WEEK FOUR
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Monday, June 24
Letitia's Day:
Today I worked in cats. Morgan and I both worked in Kitty Motel with Jane.
Frank had the day off. We cleaned three rooms before lunch and spent the
rest of the time socializing with the cats.
After lunch we went up to the
hill to work with Loopy and Duke. Duke did really well today. He can sit and lay down,
but he still has lots of trouble with shake. He also loses interest in the treats very quickly. We pulled the other two dogs that are in the run with Loopy and Duke so that they would have some time off leash too, but it really didn't work out well. We went over the amount of time we were scheduled to train and it was hard to get the dogs in and out of the run as they all wanted to go. I like working in the octagons much better than trying to work on the Hill.
After training we went to the shy kitty room. Connie is still causing problems, but I think she is starting to settle down. Moe is back from Happy Landings, but won't come down from the rafters. He has to be fed up there. Also a new kitty named Notch is being very shy. She was in a cubby today. At about 3:30 we headed back to Kitty Motel to help Jane again. We picked up the dishes and washed them. When things were looking good we spent time in the rooms socializing with the cats. Jane finally came to tell us it was time to shut the building down. Tomorrow I work in dogs all day. I'm hoping for the Garden.
Morgan's Day:
Today was happily another cat day :) Letitia and I worked in Kitty Motel with Jane. The morning was spent cleaning three rooms. In Geriatrics Audrey was being her usual queen bee self while Bilbee, who has no teeth, kept gumming me. I also had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the leukemia cats, who I usually don't get to work with. It had been a long time since I had seen Jasper, Golden Boy (who follows me everywhere and manages to jump on me no matter where I am), Romeo, and Apple. When we were finished Letitia and I spent time brushing the leukemia cats, who were happy for the attention.
After lunch we spent our usual hour with Loopy and Duke, doing clicker training. This time we expanded our training time to include Sapphire and Bodacious, who are from the same run and were very eager to get to go to Tara's Run. Still, Loopy is the only one who readily takes to the training.
After training we spent time with my favorite kitties in the shy kitty room. This, of course, was the highlight of my day. There is a new cat named Notch who will not come down and play with the other cats. She spends most of her time in a cubby or in the rafters and will not even come down to use the litter box, which always makes for fun cleaning for the staff members in the morning!
The rest of the day was spent in Kitty Motel, hanging with the cats and helping Jane with the end of the day cleaning.
Tuesday, June 25
Letitia's Day:
Today I worked in the Garden. :) I helped feed in the morning and then did walks. There was a younger volunteer there today so he and I walked the dogs together. We even took Lexie, who is very very shy, out for a walk today. When all the dogs that needed to be walked were done I took the dogs out of run four to work with on clicker training. Bond did espicially well. He could already sit and caught on to shake after a while. I can also get him to lay down if I hold the treat on the ground. Spats is doing good also. He really enjoys the training. Magpie is a mess in the run, but does much better once you get her on a leash. The only problem is her teeth. She almost bites my hand off trying to get the treat. Maybe when I work with Vicki tomorrow she can tell me what to do about that. Mizz D does ok, but she does not seem to enjoy the training as much as the rest of them do. She would rather lie down then work. At least she has that down!
After lunch we trained with Duke and Loopy again, but we are really at a standstill. Loopy does whatever you ask and Duke still would rather pee on everything then work. We always give them a little while off leash in Tara's Run in the beginning because Vicki told us that they need to run around and smell everything in the building before they will be ready to work. When we are ready to begin, Duke won't come when I call and I have to go and get him to start working. At the beginning he will sit and lie down for a treat and sometimes shake, but after a few minutes he will not pay attention. I hope that Vicki will have some insight on this problem for me tomorrow.
After training I went back to the Garden and helped Stephanie poop scoop both octagons. Some of the volunteers and Mary pretty much had cleaned the rest of the runs by the time we were done so I spent some time in run four. Most of the problems with the dogs in that run occur when they are all together vying for attention rather than on leash and alone. Magpie snaps at the other dogs who are getting attention from me. Mizz D jumps continually and mouths whatever she can (usually my arm). Bond barks loudly and Spats jumps and snaps a bit when Magpie provokes him. Trying to hang out in this run was wild, but eventually they calmed down. I don't have much time left, but I'd like to see if I can help them calm down a bit when a person enters the run so that they won't look so wild to people who are looking to adopt. When I left run four, I went to the other octagon and Stephanie pulled Izzy out for me to sit with. Izzy is Lexie's sister and is just as shy. She was very scared of me, but after a while I could pet her without her flinching. It was about time to go when I led her back inside her run. I helped with second feeding and then it was time to go. I'm very excited about getting to work with Vicki tomorrow.
Morgan's Day:
Any day in cats is a great day, and this day is no exception. Once again I worked in Kitty Motel; I'm getting to know these cats really well! I spent the morning cleaning; I managed to finish three rooms (the last with Tisha's help) before lunch. I've noticed lately that in these rooms, the cats seem for the most part to really like each other. For instance, a lot of them will congregate on one or two rugs. At one point today I had four cats on me in one of the leukemia rooms, and none of them batted an eyelash at each other. They seemed perfectly contented to share me. This is not so in the shy kitty room, where sometimes a cat I'm talking to or petting will get upset if another cat comes over and tries to get my attention. It is more of a balancing act in that room.
After lunch Letitia and I went to the Hill to do clicker training with Loopy and Duke. I'm not really sure how much longer we can do this with these two particular dogs, because Loopy is already an expert and Duke is nearly impossible due to his lack of food motivation. Another hindrance is the fact that we don't know what to do past giving dogs clicks and treats when the perform the desired action. Hopefully we will get some help with Vicki when we work with her tomorrow. I think we might have to shift our focus to some other dogs. Since I don't know any other dogs, we will probably do some training with the ones that Tisha works with in the Garden.
After training with the dogs I went back to Kitty Motel, where I fell asleep late in the afternoon while playing with some of the cats in one of the leukemia rooms. Letitia had to come find me and wake me up to go home. Luckily all of the work had already been done for the day!
Wednesday, June 26
Letitia's Day:
Well today started off very disappointing. When we got to the clinic some lady there told us she was changing our schedule and we could not work with Vicki. She was rather rude about it especially since she has nothing to do with our schedules. Morgan and I were both very sad because we don't know what to do next with the dogs. Morgan went to cats after that and I went to the Garden. I started the day with helping feed as I always do in the Garden, but it was a bit unusual because there was a dog fight. I was feeding in one run when I heard a fight break out in the next run. Roscoe and Rusty were fighting. I yelled at them and shook the fence and they finally stopped, but they both looked a little rough. I went to the other octagon where Stephanie was fixing food and told her about the fight. She came to make sure they were ok and found that Rusty had two punctures on one of his ears. She put some medicine on his ear and we went on feeding. A little while later Roscoe attacked Floyd. Stephanie broke that fight up and threw water on Roscoe. I guess that cooled him off because we didn't have any more fights after that. After the feeding was done I took run four on walks while I worked with them on clicker training. I also walked another run before lunch. This was the run with Izzy in it. She was too scared to walk through the octagon so I picked her up and carried her outside. When we got out she was still a little scared, but I think she enjoyed her walk. By the time I got her back it was time for lunch.
During lunch Morgan told me she had seen Michelle and that she was coming to the Garden after lunch to show us some more stuff about training dogs. She also said that since Duke was not food motivated and Loopy already knew everything Morgan had asked of her that we did not need to keep working with them. We met Michelle at the Garden to work with
run four again. So much progress was made with those guys this afternoon in my opinion. Michelle told me how to soften up Magpie's mouth so that she wouldn't hurt when she took the treat. Michelle held the treat closed in one hand as Magpie tried to find it. The other hand Michelle held open. As soon as Magpie looked away from the hand that held the treat, I clicked and Michelle opened her hand to reward Magpie. The idea is to get Magpie to just touch the open hand with the tip of her nose. This teaches her that a hard mouth will not get her the treat, but a gentle touch will. It seems to have worked.
Michelle also told us to try to wean them away from the clicker now because whoever adopts them will probably not have a clicker. The clicker should be used to teach new things, but the things they already know should not need the clicker to alert them to the right behavior. Also she said that instead of touching the ground for "lie down" I should point a finger to the ground so that it limits my prompting the dog and helps the dog to learn to do it on their own. This worked well with Magpie, Mizz D, and Spats. Bond however still needs to see the treat in my hand on the ground to lie down. I'll work more on that tomorrow.
Also Michelle suggested trying a "stay" command. With this I hold out my hand and say "stay." Then I walk away a few steps while still holding the leash. If the do not try to follow they get a reward. This is still new to all of them, but I'm sure they will get it soon. I only have two more days to work with these guys, but I'm trying to make the most out of it. After all the work was done in the Garden this afternoon, I spent some time just socializing with the dogs. Much of my time I spent in run four in hopes that this would help them settle down rather than jump and mouth for attention when someone is in that run. If they were jumping I turned my back on them while asking them to sit. I praised the dogs that sat and tried to ignore the ones who wouldn't. This seems to be working. My goal is to help them learn that good behavior gets attention while bad behavior does not. Maybe tomorrow when I go in they will be calmer. After they all calmed down I would leave the run only to return later to start all over. I did this a few times and saw some improvement. It seemed they understood what I wanted, but they still got very excited when I would enter and jumped for a while. I guess I will just see if they do better the first time I go in tomorrow.
After work and supper Morgan and I went to see a movie at the theater. After the movie was over we went to the caf� for an iced mocha and then went home to watch TV until it was time for bed.
Morgan's Day:
Today Letitia and I were supposed to work with Vicki, the dog trainer, but the day didn't exactly go as planned. It was decided that Vicki had too much work with red-collar dogs to do, so she wouldn't be able to work with interns anymore. Although I was disappointed, I had an extra unplanned day to work with cats, so of course I made the best of it:) I spent my time working with Bob in the six-roomed building of WildCats Village. I had never worked here before, so it was great to meet all of these new cats. Unfortunately, these rooms do not have pictures of the cats with their names underneath them, so I didn't get to know all of these guys by their names. An interesting thing to note about this building is that Bob has all of the rooms color coordinated so that the furniture, bedding, and toys all match. For instance, I cleaned both of the blue rooms today. There is also a red room, a purple room, and an animal print room. I'm not sure what the last room is, but I'm sure it is perfectly matched as well!
In the afternoon I went with Tisha to do clicker training with dogs in the Garden. We decided to stop working with Loopy and Duke from the Hill because Duke isn't very food-motivated and Loopy seems to know all of the commands by heart. There's not much work left to do there, so we decided to concentrate on the more energetic young dogs in the Garden. These dogs need a lot of training so that people will find them more adoptable. The first thing they need to learn how to do well is to sit on command, which Letitia has been working with them on. Michelle also met us at the Garden to give us some help on things we could do to train them. For instance, she suggested that after the dogs get to be experts at the clicker commands, we need to remove the clicker from the equation and just use the treats. The reason for this is that people are not going to have clickers at home; they are going to use treats when they want their dogs to do something. Michelle also taught us how to keep a dog from biting your hand or grabbing the treat too hard when you offer it (a.k.a. "hard mouth"). If you keep your hand closed around the treat and let them mouth you, and then reward them when they turn away and stop trying to get the treat, then they will learn to be more easy with you.
After I was finished with dog training I went to socialize with my guys in the shy kitty room. I am making some progress with Collin, who starts to run away when I try to pet him but still comes around nonetheless. I think we're starting to become pretty good friends. Red has also been hanging out with me a lot more than usual. I think most of these cats look forward to seeing me every day almost as much as I do! I also found out that Connie, the tortoiseshell who has been causing all of the problems, has been moved to Room Two. Hopefully there some of the other cats will stand up to her and put her in her place a little.
Thursday, June 27
Letitia's Day:
Today I worked in cats in the morning and spent the afternoon working on my project. This morning I started out in Benton's house, but then I was moved to Wild Cats Village 13 & 14 because the woman who usually works there couldn't stay all morning because of a family emergency. She came in and did feeding and then left. Megan, another intern, and I cleaned the two rooms in that building. Most of the cats in this building are feral so after we were done there wasn't many kitties who wanted to play. Right before lunch I went to the shy kitty room to see if Morgan needed help finishing up before lunch. She did so I helped her finish up.
After lunch we went to the garden. I worked with each of the four dogs in turn. They did better when I entered the run. Probably most people wouldn't be able to see that they were doing better because they still jumped, but they did seem calmer than usual. Spats did really good at "stay" today. He looked like he wanted to try to follow me when I turned to walk away, but he knew he wasn't supposed to. I feel like I'm making some real progress with him. Magpie was next and she was fairly wild in the beginning, but once we got outside she did much better. She gets so excited it is hard for her to stay still so asking her to stay was not real successful. However she did sit and lay down easily. She really needs more work than I have time to give her. I hope someone continues to work with her after I leave. She is a good dog and loves to do the training. Bond was next. He, of course, was an angel. The only thing I can't get him to do is to lay down without me holding the treat on the ground. He knows what I'm asking I think, but he is just not ready to do it unless he know there is something down there for him. I worked with Mizz D next. She has actually made the most improvement at behaving while in the run, but doesn't really want to work when she is on leash. She only worked for a few minutes before she really had to be coaxed to do anything. I feel successful in training them because they are making improvements, small as they are. I am very proud of them. I hope to work with them one more time tomorrow before I go home. I will miss them a lot.
Morgan's Day:
Today was the most amazing day in Cats! I was a lucky enough girl to get the opportunity to clean in my most favorite place in all of Cats -- Morgaine's (maybe it has something to do with the name!). First I helped clean all of the kitten runs, and they are messy for such little guys. I had to be really careful every time I opened the door because they are really quick. After I had finished with the kittens, I got to move down to work on Room 3 -- the shy kitty room! There I found out how incredibly difficult it is to get work done in a room where you have tons of friends to distract you :)
The really incredible, exciting part of the morning came when I had a breakthrough with Chester, the shyest cat in the shy kitty room. He actually came down from the rafters and let me pet him for ten minutes (I timed it)! Marilyn told me that Chester had come down for pets twice with her, so it seems like he's getting to be a little more trusting. However, I never expected him to come down for me. I think it is because I have spent so much time in that room that he's gotten used to me. Also, I discovered a trick to get him to realize that I'm okay to be around: I made friends with shy and skittish Collin, who wants you to pet him but doesn't realize you're not going to hurt him until you are petting him, if he lets you get that close at all. Collin just happens to be Chester's buddy, which I think from observing the cats in this room for so long is pretty unusual. This room is not one in which the cats pile on top of each other in gestures of friendship and trust like they do in the Geriatrics or leukemia rooms of Kitty Motel. The cats in the Shy Kitty room are not only shy with people, but shy with each other as well. I think this is an important distinction about this room with comparing it to others. Anyway, since making friends with Collin he follows me around a little, and Chester likes to be around Collin so he follows him. I was petting Collin and he was happy and purring, and Chester saw this and figured it was okay for me to be around him too, so that is how I was lucky enough to pet this elusive guy.
I wish I had more time to spend in this room so that I could get the cats to be a little more trusting towards humans, which would be ideal for them to be adopted. I have just reached the point where I can pick up Prospero and move him from place to place without him freaking out, and Cupcake comes down from the rafters to see me when I sing to her. I feel like I have made connections with every single cat in this room. I think if people were to continue to work with them on a regular basis, just to socialize with them and let them trust, then so much could be done with these cats to make their lives a little less fearful. I can't believe I have to leave them so soon.
Friday, June 28
Letitia's Day:
Today was very sad for me. This morning I worked in Wild Cats Village. I cleaned three rooms before lunch. Rachel, the vet tech came in and told me that Sidda's blood work came back fine and she will be ready to go home in the morning! After lunch I did my last refelction and took some group photos with all of the interns. Then came the hard part. I went to the Garden to say good-bye to those dogs. Mizz D is going out on the adoptions this weekend so she was not even there. After I left there, I went to pick Morgan up at the shy kitty room. We were both crying when we left there. I'm going to miss all the animals so much. After all the good-byes were done we came to the library to finish up this page of our time here.
Morgan's Day:
This morning I worked in the six-roomed WildCats building again, where all of the rooms are color-coordinated to perfection. This time I cleaned in one of the blue rooms and the animal-print room. I'd never been in the animal-print room before, so all of the cats I met there were new to me. Those guys are super-friendly! After doing reflections, taking pictures, and saying goodbye to Michelle and all of the interns at lunch, it was time to say goodbye to my cats in the shy kitty room. I think it was one of the saddest and most difficult things I have ever had to do. I told each one of them that I had to go and that I loved them, and then I said goodbye to Marilyn and asked her to keep me up to speed on what happens to them. I miss them so much already. I think I'm going to have to come back here as soon as I can to see them again. At least I can send them presents until then.