After a quick new volunteer orientation of the premises (which basically consisted of learning where the kitchen was, bowls and cleaning materials kept), me and A., who was awaiting the release of her A'level results got down to cleaning the cages of the cats and rabbits.
Cats are fine, they get airy wooden enclosures, use a litter box and the SPCA has mostly short haired breeds. The rabbits have newspaper as bedding which most of them enjoy shredding, shit and pee on the newspapers and they tend to drop more food on the floors. Plus rabbits were house in both the wooden 'condominiums' (maximum 3 levels) and in iron cages which were dark and deep. Imagine having to stick half your body into an iron cage to wipe the back of it. Note that the rabbits seem to all pee at the back of the cages, and some scraping is needed to remove the newspapers. I held my breath each time I stuck my head in.
Removing the occupants of the cages was a tiny bit of a challenge as well. The cats seemed willing enough to be grabbed by me, though a few did unleash their claws, hooking themselves onto the sides of the wire doors or worse, getting tangled to my t-shirt. The rabbits either despised or were terrified of me. Granted, I have zero knowledge of rabbit body language, and did not really know how to hold the first rabbit I attended to (though I figured they seemed happier if I supported their bums once I got to the second rabbit). All the black rabbits (3 in total) gave me baleful "you idiot, don't you dare" stares when they realised I was watching them while weighing my options as to how to extract them with minimal fuss. One of the cute brown dwarf rabbits proved super elusive and hopped from side to side to prevent me from grabbing itself. I won after 5 minutes, but the delay and lack of grace in the operation definitely made me feel that the rabbit had outsmarted me.
Volunteer 0 - Rabbits 1
A. encountered problems with cleaning Toby the cat's cage, for he is currently the heaviest cat in the world and A. could hardly carry him at all. Plus, he seemed determined not to move anywhere we wanted him to, and not to be carried. I managed to lift him out, complained about his weight, then floundered as he resisted going into the picnic basket, receiving a minor scratch, and about 5 minutes of turmoil as I pondered the possibility of dying from bacteria on a cat's claws.
Finally we managed to make him move to the picnic basket by showing him that his breakfast was waiting for him in there.
Volunteers 0 - Big Black Cat 1
Kittens are really cute, and the SPCA currently has 2 mostly white kittens, Jasper and Jazz housed together. They were vocal, demanded my attention, and would not stop mewing pitifully while I cleaned the nearby cages. They also enjoyed reaching out with their tiny paws to pat my waiting fingers. Then one of them patted me on the head while I cleaned the rabbit cage below theirs, and I hopped back in shock, scaring the poor kitten who scrambled backwards as well. There's nothing like having a few unexpected pats on the head from inquisitive kittens and I recommend it to everyone. A. herself had to deal with the black kittens who attempted to escape from her whenever she tried to transfer them between their cages and the picnic basket.
Having finished cleaning, feeding and providing clean water for the cats and rabbits, A. and I then proceeded to the cattery next door, a room enclosure where the few privileged cats could run about freely. There I had the honour of being chosen as the seat of choice for one of the Tabby cats as he gave instruction regarding how best to stroke and massage him. I never had a cat sit in my lap before, and it was really amazing.
Combined results:
Volunteers 0 - Cats & small animals 3
Maybe next time I could get a chance to clean the dog cages. There was this huge team in action this morning, and we all know dogs are active and vocal and it looked like great fun.
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