typical day at the adoption center

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In case you are wondering what some of the animal rescues that work inside a certain pet store do, here is a more or less typical day there. Come in around 10:30 in the morning. If it's Saturday, set up tables, set up cages, bring the cats from the cage bank out with their litter boxes, food, water, blankets, toys and cage cards. If it's Sunday, the cages are already set up, but we uncover them, unlock them, scoop litter boxes, replace food and water, and clean the cages if they're messy. At this same time, our foster parents bring their cats in to be put out for viewing in hopes that somebody will adopt them. While this is all going on, there is usually somebody stopping by to tell us somebody is out of food or water or something. Well yeah, thanks, we are working as fast as we can. Do you want to help us? lol Often we also get early people wanting to adopt or ask questions. Once the morning rush is over, we mostly field questions from people, handle adoptions (hopefully), talk, and pet the kitties. Petting the kitties is my favorite part, but it's hard because you fall in love with so many of them, but you can't take them all home! On a good day, we usually do 5 - 6 adoptions. But we also get returns. Sometimes it's somebody with a real good reason, like the cat they adopted just doesn't get along with their other cats, poops on the bed, trips up their elderly parents, etc. Or they lost their job, got a divorce, got ill, owner died, and there's nobody who will take the cat. We would rather take our cats back than have them end up at a shelter. :-( Sometimes it's a great day where somebody comes in and adopts a cat that's been hard to place. Usually it's a lot of kittens that get adopted. The $90 adoption fee covers spaying/neutering, vaccinations, FLV/FIV tests, and any other care that the cat might need. If you compare it to a "free" cat where you pay for all those things, it's a good deal. We only adopt to people who will keep the cat indoors, not de-claw them or use flea collars, etc. And we try to find a good fit, ie if we have a cat that hates other cats, we find somebody who wants an only cat, etc. At the end of the day on Saturday, everybody's boxes get cleaned, they get fresh food and water, and we lock and cover the cages. On Sunday, the fosters come and pick up who is left, and we tear everything down. Some of the cats stay in the store, in the cage bank in our room for people to look at during the week. It's not uncommon to do a few adoptions during the week. I'm in charge of doing the e-mails to coordinate the volunteers for the weekend. Lots of times people don't respond, they just show up. But we have never been unstaffed. It's a good group. Anyway, that's a day in the life of an adoption center.