Hands on approach

If you do go to the SPCA, do take time to play with the animals, with the assistance of a staff or volunteer. For potential animals which you are considering adopting, this could prove crucial in determining if you and the animal are suitable for each other. In the long run, the animal benefits from it too.

The following is an excerpt from an email I received from the SPCA Volunteer Coordinator, Serena.

Being a volunteer with the SPCA in the shelter area is not only about cleaning the animals and shelter. It is essential that we all try to spend more time actually hands on with our animals. Being hands on with them and giving them care, attention and play time is really important. With some animals it will help to build their confidence and feel good again and in some cases help them to realize that not all humans are horrible and cruel. Finally your time spent with the animals could help them to become more adoptable.

Drei

Blink the cat is the Houdini his generation. I arrived early this morning and was amazed to find an opened cat cage. Blink appeared not long later, calm and maybe a bit smug at having escaped. I later learnt, Blink has managed to open any cage they tried to keep him in.

Blink has other virtues including the ability to look cute and innocent after his obvious cage-break, the tenacity to resist attempts to place him back inside, and beauty, for he is slim and sleek with endearing features. I was going to add that he didn't run too far, but none of the SPCA cats really attempt to leave the compound. The big strange world outside is too intimidating for most. And they are cared for, spoilt and fed well in SPCA

Zwei

Cleaning dog poo has a greater fear factor than cat poo, though climbing into rabbit cages might be just as bad (thank goodness I was not on small animal duty last Saturday, there was a whole new wall of rabbits to deal with).

I thought I saw 4 volunteers rostered for dogs duty on Saturday, but only 2 of us turned up. And me, the obvious rookie was naturally adopted by one of the full time SPCA staff to deal with 11 (approx.) dog kennels, while my other brave volunteer counterpart dealt with the 6 back cages alone.

Steps to cleaning the dog kennels:

1. Enter kennel, leash excited dog(s)
   
2. Tie dog away from kennels to facilitate cleaning. Puppies and small dogs are to be kept in the small cages or enclosure.
   
3. Use doggy poo metal scoop to remove dog poo from cage (takes skill. see note 1)
   
4. Move doggy poo to the cesspit SPCA has on its premises (icky. see note 2)
   
5. Splash copious amounts of disinfecting detergent into kennel
   
6. Thoroughly hose the kennel enclosure. At the same time, change the waters in the water bowl.
   
7. Use huge squeegee to push water into the drains. Take cloth to wipe dog crate dry.
   
8. Drag reluctant dog back into kennel again.
   
9. Feed hungry dog.
   
10. Remove empty food bowl; or remove partially empty food bowl after 10 minutes. (tricky. see note 3)
    
11. Wash the food bowls

• Note 1: Smearing doggy poo the wrong way increases the amount of surface area to clean.
  
• Note 2: My guess is a special truck comes to drain the cesspit on a weekly basis. After half an hour, the pit turns into the hottest leisure zones in town for all kinds of pests, especially cockroaches and flies. Highest fear factor of all.
  
• Note 3: Some dogs are food aggressive. I've been warned that some dogs may bite.

My duty involved mainly scooping dog poo, depositing it into the pit; squeegee-ing the water and wiping the crates; feeding the dogs and washing up afterwards.

After cleaning was done I stayed behind to mingle with the dogs, and horrors - Nice dogs play rough too. But lucky me, the largest dog there, a German Shepherd has not turned rough on me yet, though the neutered fellow did have a rather perturbing habit of flashing me his privates whenever I was near. Other than that, he happily stayed still to let me pet him.

However, the yellow lab retriever I previously loved has fallen from grace because he treats me like I am his largest walking chew toy and I have bruises on my arm for it. Since he did not draw blood, I assume the wrestling game was without ill intention. I hope. I don't like being treated as merely a chew object.

Ein

Volunteer sessions on Sunday mornings begin at 9.30am. This morning I arrived at 9.20am, to find myself being stared at by 4 cats sitting high on their perch in the cattery while waiting for the other volunteers to arrive.

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.