Animal Shelters

I quit my job today, had it all of four days. I believe that's the shortest time I've ever had a job. The work is grueling, and I already knew that. You see, I had worked there before, several years ago under different ownership. Cleaning cat cages doesn't seem like it'd be difficult but it's very time consuming and you have to have your room/rooms presentable in three hours... Three hours does sound like a long time, but believe me it freaking isn't. I finished one room in that amount of time... There are four cat rooms.

Two cat rooms have adults that walk around freely while kittens and pregnant moms are in cages, females in one room and males in another. The other two rooms have nothing but kittens in them, one room has four cages of kittens, another has 10! So many animals that need homes but no one comes to claim them. At least 5 kittens are feral, but could be good cats if they had someone spend time with them, we don't have that time. We clean all day, this is the only job I've ever had that you stand/squat/lift/scrub for a FULL 7 hours, there are no breaks.

You can have a lunch break but that's just more time spent there. At least three cages of kittens, maybe 10-12 kittens have URI's (upper respiratory infections), which is common in places with such close quarters, but they haven't been treated. I've been there four days and have never seen them receive medicine. All I can do is clean their eyes and hope they aren't sealed shut when I arrive the next day, and they almost always are. But finally today they got that medicine for the eyes, but not for the infection. And, I decided to, overnight, foster a kitten last night. He's been really dehydrated you see and I wanted him to get a chance.

So I brought him home, made him a bed and such. He was not eating or drinking anything, I forced some pedialyte in him but after a few hours I was so worried that he'd turn out like the last kitten I tried to save and die. I persuaded my mum to travel with me an hour away to this 24 hour clinic. But since it was after hours the exam fee was going to be $105. I told mum I'd give her my whole check if she'd help me fix this kitten, whom I named Raith. The vet bill totaled $220 and we found out our little 2 month old Raith is Feline Leukemia positive, at least that's what one test said.

I'm getting him tested again in a few months, there's always a possibility, albeit a small one, that it was a false positive or that his body could reject the disease and he'll be fine, OR that he'll live a long healthy life with the disease. I had a cat named Thomas who lived to be about twelve! (Life expectancy is about three years depending). The animal control bitch said I need to just put him down, he's a danger to my other cats. Which is both a load of shit and partially true. You see FIV can be spread by positive cats being in contact with negative cats by saliva, bodily fluids really such as sharing food and water dishes, and playing rough like biting.

However; he could live a long happy life without much sickness, and our house is big enough we can keep him in his own part of the house to run and play, much to my cats dislike of course, but they'll get over it. If he ends up constantly being sick and rundown then yes by all means we will put the poor baby out of his misery, I don't want him to suffer, I want him to be loved.

So basically I told my boss I couldn't take it like I thought I could but I would love to volunteer and help take care of the cats (the dogs are well taken care of I've seen, except for that one outbreak of parvo). And help clean of course, but this way I'll be able to say okay I've had enough see ya! Though I won't be getting paid for it, which is okay... Ish. But when I go to school then graduate I'll have that service under my belt to possibly get in the door quicker for a vet tech position.