February 7, 2026

𝐃𝐚𝐲 𝟑𝟖 - 𝐅𝐞𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝟕, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔

It's been a few days since I've posted. I've been trying to take more downtime on my weekends, which has been good for me. I'm a total workaholic, but I'm trying to do better.

The first thing that happened today was finding one of our kittens who had mutilated his neuter site. It's not typically the boys who do that. He earned a stay in medical and a fancy e-collar to prevent any further damage. The site is infected, so we have to send out a culture on the discharge and hope he's already on the right antibiotics.

Our little one-eyed cutie who had his eye removed on Monday decided to wear his e-collar like a tutu and rub his itchy socket on whatever he could find. Thankfully, he wasn't able to do enough damage to require intervention beyond switching to a different e-collar. I could not for the life of me figure out how he got the collar down around his waist. I had to cut it off because I couldn't slide it up or down over his legs. Cats can be maddening sometimes!Since my last post, we've had some number changes. We've done 9 intakes and balanced that out with 11 adoptions. Of those 11 adoptions, only 5 were kittens. As you know, I love when adults go home!

Today was a busy Saturday. Four of those adoptions happened today, including a pair of kittens. One of those kittens was about to age out of the kitten room, so I was happy someone picked him in the nick of time. Of the 9 intakes, 6 came in today: a FeLV+ little sweetie, 3 shelter returns, 1 stray, and 1 owner surrender.

One of the shelter returns was valid. Unfortunately, her owner passed away. I had seen a post on Facebook that sounded like it might be a kitty from our shelter. I just had this feeling, so I reached out to the poster, looked up the last name in our system, confirmed with her, and scheduled the return for today.

The other 2 shelter returns were a bonded pair, and I was not happy about the entire situation. When the gentleman adopted them 2½ years ago, he knew they were shy. We didn't let him take them home on the first visit—we made him come back multiple times to spend time with them. They were shy little ladies but really sweet. Even though he knew this, he didn't put in the work at home and ended up adopting a more outgoing cat from somewhere else. This cat began to terrorize the bonded pair, so he asked to return them. Since he couldn't handle them, we had to go get them. He swore one of them would need to be trapped, but that wasn't the case. One of the girls gave my team a run for their money, but they were able to get her. Sadly, these girls almost doubled their body weight while in his home, so now we have to work to get that back off.

The owner surrender is a special senior who needed much more enrichment than his elderly owner was able to provide, so her family member submitted a surrender request on her behalf. It's always sad to see a cat come in who has only known one family his whole life.

Yesterday we had a cat come in who could not be handled at all. Her owner had passed away and the hospice nurse had taken the cat into her home and reached out to us. It was very clear this nurse didn't understand how to care for a cat. The poor thing was chased and stressed beyond belief. She was brought in a cardboard box that wasn't going to contain her and required some ingenuity from my team to get her from the car to the building safely. From the moment she was uncovered, she just screamed. Eventually they had to cover her kennel, otherwise the screaming would begin again.

Knowing this had happened, I took a careful approach with her. When it came time to move her from one kennel to another, I finally got to see what they were talking about with the screaming. Rather than push her through the hole to the other kennel, I opted to take her out and get her intake items done. Once on the table, she was calm and didn't give us any trouble. We were able to get her bloodwork, x-rays, and a few other intake items done without incident. Once she was returned to the kennel, she let me pet her again. Later when I tried, she screamed again. She's been through so much. I believe she's kennel aggressive. There was some thought she was painful, but I don't think that's the case. Hopefully Monday we can release her to her room and her new life can begin.

On Thursday, I arranged for a stray to be brought in that a security guard saw get dumped. He said the "gentleman" (and I use that term loosely) drove up, opened the hatch and sliding door, and pulled two cats out and dumped them loose. One of the cats bolted, but he was able to get the little girl. Upon examination at her intake, we noted that she had a kitty cold and her poor gums were bleeding. She's got some good pain management on board and now we're just letting her decompress.

I remember years ago when intakes felt routine. There has been nothing routine about the intakes we've done over the last couple of years. It's sad when our surrender applications outnumber our adoption applications. It's heartbreaking to see all of these cats lose their homes and everything they've ever known.

I believe I mentioned the babies that were stolen from mom recently. One of them passed away early this morning. The medical team and the foster tried like hell to save her, but she was what we call a "failure to thrive." No amount of supportive care can get them through it sometimes. This all led to making a video about what to do when you find neonates. We had talked about doing it previously, but when the foster arrived with the kitten angel, we decided to get it done. It was the first time I pulled a foster into making a video with me, and it was nice for it not to be just me. That video will be released soon, and they're making an infographic to go with it. Education is so important to ensure that when these fragile babies are found, the right steps are taken. The first step is to NOT kidnap them from their mother. It's absolutely heartbreaking. While we can simulate a lot of what mama does, it's no substitution for the real thing.

Despite the busy day, we still got out at a decent time, which was nice. I enjoy that it's staying lighter later so I get some sunlight in my day. I look forward to this time of year when there's light when I go in and light at the end of the day. The days don't feel so long!