Find a Volunteer Wearing an Apron

I inherited some money after my mother died. It was past time for a break in my job anyway, and this allowed me to afford some time off and then a lighter work schedule. (How lucky one or two people have said. And sure, it’s lucky in the sense of getting some stocks handed down is better than not, but altogether it wasn’t a good trade off. Just as an aside.)

Nonetheless, with free time and a true devotion to cats, I fulfilled a long ambition to become a volunteer at the SF SPCA. http://www.sfspca.org/home.shtml This involved a lengthy training session (hours of slides and lectures before you can even set eyes on an actual animal). Now I’m an official Cat Socializer and Adoption Counselor. Should you visit Maddie’s in search of a cat, you’ll be told to find a volunteer in an apron to assist you.

Three hours a week, I’m there bonding with an amazing variety of wonderful felines, and helping potential adopters make a match. The whole system is impressive and complex. Hundreds of volunteers put in thousands of hours. The facility itself is state of the art, nothing like you’d picture when you think animal shelter.

And the cat volunteers have quite detailed guidelines to follow. We’re to visit each cat condo for a minimum of fifteen minutes, and include cuddle time and some interactive play. We must speak to the cats. We must not pick them up. We should encourage them to eat but certainly never bring them outside food. We’re to calm them down before we depart.

A "behaviorist" works with the cats before they get their condo assignments. She writes up a brief description of traits and personality to go with the more mundane info about age, weight and coloring. Naturally all the descriptions are positive and stress the animals’ best qualities. Anyone who’s been around cats knows they are quirky and vary greatly in their particular preferences and needs.

There are a bunch of peppy sounding adjectives to describe the hyper types – fun-loving, playful, energetic, looking for a home with experienced cat people, etc. The term shy covers a range of skittishness. Extra needy lap cats are cuddly, loving and sweet. There’s also an indication of whether they will likely get along with dogs or other cats. The two choices are "possibly" and "no." Meaning even a calm contented cat sharing the space curled up with her sister will at best maybe get along with another cat. Did I mention the behavior people really know cats well?