A Cat Fix

After the stress of our evaluation this morning, Mother and I both had a jones for a good cat fix so we headed for ARF. Her apartment is only a couple of blocks from the Animal Rescue Foundation's cat shelter, open to visitors daily from 1 to 4pm. It's housed in a shabby little blue-fronted circa-50s storefront in a rundown strip mall, but they've got big plans for a million-dollar facility they'd share with the dogs (which are now the purview of the SPCA and subject to termination in case of overcrowding).

Inside, the facility is kept very clean, and more than 40 cats are made very comfortable with every imaginable type of cat furniture (much of it hand-built), toys and cushy sleeping spots. At least four volunteers work four hours a day, though they obviously don't consider it work. They chat, snack, toss treats to the cats whenever they want to start up a swarm, tease them with the laser toy, administer meds and make themselves very much at home with their little flock of felines.

There are so many we were only able to make the acquaintance of a few: Cindy was the fat gray who took over first my lap, then Mother's. Peaches is the huge gold tabby who lives by the kitchen tap waiting for somebody to turn it on for her. Ol' Whitey has been with them for at least five years and seems resigned to being unadoptable. The gray kitten sitting in the window is blind in one eye, but has been promised to some people who already have one half-blind cat.

Today was our second day to visit the cats, and Mother was beside herself with the pleasure of lapwarmers and kitten gymnastics. She cooed and burbled at every feline in petting distance and when old Cindy settled into her lap it was hard to get Mom to go home.

The volunteers told me if Mother wanted to foster a cat, they might be able to send someone over on a regular basis to help with the sandbox. We took an inventory and decided we'd choose one of the older, mellower cats, small enough for Mother to pick up, set enough in his ways he wouldn't be apt to wander much. I can't wait to talk to Judy about it.