Edith – Animal Haven 4th Visit

Yesterday Anna, Sophie, Meghan and I went to visit Animal Haven for the fourth time.  When we arrived, we knew the drill.  We went upstairs and began cleaning out the cages of the cats with leukemia.  This was a pretty important job, and I was a little surprised they let us do it.  We had to wash everything in the room with Clorox and bleach to make sure the leukemia didn’t spread.  We all took it pretty seriously.  After that, we went downstairs to the boutique area to see if they had any other jobs for us.  There wasn’t anything to do at the moment, so we got to sit in the front windows and play with the little kittens on display.  They put the kittens on display because they’re pretty cute and draw people into the store.  It was all fun, we got to play with them and give them fake names, until one kitten (who we had named Gibble) pooped.  It was kind of gross, because the piece of poop got stuck in his fur, and we couldn’t get it out.  After that, we went upstairs again.  There was a group of new kittens to the shelter, who weren’t old enough to be put in the front windows yet.  They were the tiniest cats I had ever seen.  They were 5 weeks old, and only about the size of my hand.  Their eyes were so tiny and they were so cute.  Kendra (the volunteer coordinator) told us that most 5 week old cats were bigger than they were, so they might be dwarves.  We got to hold them for a while which was a really nice experience.  Although it was very fun and entertaining, it’s also an important job because the cats are interacting with humans for the first time.Something I’ve learned from Animal Haven is that there’s always a fun side and a not-so-fun side to doing a job.  Playing with little animals is fun, but scrubbing an entire room to get rid of germs isn’t that fun.  But it’s all really important, because both “jobs” contribute to the main goal we’re trying to achieve.