Doing my bit for the animals

The past few months I have been helping out as volunteer at the local SPCA. I only go on Tuesday mornings and usually help out with whatever needs to be done. The group of volunteers that arrive early i.e. 8am as well as the ones who arrive late afternoon usually do routine jobs like changing cat litter boxes, washing food bowls, cleaning out animal cages / areas and so on. Volunteers like me who arrive after they dropped off kids at school (around 9:30 or so) do whatever is required. So I usually help with doing laundry like the blankets and towels they use, re-filling cat litter boxes after they have dried and putting them on the shelf ready for the next morning, sometimes I spend time with some of the animals because socialisation is a really important part as well. And when animals are brought in / adopted during the day I would help with getting cages ready or clearing it out. Little jobs like that that makes a difference.

Last week there were the cutest, tiniest kittens I have ever seen. They must have been around 2 weeks old (I think their mum was killed by a car) and they still needed to be bottle-fed every 3 - 4 hours. And when they drink from the tiny little bottle, their little ears would move forwards and backwards. So cute! I wish I had my camera there on the day, but unfortunately I did not.

The week before somebody brought in 3 little kittens around 5 or 6 weeks old. They were born under a house or something and their mum was nowhere to be seen. So usually kittens like these would be trapped, brought to the SPCA and they would then spend time with them to socialise them to get them used to people, they would desex them as soon as they are big enough and they microchip them. If the kittens are too old to get tame enough, then they would be released again where they were found, but at least won't be able to have kittens of their own and so prevent any further problems. These 3 kittens are currently at a foster home. Basically somebody keeps them at their house, they feed them, spend lots of time with them and when they are happy to be around people, then they go back to the SPCA for adoption. Bianca and I have been visiting these 3 kittens and they are so cute. Meet Mindy, Mandy and Monty -

Bianca had a great time playing with the kittens. Especially Mindy who is by far the most playful of the 3:


Mandy is so beautiful, but she is still a bit shy and not quite sure about people. Hopefully soon she will be just as playful as Mindy:


And Monty is the smallest of the 3. He is quite happy to sit on your lap and purr loudly.

Hopefully on Thursday we'll be able to go and see them again.

Today I got to meet the cutest, tiniest little birds. I'm not sure where they were found, but maybe their nest fell out of a tree or something, I don't know. They are so small that they don't have any feathers yet and each time you open the box (with air holes) where they were kept they would open their little beaks really wide begging for food. It was so cool to feed them - basically they are currently being fed on some wet cat food with bits of small meat - 2 pieces every 20 - 30 minutes (from early morning when the sun comes up to around 7:30pm). All I know is that I'm sure glad I'm not a Mommy bird, to feed your babies every 20 minutes the WHOLE day, wow!


"Food, food, food... starving, starving, starving!!!!"


Helping out at the SPCA is a really rewarding job. It feels great to help make a difference!