Shelter kitties

We've had some interesting kitties at the shelter recently, and working there has been incredibly rewarding lately.

There's 2 kitties, Inky and Harley, who were both previously incredibly shy, and are finally coming out of their shells. Inky was previously in a home where the other cats picked on him, and managed to damage one of his eyes, which I think he is now blind out of. As a result he is very scared of other cats, and while he is very affectionate, and loves his head being rubbed, he would never want to come out of his cage, and would sit in his litter tray the entire time and try to hide his head behind the edge of the litter tray if you tried to get him out of his cage.

When he first started coming into the play cages, he would try to hide in the hidey boxes in the scratching post tree and it was such a pain to try and get him out. Now he rarely goes in there, and loves his head being rubbed, and will actually jump down to the ground and investigate what's going on with a bit of confidence. He also started playing a bit last week, and I even got him in my lap for a bit. I think he will be a lap cat once he gets comfortable in a new home. He's very sweet, and will make a great companion for someone.

I'm not sure of Harley's past but I don't believe she had a happy one. When she first got to the shelter, she would not come out of her cage to play in the larger play cages. If you tried to pick her up she would hiss and growl and bite, and get very aggressive. She generally loved being patted in her cage, but would still sometimes get very aggressive even if you were just trying to pat her. As a result, she never came out of her cage, and she didn't get a lot of attention because us volunteers were a little scared of her!

2 weeks ago, one of the other volunteers managed to get her out of her cage and into the play cage. He said she hissed and growled at everything in the cage, and took about 10-15 minutes to settle down, but then was very sweet!

So now she's settling down a lot more, and since we don't have many kitties at the moment, she has one of the bigger cages, and is a completely different cat. She's much more friendly, is is so much more settled in the play cages. She previously would prowl around the play cage and would not stop the entire time she was in there. Now she jumps up to the window and watches what's going on outside, she's finally starting to play with a few toys, and I even picked her up and put her on my lap where she stayed purring away contentedly until I had to get up. I think very soon, she'll be jumping up to the volunteers laps looking for cuddles.

I'm still wary of her, and I generally don't pick her up, particularly to get her out of her cage, unless she's facing away from me, but she's just dramatically increased her chances of being adopted. I think the kindness of the volunteers and staff has greatly contributed to this.

It's just such a rush to see how you can change a kitties life, and help find them a new loving home. There was a previous kitty, Whitie, who came in as a stray and was incredibly shy with people in the play cages (but fine with other cats), but after lots of gentle coaxing, slowly came out of his shell and turned into a complete lap cat who loved attention. Every day I went in, he seemed more and more confident. He went to a home that I wasn't particularly happy with (I didn't like the lady), but hopefully he's doing ok!

The whole experience is great anyway, and certainly breaks up my weeks while waiting for that damn work permit!