared to some people.
And my favorite…
*Ginny is just hilarious. She’s a tabbico (tabby/calico) like Caliope. She hangs out in her hammock but jumps down when you open her crate and comes right up to love on you, but then she sees your hand and gives you this alarmed look and bats at your hand with her paw (she doesn’t use her claws) before coming back to love on you some more. I think she just can’t decide if she wants to love you or show you what for. I heart her, she cracks me up.
There are more photos on facebook. I'll make an entry about other things later.
Alright, as promised, here is an account of my Louisiana trip. I’m sure you are all aware of my affinity for detail, but I will try very, very hard to keep this as concise as possible. I do have accompanying photos, so hopefully they can do some of the talking for me, eh?
Day 0 (it doesn’t really count)
I had planned to leave Friday around 4pm and drive until I was tired, then sleep at a rest stop and continue on in the morning. As it turned out, I didn’t leave until Saturday afternoon, around 3pm, and drove directly to Nicole’s place in Metaire which is just outside New Orleans apparently. Mapquest said this would wake over 10 hours but I made it in exactly 8 including a 30 dinner/gas refill break. I was pleased. I brought Ceres along for Nicole, and everyone is happy. I got to sleep around 12:30 I guess (this being Central time now), after some kitten play time.
Day 1 (Sunday, November 20)
Woke up around 9:30am and played with the kitten some more. I left Nicole’s at about 11. Metaire seemed to be in pretty good condition considering how close to the city it is. There are signs littering in the grass along the medians and shoulders advertising which stores have reopened/are hiring again. It’s odd to see, because it’s obvious that the only reason they exist is the storm and yet the town doesn’t appear as damaged as I’d expected. Granted, this is 3 months later. In any case, I drove and hour and a half north to the basecamp which is located on the southern outskirts of Bogalusa (in other words, in the middle of nowhere). I checked in with Jim Davis, the onsite director, and he gave me a quick tour and explained the general routine. The basecamp is on private [residential] property, so the reason for the secrecy concerning the address was to protect our hostess, Mrs. Cantor, who was nice enough to donate her 300+ acre parcel of land to Alley Cat Allies’ relief efforts. Her house is beautiful, I took a picture of it because I loved the architecture so much.
In any case, there’s a guest house to the right of the main where the ACA “office” is set up.
One of the bedrooms is used for vetting and the other is kind of like an infirmary, where the sicker/special needs cats are (these guys spill over into the living area/office). There is also a bathroom with shower and fully operational kitchen, as one would expect in any house; needless to say, this was hardly “roughing it.”
To the left of Mrs. Cantor’s house there are 2 huge tents that ACA set up. The first/larger one is the cat tent, where the bulk of the animals are housed. They are set up in rows of crates stacked 2 high, 3 on occasion. Every crate is equipped with food/water bowls, a litter box, a litter scoop, and something soft for the kitties to lay on (the feral kitties have carriers in their crates so they can “hide” from us).
The second tent is the supply tent, where all the supplies are. It is pretty full, mostly with things that will not get used by ACA and thusly will be transferred to local rescue groups when the basecamp closes.
There’s also a big dumpster and a few port-a-potties, which no one really used since there’s a real bathroom in the house.
In any case, Jim left me in the cat tent to start working. Cat care in the tent is pretty basic: Feed fresh dry food and water first thing in the morning, then go back through and clean all of the crates (empty litter boxes and sweep up and spills with a dust broom) and then go back through and feed the cats wet food and top off their dry food and water. This whole procedure usually lasts from around 9:30am until 5pm or so, with 4 or 5 people working in there at the same time. Another person goes through in the morning/at night to administer meds as needed. Anyways, I cleaned row 1 (out of 5) and it went pretty well. Most of the cats are very docile housecats, but a few are feral and not friendly. One of the latter, named Onyx, was the very last crate on the row that I cleaned. He got freaked out when I was sweeping the crate and tried to bolt out, but I caught him and turned him around midair so he ended up darting back into the crate. He scratched my arm in the process, but it wasn’t deliberate and it really isn’t bad at all. It was my only injury the whole time, too, so I was pretty lucky.
After we got done cleaning and feeding I met everyone, and I’m going to spend a little while talking about them now since they were all awesome.
**Jim and Claire Davis, and their 4 month old son Nathaniel, were pretty much running the show. Claire is a lawyer and both she and Jim used to work at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah but recently left. Jim, like I said before, was the onsite director at the camp and Claire did a lot of administrative stuff relating to the database. Nathaniel vocalized a lot, and was pretty annoying, but amazingly didn’t cry a lot for an infant I guess.
(from the left: Sean, Jim, Andrea holding Nathaniel, Claire; Ethan and Julia in front)
**The Vanderelzen family from Michigan, Andrea and Sean and their kids Julia (9) and Ethan (7). Andrea and Sean have been together since they were teenagers and have a beautiful relationship, and are awesome parents. Andrea is an ER nurse and Sean works for the HR department of GM. Their kids are amazing, and that means a lot coming from me. Both Julia and Ethan are polite, well-behaved, and hard-working; they worked just as hard as anyone else at the camp, and never once whined or complained. They asked permission to do anything and listened to whoever was in charge. They were really mature too; I could have real conversations with them without feeling the need to dumb things down. They were really just small people rather than kids, and I’m just surprised by how much I liked them. You could tell that Andrea and Sean really took the time to raise them right. The whole family was amazing.
**Sarah was in just for the afternoon, as she lived on New Orleans, but had volunteered a lot when the camp first opened up. She was the only person there who seemed to be around my age, although I’m sure she was a little older. She is a chemist for a paint company.
**Melissa and Ince (I don’t know how to spell it but that’s how it sounds) left the night I arrived so I didn’t get to know them very well, but they were very nice.
**Heather is the Animal Care Manager and has been there a very long time and will be there until the camp closes. She lives in southern California and would have gotten her masters degree this winter if she hadn’t taken time off from school to volunteer.
**Martha and Amy are from Roanoke, VA and I think they got there the same morning I did but it might have been sooner. Martha has been doing TNR for 20 years and Amy works the front desk at a vet clinic. They are two of the most good-natured people I’ve ever met.
(Martha)
(Amy)
**Charles is from Maine, but I get the impression he spends most of his time in VA since his daughters live there. He is the nicest man in the world. I think he has a crush on Mrs. Cantor (they’re both either divorced or widowed, I’m not sure which). Since he’s retired, he’s spending a great deal of time at the basecamp (I think it will have been 2 months when it closes) and after this he’s going to head up to the Best Friends Hurricane Shelter in Tylertown, MS to continue volunteering.
**Kathy came in from Kentucky the night I arrived. She is a very friendly older woman and while I can’t remember what she does for a living I remember thinking it was really cool.
**Gregory left soon after I arrived so I don’t remember much about him, but he was quite an interesting/helpful guy.
**Susan FZ is originally from Minnesota but is going to nursing school in Seattle. She is a Stealth Volunteer, which is something that I’m not able to describe since I don’t fully understand what it is. Anyway, she was a lot of fun to work with and seemingly close to my age.
That’s everyone who was there the first night. We ate pizza for dinner and discussed the next day’s work. The St. Tammany Humane Society in Covington (a commercialized district about 30 minutes south of the camp) had offered to do 10 spays both Monday and Tuesday, which was very helpful since they were out of oxygen at the camp and couldn’t do onsite surgery (at least, nothing more complex than a neuter). Since I had the van, I was volunteered to do the transport so Heather and I walked around the cat tent and figured out which cats needed to go in the morning and pulled their medical files. By this time it was getting late (~11pm) so I unloaded my van and made up a place to sleep in it. It was pretty cozy in there, but I still had a lot of trouble getting to sleep; I’m guessing I didn’t doze off until nearly 1am.
Day 2 (Monday, November 21)
I got up at 7am to load up the cats. I got a little lost on the way because there are no street signs in Covington, at least not on the southbound side of the road. But I did get there and that’s what’s important. Martha and Amy were staying at a bed and breakfast in Covington and Martha was supposed to stay at the Humane Society to act as a vet tech to help them get the cats done, so I met them there and Amy came back with me. We made a trip to Northlake Medical Center on the way back to pick up some new oxygen tanks, and got a little lost on the way there too because the roads that do have street signs all change names about 3 times a piece. But that’s ok. We got back to the basecamp at noon and started working in the cat tent. I did rows 1 and 2 this time, since we were a little shorthanded. Martha got back around 3 I think and started helping us. She had been bitten by a cat at the HS (some of the cats were semi-feral) and while cleaning in the cat tent she was bitten by another cat! That same cat that bit her in the tent had apparently bitten Kathy earlier in the day, so they put him on Rabies watch. Kathy actually had to go to the ER because of it (Gregory was supposed to leave on Monday but since he took Kathy to the ER he ended up leaving on Tuesday instead). We finished up in the tent at 7pm and I drove in to Covington to get some dinner at Chik-fil-A, which is something I got in the habit of doing (mostly because I got no cell reception anywhere near the camp, but I got it in Covington so I drove there about once a day to check messages and call Erik to check in). I had learned of a hotel near the camp that supposedly had vacancies so I decided to check it out on my way back. It did indeed have rooms, so I booked one for 6 nights at 50$/night (mom offered to pay for half of it). I headed back to the basecamp around 9pm to find that they had ordered pizza again, and I ate a slice even though I had just had dinner (not that that means a whole lot, considering I only had time for one meal a day while I was there). I did some more work in the tent with Heather to decide which cats to transport to the HS the next day, and finally headed to the hotel at around 11:30pm. Once again, though, I couldn’t fall asleep. I finally dozed off at about 3am.
Day 3 (Tuesday, November 22)
The plan for Tuesday was pretty much the same as Monday, only Martha didn’t feel comfortable staying at the HS since she couldn’t be of much help with her injured, twice-bitten hand. So she went on to the camp with Amy and I stayed to help vet the cats. It was a nice change of pace, and I now have a bit more vetting experience under my belt, even though I didn’t do a whole lot. I left the HS with the cats at around 2pm and set them up in the house for recovery, then headed down to work in the tent until 6pm. The Vanderelzens had made a trip to the Best Friends camp in MS to trade out some cats (I’ll talk about the trailer park cats soon) so we spent another hour and a half taking the empty crates out to be cleaned and setting new crates up in the tent and getting the new cats settled in. Jim and Claire were set to leave in the morning, and they decided to take us all out to dinner that night, which was very nice. The group included them and Nathaniel, the Vanderelzens, Mrs. Cantor, Charles, myself, and a few new volunteers that had come in either late Monday or earlier Tuesday: *Stacy is from Dallas and does a lot of cat rescue there. She is very knowledgeable about feline behavior. Laurie and Susan came in from New York. Susan does HR work and I don’t remember what Laurie does, but they are both incredibly nice. I don’t know much about Claire (not of Jim and Claire) because she did mostly office/admin work so I didn’t spend a lot of time with her, but she is super sweet and fun to hang out with. She is from DC.* We went to a bar and grill type place in Bogalusa, and the food was really good. Afterwards we headed back to camp and took care of the cats some more. I helped feed and medicate the cats at the house, and then I had some awesome kitten cuddles with one of the new cats that had come in, a young kitten named Hope.
Hope and I took a nap on the couch, and people kept taking pictures of us while I was asleep. I finally headed back to the hotel at 1am, got to sleep around 2:30.
(Laurie)
(Susan)
Day 4 (Wednesday, November 23)
Housekeeping woke me up at 7:30am, but I didn’t get up until 8. I had to be at the basecamp by 8:30 for the daily meeting (which I had been exempt from up to this point do to transporting) but since the camp was literally 5 minutes from the hotel this wasn’t a problem. After the meeting I moved all the recovery cats back down to their crates in the tent and then helped Charles move dirty equipment from the house to the cleaning station. Then I worked in the tent for a while as usual, doing row 2 this time. Jim and Claire left, and Laura came in from Florida. Now I will tell you about the 2 events that made this day stand out. The first is very bad, and the second is very good.
1) While I was taking a break from equipment to chat with Susan FZ outside the house, Mrs. Cantor came rushing over with one of her cats, Ms. Hissy. She had given Ms. Hissy a doggy advantage rather than a kitty advantage and was afraid that the formula wasn’t good for cats. I explained to her that the formula is the same for both dogs and cats just the dose was different; she said that there was a lot, but she’d washed most of it off, and Susan FZ and I agreed that since she washed it off it should be ok, so Mrs. Cantor went back home. Neither Susan FZ nor I are vets, obviously, and while we thought we were giving Mrs. Cantor good advice, we weren’t. About 5 hours later, after the advantage had completely soaked in, Mrs. Hissy started to seizure and they had to rush her to the emergency vet. I didn’t realize how much was in the doggy sized dose, and apparently you cant wash it off with just soap and water as Mrs. Cantor had tried to do; it had poisoned the cat. Ms. Hissy is ok, after spending a few days at the vet getting fluids to flush her system, but I have never been so panicked. My bad advice could have killed Ms. Hissy, so I learned a valuable lesson about keeping my mouth shut. Mrs. Cantor is amazingly nice though, and brushed the whole thing off like it was no big deal. Susan FZ and I were so ashamed/worried… 2) After Charles finished with the equipment he went into Bogalusa to pick up some supplies. While there, he saw a puppy in the parking lot. Now, something that I need to make note of is that there are no leash laws in this part of LA. Dogs roam free everywhere and they aren’t lost and you’ll get in trouble for picking them up the way we would here. But this puppy was so frightened, running from person to person (all of whom ignored him), nearly getting run over 3 different times, that finally Charles called him over and brought him back to camp. The poor pup was terrified and covered in fleas and ticks, so we’re pretty sure he was dumped.
Anyways, we named him Charlie, after Charles of course, and he’s awesome. Since ACA isn’t equipped to handle dogs they were going to transport him up to Best Friends, but I asked them not to since I was supposed to bring back dogs for the Dog House anyways. So Charlie stayed and I was put in charge of him. Since the weather was nice we set up a crate in the yard outside the house, and he stayed there for the day/night.
In the evening we administered dewormer to all of the cats by mixing it with their wet food. After socializing some of the cats for a while I headed back to the hotel and got to sleep around 11:30pm.
Day 5 (Thursday, November 24)
THANKSGIVING! I woke up at 7:45am and got to the basecamp at 8:10. Julia and Ethan has already found a fancy new collar and leash for Charlie and had taken him on a nice walk. I took him on another walk, and then worked in the tent until 2pm. Susan FZ left, and several new people came in: *Diane took over as onsite director (she has played that role earlier, then took a break while Jim and Claire came in, then came back to replace them). She also used to work at Best Friends. Kathy K. came in from Buffalo, she had also volunteered earlier on and came back. She works on film projects and knows Cher and Hulk Hogan. Cheryl I don’t know much about, but she is very sweet and quiet. Adrienne, Alyson and Jovi came in from the DC area but decided to work with a different group inside the city; they still camped out on the ACA site and attended the morning meetings though. Tom and Alex are also repeat volunteers who divide their time between ACA and the other rescue group in the city.* Mrs. Cantor had invited all of us to her house for dinner at 4, so I did random tasks until then. The dinner was very nice, even though I’m very finicky and there wasn’t much there I could eat.
(group photo before dinner)
(Claire, Martha, Stacy and Kathy at dinner)
(Tom and Laurie after dinner)
Her son, his wife and her mother all helped prepare the meal, and it was incredible. We hung around Mrs. Cantor’s house for a few hours, and then Heather, Amy, Martha and I all went down to the tent to feed the cats dinner. After that I took a very special cat, Whip, up to the house to try to socialize her.
Whip’s story: Whip was spotted eating outside of a house where 5 cats were rescued. They saw her there a few days in a row and assumed she might have lived there, but they couldn’t get close enough to pick her up. They set out traps, and she went in, but before they came back to retrieve the traps a pack of dogs dragged the trap 75 feet down the road trying to eat Whip. She is so traumatized from that experience that she will not leave her carrier unless no one is around (ie: at night). Unfortunately, I didn’t have any luck socializing her, because there wasn’t a good place to take her (I tried the bathroom, but the hot water heater was in there and she kept hiding behind it). So after I spent an hour with Whip Julia and Ethan and I all played with Hope and chatted about stuff. They really are awesome kids. Laurie and Susan left in the evening. Since Kathy still wasn’t feeling well from her bite wound, I let her sleep in my hotel room and Charlie and I camped out in my van (he slept in my sleeping bag with me). I got to bed around midnight.
Day 6 (Friday, November 25)
The Vanderelzens left in the morning, as did Martha and Amy. I woke up pretty early to call the local vet to see if they could squeeze Charlie in, since I couldn’t bring him home unvaccinated. They had an opening, so after spending a few minutes at the tent I took Charlie to the vet in Bogalusa. On my way back, I saw a dog wandering down the side of the highway. She had a collar, so I was going to leave her, but then I saw how emaciated she was…. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.
I pulled over and she came right to me. I rushed back to camp to drop Charlie off and tell Heather and Diane about the new dog (I was a little worried they would be upset, since Diane and I had just had a long talk about not picking up dogs the night before) but they could see how bad off she was and were glad that I had saved her. They told me to take her back to the vet, and sent Jeff, a local guy who came by just to volunteer for the day, with me. The dog looked post-partum and we were afraid we might have to go scouring the area for puppies. The vet was less than pleased when we came back, but not because we didn’t have an appointment. The dog, whom I named Fiona, is a pit bull, and this vet is pretty opposed to pit bulls. She ranted to me about it for a while, and I tried my best to be polite with my disagreements, and I did pretty well considering I wanted to punch her in the face. Anyway, Fiona was anemic to the point that her gums were white, and she hadn’t eaten in so long they couldn’t get a stool sample. She was heartworm negative though, and very energetic and affectionate. The vet told us that she was probably used to breed fighting dogs, as she has had multiple litters but none recently enough to be nursing (not that she is in any condition to nurse, having no body fat whatsoever). We took her back to camp and got her set up in an outdoor crate.
2 new volunteers came while I was out, Kim and Debbie from Vermont, and they had rented an RV for the trip. They fell for Fiona immediately and offered to let her stay in their RV rather than in the crate, so that’s where Fiona has been, and still is. After I got the dogs taken care of, I helped vet the cats at the camp. Denise, another repeat volunteer, and her friend/assistant Alicia were getting the cats all up to date with vaccines and microchipping them. One cat pooped on me. His name is Jeparle.
I though it humorous that I was shat on by the French cat. Anyways, after we finished and I got cleaned up a bunch of us went out to eat at this Mexican restaurant in Bogalusa called Maria’s. It sucked, but what can you do? After dinner I walked/fed the dogs, and since Fiona was set up to sleep in the RV I planned on sneaking Charlie into the hotel with me. It turns out they allow dogs, so I didn’t have to be sneaky. I got to bed around 1am.
Day 7 (Saturday, November 26)
Up at 8am, at the basecamp by 8:30. Kathy and Stacy left in the morning and a few new people arrived: Gail and Roy, also repeat volunteers, as were Mark and Wendi, who spent a lot of time working in the city. I worked in the tent until around 10am, at which point I was called up to help with the vetting again. So I did that until about 2 and then headed back down to the tent. It rained all day; it was the first really bad weather we had. After we finished there and the dogs were taken care of I went out to eat at a place called Abita BrewPub (in Abita Springs, near Covington) with Diane, Heather, Kathy K, Denise, Gail, Roy, Mark and Wendi.
(clockwise from left: Denise, Mark, Wendi, Roy, Gail, Heather, Diane, and Kathy)
Great food, and delicious desserts (we ordered a few and shared). We got back to camp just before 11pm, after which Denise and I continued vetting some cats for a while (there were a few cats who had stopped eating due to sickness, so we had to give them subcutaneous fluids and force feed them… it was not fun). Charlie and I got back to our hotel a little before midnight, and I got to bed around 1:30am.
Day 8 (Sunday, November 27)
Up at 7:45 to pack up my stuff. Charlie decided to act like the 5 month old puppy he is for once and chewed through the phone cord in my room. I confessed his sin when I checked out, but luckily the hotel people didn’t care. We got to the basecamp at 8:25am and worked in the tent until 4pm. Some new volunteers came in: Millie, from Cincinnati, who does tons of TNR work there, and Gloria from Detroit, as well as a couple of other women whom I didn’t really get a chance to meet. Gloria actually ended up bailing out when she found out we weren’t doing anymore field work; I ran into her the next day at Best Friends. She didn’t even tell anyone she was leaving. A lot of the newer volunteers were annoyed at the lack of field work, but the basecamp is closing on December 18th and they don’t want to bring in any new cats if they can help it, since they’re busy trying to relocate the ones they have. But oh well. I talked to Diane a bit about making arrangements to take Charlie; I couldn’t take Fiona =( she will need extra care and the Dog House can’t handle that right now. Anyways, since ACA doesn’t do dogs, I had to make arrangements to go up to Best Friends in MS to put Charlie through their system before taking him home, but since I had planned to go there anyways to try to get dogs for TDHR I thought it work out well. I went into Covington to get some food, and when I came back I learned that Fiona had bitten off the tip of her tail. I don’t know why she did that, but it freaked me out. She’s ok though. Tom and Alex came back (they had spent the weekend in the city) and I went through the many, many things that I had brought and didn’t use and gave a bunch of it to Tom. There is a woman in New Orleans who stayed through the storm. Her home was destroyed, so she’s camping out in her own yard, and many neighborhood animals that had been left behind have started accumulating on her property. She tries to take care of them all, but she has no job now and has almost nothing, so Tom tries to help her out. He’s a really nice guy. I spent my last night there sleeping in the van with Charlie. It had rained off and on all day, but that night the sky cleared and I could see every star in the sky. The weather was perfect, and it was a great last night at camp. I got to sleep around 1am.
Day 9 (Monday, November 29)
Strangely enough, the last day was the longest. I woke up at 6:45am to pack up my van. I had brought my own crates in anticipation of transporting dogs back home, so I assembled them before loading the van and it took a while to get everything arranged efficiently. Then we got locked out of the house, and Alex had to climb through the window to let us in. I was supposed to bring Fiona to Best Friends so she could stay there, but Kim and Debbie refused to part with her, so she stayed with them in the RV and they are currently making arrangements to take her home with them (I’m so glad about that; I was so depressed about leaving her behind but knowing she’s in a good home really makes me feel better about it). After talking to Diane and saying goodbye to everyone I left the bascamp and headed to Tylertown. I got there at about 9:30am. The Best Friends camp is enormous; much, much bigger than the ACA camp. They have over 400 dogs there as well as a bunch of cats, and the volunteer staff is extensive. They even have their own chef! This particular morning they were very busy though, and I ended up waiting 6 and a half hours to get everything processed there. Best Friends’ policy is that they have all their animals on 90 day holds to allow then enough time to be relocated with their owners. Since its been 90 days since the storm I thought I would be able to get some, but they didn’t have the time to find out which dogs were ready for adoptions that happened to be under 30 lbs (my one contingency). So at first I was just going to get Charlie ready to go, but by the time that was done (noon) they decided that I could take some puppies that had been owner-relinquished. I called and cleared it with Amelia, but I still had to wait. I actually ended up doing some work for them in the meantime. I got out of there with 3 puppies + Charlie at 4pm and started home. The drive was very very long, and I was very very tired, and I actually had to stop and take a brief nap at one point. Then I saw a kitty as a rest stop when I stopped to walk the dogs, and spent 40 minutes trying to catch her [she would come right up to me and follow me around but she wouldn’t let me pet her or pick her up] before the security guard informed me that she lived there and people took care of her. Anyways, I got home at 2am. By the time I got the dogs settled in it was after 3am. I got up at 8:30am to get them to the vet.
*Charlie is a 5 month old male black lab/beagle mix
*Apollo is a 4 month old male white shepherd mix (it turns out he’s feral… they didn’t mention that, of course, when I got him. So he’ll need some extra socializing)
*Sierra and Sophie are 3 months old mutt sisters. Sierra has kennel cough.
One retarded thing: even though we are positive that Charlie was dumped and thusly will not be reclaimed, since he went through Best Friends he has to be on a 90 day hold. During this time we cannot adopt him out or even neuter him, and he is starting to hump (he favors my leg, but he did try to hump Napolean this morning). I think this is the stupidest thing. Charlie is adorable and super adoptable right now, but in 3 months he’ll be older and less desirable. I think the hold is great for Katrina dogs whose owners really want them back, but Charlie is not one of them and they are doing him a disservice.
So yeah. We will be fostering the boys (Charlie because of the hold and Apollo so I can bring him to work and try to socialize him) and the girls will be staying at Avondale. For now though, we have Sierra while she is being treated for kennel cough and the others are all at Avondale.
And now that I’m done with all that, I’m going to tell you about my favorite cats that I sadly could not bring home:
*Hope, the little cuddle kitten, was adopted by the Vanderelzens! Yay!
*Murphy Brown is a spaz, she was awesome.
*Panther was a “semi-feral” but I think really he was just scared. At first he would hide at the back of his crate, but after a while he started hanging out at the front near the door, and he even let me pet him! He’s a treat whore.
*Tripod is a 3-legged cat that was found hiding out in an AC duct after the hurricane. He rears up on his back legs and waves at people.
*Beverly is the sweetest cat ever. Her owner stayed behind during the hurricane because she didn’t want to leave her cats behind, and she ended up dying. The cats survived though, although Beverly’s kittens, who were very young during the storm, are very frightened and not very social.
*Geek, AKA Muffin, is very playful. She has a heart murmur.
*Sun, Moon and Snowflake are FIV+ siblings, and all are super playful and adorable. Thankfully, they have a good home to go to.
(Sun is the tabby and Moon is the black kitty; Snowflake not pictured)
*Patches is a mean feral who was declawed and can’t go back outside. He was actually living in a house with 80 other cats. So you see guys, I’m not all that bad compared to some people.
And my favorite…
*Ginny is just hilarious. She’s a tabbico (tabby/calico) like Caliope. She hangs out in her hammock but jumps down when you open her crate and comes right up to love on you, but then she sees your hand and gives you this alarmed look and bats at your hand with her paw (she doesn’t use her claws) before coming back to love on you some more. I think she just can’t decide if she wants to love you or show you what for. I heart her, she cracks me up.
There are more photos on facebook. I'll make an entry about other things later.