The cat that won’t come to play.

Its a strange thing, watching someone bring an animal into a sanctuary to put it up for rehoming. That animal is about to be thrown away from everything it has ever known in life and simply tossed into a very strange and unforgiving environment. Cats seem to be the worst affected. While the dogs do miss their owners and seem to be pining for them by showing behaviours like excessive nervousness and not eating their meals, it will get over the injustice very quickly. It is in the nature of the domesticated dog to seek out human attention and nothing does this to greater affect than a ‘sad’ dog.

Cats, however, are solitary creatures at heart and while they tolerate human company, they do not crave it. So, a cat that has suddenly found itself being tipped out of a carry box into a pen that only has the bare esentials has nobody and nothing to turn to. Everything becomes a threat and the only way that the cat can possibly survive is to keep its head down and its paws underneath it and to stay as alert as felinley possible.

This was never so evident to me as it was today. A beautiful black cat with most amazing yellow eyes cowering in the corner behind her scratching post. A creature so unnerved by this ordeal that she cant eat, drink or even go to the litter tray. An animal so confused by everything that has happened to it that it wont even allow itself the small comfort of sleeping into the well blancketed bed because that is slightly closer to the door of the pen than her current hiding place in the corner.

Eventually she will learn that we are not horrible creatures come to hurt her. She will learn that while many of us are excentric to say the lease, we are there to offer her a lap to sit on, a finger to scratch and most importantly, good food to fill her belly. It may not be the specially saved leftovers she is used to but we do our best.

Hopefully she will get over her depression before we have to resort to medical intervention before she gets too dehydrated.

Making a living picking up poo

None of my teachers at high school ever thought I would ammount to anything. All anyone could have hoped for was for me to get 5 c’s at GCSE. One teacher even went so far as to tell me that out of all of the kids in his class I was the one most likly to fail math. Nice guy eh? Well 9 C grade GCSE’s, a few ok-ish A’levels, a good National Diploma and an excellent BSc degree later…i think i have prooved them wrong.

It has been almost exactly one year since I attended my graduation ceremony from university where I picked up my 2:1 in Animal Behaviour and Welfare. since that time I have been volunteering in South Africa at an endangered species breeding centre, worked with racing greyhounds and experienced the highs and the lows of the sport, worked in a furnature shop 30 miles away from where I was living at the time, been made redundant and faced 3 horrible months on state benefits and then landed a one day a week job as receptionist at an animal sanctuary.

Needless to say it has been one crazy year. But now, after years of people telling me I’d never ammount to anything and then more years of people warning me that there is no work and even less money in the animal industry, I have landed my absolute dream job! Animal Care Assistant at a rehoming shelter for abandoned and unwanted dogs, cats and rabbits.

While it is not thew most glamorous of careers and it definatly wont be the easiest, it is what I have wanted to do for most opf my life. It is the very reason I went to university in the first place! And while picking up dog poo, sweeping up cat hair and making salad for rabbits may seem a bit of a hassle, I love it.

True the dogs are psychotic, the cats are sadistic and the rabbits are antisocial but that is only because they have had the roughest of times before they came to us. despite many of them coming from loving homes they all have one thing in common. They have all, for one reason or another, been abandoned by their owners and left in the care of complete strangers. Very kind and caring strangers, but starngers none the less. When you are a German Shepard dog who has never seen another dog before let along heard any kind words, this basically means you have been left in a hostile situation to which you are programed to respond to with your teeth.

These animals have gone from living the life of Riley (whoever that was) to being kept in a kennel with an endless stream of new people attaching a lead to their collars and taking them out on walks in a completly unfamiliar environment.

We do our best with them but nothing we can provide can ever match the security and love an animal must feel when layt infront of the fire on top of its owners feet as they eat their dinner and watch Corrie. But we do our best. And I will try my damndest every single day to make the lives of these animals easier and a little less stress free while they are living with us. This is my promise and I intend to keep it!