Edith – 3/6/09 – Animal Haven
Yesterday we left school at 1:30 to go visit Animal Haven. We took a cab straight to the building on Centre Street, and got straight to work. Kendra, the person we normally meet with, was out having surgery, so we were with Tiffany instead. She was very nice. Animal Haven had a few separate facilities, but they want to move it all into just one. The old facility in Flushing had just been closed down, so there were a lot of boxes of files and random stuff to sort through. Tiffany showed us (me and Sophie) a bunch of boxes and asked us to sort them into separate piles. Meghan and Anna were addressing envelopes and thank-you notes. After we finished sorting, Tiffany asked us to come into the back office-area to put some folders in drawers. We put the label on the folder and slipped a smaller folder inside of it, then stuck it in the drawer. Sophie and I got a good system going. There was a new dog to the shelter, Lacey, who had just been washed for the first time. She was very happy and had a little purple bow between her ears. We were allowed to play with her for a little bit, which was really fun. I think that it’s very important for a dog or cat to feel really welcomed as soon as they come to the organization, because a lot of the animals haven’t really been loved or cared for, and that’s why they’re there. Lacey seemed very excited to be around so many people who would care about her so much. We grabbed our stuff and headed downstairs, to the main store area. In the back is where they keep most of the cats. Tiffany asked us to “socialize” with the cats. We had to make sure we followed the safety rules, like putting hand sanitizer on our hands before we touched any animals, and not leaving two doors open at the same time. There was one cat, Momma, who we all felt pretty bad for. She was very, very skinny and one of her ears was cut off and smushed. You could see all her ear organs. She also had a bald patch on one of her arms. I felt bad because she was 10 years old. Kendra told us that the younger dogs and cats are always adopted more quickly, so I assumed it might be hard for Momma to get adopted because she was old AND in bad shape. We had a good time at Animal Haven, and we’re still thinking of how it relates to sustainability.