Today I got the the shelter just as it was opening this morning. I haven't been there for about a week and I was excited to get one last visit in before I leave town for the Holidays. The center isn't in the most lavish of areas of San Jose and there is actually a vacant lot right next door that seems to attract a few homeless people. I haven't seen much of them before, but now that it is getting colder and a little wet on occasion, they tend to seek refuge under the covered areas in the front of the building when the facility is still closed. One young man was there today and he made my stomach turn solely due to him blowing his nose into his hand. When the staff unlocked the doors, they invited him in and I assume he used the restroom, but later I also saw him walking around and looking at the animals.
It was a little peculiar when I went back
to the cat houses because there was a cat playing loose in each of the play rooms, but no one else was in there. I tend not to like going in through the door when a cat is in the playroom by itself because there is a chance that they might try to escape through the door as I am coming in. Usually when a cat is in there, it means that the kennel attendant is cleaning that cats cage. I walked around to all the rooms and each one had a cat and yet no attendant could be found. So, I decided to go into my favorite room, Purrfect Inn. Tux was already hanging out and being his cute self. He seemed to really enjoy having his 
belly rubbed today. He was very casual and loving and seemed as if he had been hanging out in that room for a while. My favorite part with Tux was when he was in the little collapsible cat cube. The leopard print fabric is slightly transparent and he seemed to be interested in trying to attack things on the outside of the cube. I placed this one bobble toy which has a fuzzy ball with a bell inside at the end of a long and flexible spring. Every time he hit the wall of the cube, it would push the toy into a frenzy of wobbly jingles. This kept him entertained for and upwards of 15 minutes. You can even see his little claws poking through the fabric as he distorts the cubes shape.As I went to put Tux back into his cage, Alison was in the cage
directly to his left. She was literally doing somersaults trying to get my attention. She is quite vocal and needy for attention, but she is such a sweetheart that its so hard to not just go running to her and snuggle her every time she 
looks at you with her big green eyes. I never noticed this about her before, but on her Shelter Staff Notes it indicates that she was apparently living with her last owner in a car. Unfortunately her owner passed away and that is how she ended up in the shelter. A car isn't a proper home for a cat but she is defiantly not happy about being in a cage and I hope that she finds a loving home who will give her plenty of love, because she will surely return the favor ten-fold. She has a lot of energy for playtime and will purr beautifully to let you know that she is happy as can be.I took Domino out of his cage to take Alison's spot in the play room. As I was snuggling with my cuddly pal, I noticed an older lady who I have seen at the shelter before. I left Domino to play on his own and lay in the sunlight and went off to find the lady. She was at the shelter about 2 months ago and she was the first person who I was able to secure an adoption with. She came in claiming to be looking for a cat for a friend with very specific markings, a split face tortie or torbie. Her friend apparently had a cat with those markings which passed away last year. He misses his cat very much and is hoping to find a kitten with similar appearance. We had a cat that met this description and I asked the lady if she would like to meet this cat and see what she is like. She took me up on the offer and instantly fell in love with the darling cat. The lady insisted that she now wanted the cat for herself and that her friend can just be jealous of her new companion. Well she is back, and apparently absolutely in love with her recent adoptee, but she still feels the need to help her friend find a cat for himself. I walked with her around the complex so she can see a couple of the cats that we have that roughly meet her criteria and then she went home to tell her friend of her findings. She was a little sad to see that we didn't have very many kittens at the shelter currently and I informed her that in a couple of months we will start to be getting into kitten season and that would be the best time for her friend to find the kitten he longs for. After she left, I noticed that a lot of the same cats were still in the play rooms that were their earlier that morning. One cat had even produced a present in the middle of the room because he didn't have access to his litter box. The cats have now been in the rooms unattended for over an hour and I decided to go find one of my supervisors to see what was going on. She came out and I told her what I knew and she went back to find the kennel attendant. She informed me that some of the staff are trying to give the cats some extra play time when the rooms are empty. I think this is a wonderful idea! The cats would absolutely love to have an hour or so just to hang out in the bigger room and get out of their cramped cages.
But I do think it is important to put their litter box in there with them. We don't want them holding their bladders or bowels, or learning a bad habit of eliminating anywhere other than in a litter box. If the cats are going to be left in there for longer than an hour, I think it is also important that food and water be available to them. After we got that issue situated, I went in and got some more affection from my boy Domino. I was even able to snap a quick picture of his feet to show his extra toes.Noel is a very sweet older male kitty.
The shelter thinks him to be around 7 years old but he is very gorgeous and doesn't show his age. He looks to be a Russian Blue with white on his chest and paws. He is a bit on the shy side and liked to hide away in the cat condo for most of my visit with him. 
His shyness did not stop him from purring away when I gave him affection. He also have a very cute meow, which sounds more like a squeak. I tried playing with him with the stick toys, but he seemed totally uninterested. I am not sure if it is due to his shyness and that he hasn't yet opened up to me, or that he is just more of a lap kitty.Joy was the next to play with me. I always try to brush her because she is just a lovely fluff ball.
She seems to enjoy being brushed but doesn't stand still enough for me to do a really proper job of it. After her brushing, she jumped up on the bench next to me for some affection and she licked my arm as I stroked her back and tail. I was trying very hard to get some great photos of this beauty but she seems to think the camera is something wonderful to rub her face against. I got about a dozen shots of her face against the lens. I love 
petting Joy, but she seems to turn into a different kitty after 10 minutes and then she goes into play mode as usual. Once she is in that mode, I can't seem to get my hands close enough to her without her trying to bite or scratch me. My attempt to tackle this issue with her is by putting her back in her cage once she starts biting. But this process of getting her into the cage takes too long and it seems that she thinks I am playing with her. I usually end up scruffing her by the neck and carrying her back to her cage.Last up was a new cat by the name of Vanessa. She is a sweet and gentle
black and white kitty with the only white being on her belly. Most of her white fur seems to have been shaved for her surgery to be fixed. This first thing is that I noticed she doesn't seem to like other cats. She hissed at each can that came to view as I was carrying her out of her cage area. She looks so darling with her pink toenails. She was wearing those soft paws that are a wonderful alternative to declawing.
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