The Cat

This is May, she's my new companion, as well as my foster cat. The first time I visited the Seattle Animal shelter I was focused on the dogs. I've always been a tad dog obsessive, but after moving to Ballard into a no dog allowed apartment, I decided to venture onto the furry yet smaller creatures. When I was faced with the overabundance of cats without homes I felt the need to volunteer. The shelter is packed with cats and when it comes time to make room for more it's the less desirable ones that have to go. Seattle animal shelter is a government funded institution which makes it a kill shelter. The people who work and volunteer there do their best to find homes for all the animals, but they can't force people to spay and neuter or adopt and rehabilitate sick, old or unsocialized animals. There's a I thought, I can rehabilitate these scruffy throwaways and find them love and more importantly life. It may not be a huge impact in the big picture, but to that one life... It is. I also get to force my abundance of love onto these cats.

The day I took May home, I didn't know anything about her. There's this room in the back of the building with all the sick animals. I asked for the least desirable cat, one that had been there too long and wasn't getting better. I looked at a few and passed on all the adorable ones poking there paws through the cage and looking for love. Then this volunteer pointed me to a cage that held May. She was sleeping so I read the file that hung from her cage. She was on a few antibiotics and eye infection drops. She had been there for a few months and wasn't getting better. When she woke up she looked up at me with two very crusted slits of eyes. She was dirty, 13 years old, and unwanted. Yes, I wanted her immediately. And like that she was mine. It's been more than a pleasure nursing her back to health. All she needed was love and to be out of that stress ridden shelter.
Now it's time for me to find her a home and I think I decided her home is with me. Some foster parent I am, I caved on the first cat. Figures, I get attached to my hair clips, so a little furry thing licking my face is a shoe in.