Kittens Are So Stinkin' Cute!

One of the best things about being a volunteer at HART is that you get to play with incredibly cute cats and kittens. Today was one of those super adorable days.

If you've never been to HART (which is probably most people reading this) we have cats running around loose everywhere. There is a storage/laundry room off the lobby that several senior kitties call their home. (The lobby and the storage/laundry room that is.) These cats usually are on medications, but they're not all seniors. One such kitty is Sampson, a 6-7mo. old kitten who has been having bowel issues, URI, and I'm not even sure what else. He is so adorable, and is totally my snuggle buddy on Saturdays.

(These were taken in 5/19/2012. Sampson was not feeling well, and not impressed with having his picture taken.)

Sampson and I had our usual playtime, until he was completely tuckered out, but then, a new playmate arrived! Tiny little Fancy didn't get adopted during today's tabling event, so she came to hang out at the shelter until her foster mom was ready to go home. Sampson was delighted to have another kitten to play with, but Fancy wanted nothing to do with him. Instead, she kept running into the storage/laundry room where the much bigger, older cats were hanging out. They would try to sniff her, and she would puff up like a miniture halloween cat. It was so cute.

What does this do?

One of the older cats in particular took an immediate shine to her. His name is Lucky, a 16 yr old black cat. The first time she ran into the storage/laundry room, he jumped down from his nap on the shelf and went over and sniffed her. She sniffed back, did her halloween cat impression, and ran off out of the room. Lucky followed after her. He followed her all around the lobby, and into the conference room. What made it wicked adorable though, was if he lost sight of her, he would start crying like a mother cat would! At one point he was in the storage/laundry room crying for her, and she ran into the room, gave a little mew, he instantly stopped crying and then ran over to her. It was almost more cute than I could handle!


Fancy was full of energy and all over the place. Sampson never stopped trying to play with her though.

Eventually Fancy stopped to eat some food, clean herself, and then take a little nap, so I attempted to snap some pictures. Enjoy the cute, and ignore the blurriness.

   

June is National Adopt a Shelter Cat Month

It's been a while since I posted (shame on me!) so here are a couple of things to be aware of:

• June is National Adopt a Shelter Cat month! I'm not sure who decides these things, but I'll go with it. Shelters all across the country are having promotions to celebrate, and HART is no different.

• There is a low cost Spay/Neuter clinic for low-income households that has opened at Freeport Outlet.

I want to talk a little bit about sponsorship programs. Sponsorship programs are important to shelters because they help to provide a reliable influx of money into the shelter. While donations and adoption fees bring in more money than sponsorships do, they are unpredictable and can vary greatly from month to month. How the sponsorship money is used varies by shelter, but being able to count on a known amount coming in each month goes a long way to keeping the lights on and the animals fed.

HART, being a volunteer run shelter, uses the money it receives from the sponsorship program to pay for food, medicine, veterinary care and more for each cat sponsored. If you are interested in learning more about the sponsorship program, please contact HART.