One cat, Two cats, Three cats...TEN!

Catchy title? Lol eh I tried. So today I started getting trained in cat receiving after working in dog kennels and cat maintenance for two months. You gotta start somewhere right? They want us to really get the cleaning down to a science before we can move on to the next 'level'. So I cleaned my life away to the point where I can do it now with my eyes closed...and man is there A LOT to clean. We like to keep our animals and facility squeaky clean and have them looking (and feeling) amazing. It's a lot of physical labor, but I don't mind it at all. And hey, I've lost ten pounds in the process :) 

Anyways, back to the topic. Yesterday was a pretty slow day in cat receiving as we only received two cats (that's considered a slow day). My co-worker, whom I shall call M, totally jinxed me and said that on Wednesdays is when the hoarders usually come in. And of COURSE, as soon as we open the doors a lady came in saying she had TEN cats in her car that she needed to drop off. I thought...seriously??? I'm still training and barely know what to do, and this is the first cat receiving I get?

As we were inputting her name into the computer, we realized she was a regular and has dropped off a total of 35 cats at our shelter. Can you imagine? She was crying telling us how she couldn't afford to care for them and that these were the sick ones. It's sad to see that because she truly believes that she's "rescuing" these animals, when in reality she's not. Out of the ten, we were only able to save one! They all had either fleas, feline leukemia and/or aids, upper respiratory infections (URI which is common in cats), or were malnutritioned. The one we were able to save only had flea allergies and miraculously didn't get URI, which is an airborne disease. Needless to say, they were in really bad shape.

You know, it's one thing to see it on TV and a totally different thing to see it in person. It's pretty rare for us to see dog hoarders but sadly it's not that uncommon to get cat hoarders. We have a couple of regulars. So today was quite an interesting day...but I'm so excited I'm finally learning something other than cleaning! I was able to start prepping the needles, medicine, and holding the animals for their shots. Woo hoo :) Let's hope tomorrow isn't too crazy!