Cats: Photos, Volunteering and Adoption

 

It has been a long time since I posted any pictures on my blog – which is surprising since I take a lot of photos everyday, also since that is primarily what I used to post in my blog for a very long time. So today I thought I will post some cat pictures on this website. Firstly, cats are undoubtedly the most popular animal on the internet, so I’m hoping this will bring in a lot of traffic to my blog. Secondly, I volunteer at this amazing place, The Cat House, in Lincoln, NE and they do an awesome job there, so I thought about giving them a little publicity. Finally, I get immense joy from volunteering. It releases my stress, makes me happy, I contribute to the society,  and most importantly, I get to bond with a lot of animals and get a love of love in return. I feel most fulfilled when I have spent a couple of hours there. So here are a few of the photos from the past month.

Me with a cat named Cuddles – absolutely adorable and what a poser! If you plan to take a lot of selfies with your cat then adopt this one 😀

My room has a new inhabitant – Poof. He has amazing fur coloring and with that lion cut he looks especially exotic! If you don’t cuddle her immediately he comes up to you and demands it… if you  move on to cuddle another cat, he meows from the distance for a while, if you still don’t come over to him, he comes over. What an attention seeker! Very pet-able 😀

This is Sally, like Poof, she too has a lion cut. I’ve seen her at the Cat House since last year when I first started volunteering. She has a mild skin infection and really picky about her food, I think that’s why she hasn’t got adopted yet, because with her sweet personality there can be no other reason.

This is my favorite duo – Samual Jr. (got adopted recently) in the background and Daisy in the front. When Daisy came in this room for the first time, she was really shy, would not come out of her corner and hiss at any other cat who would pass by her. But two weeks later she and Sam were the best of buddies. I am sad that they didn’t get adopted together. Daisy is super warm with humans and she loves to get petted. She also headbutts you when she feels loved. She’s extra special and I really love her a lot!

These are the new kittens on the block – born on 7 April 2014, these are the brother and sister duo Philly and Frannie. They are tiny kittens with lots of fluff, very human friendly and loves to get cuddled. But at the same time really well-mannered. Look how they posed when I asked them to… I fell in love!

This is another of my favorite pair – mother, River (grey) and son, Sunny (orange). Sunny is really shy and wary of humans. I have been trying really hard to socialize her and have succeeded only a little bit in a few months, but I am not here for long and that kind of worries me. But The Cat House is a great place and I know she’s in good hands. River on the other hand is really sweet, friendly and photogenic and hence very popular on my instagram 🙂

If you like these pictures then definitely go and check out the website for The Cat House. it is an amazing place. I have volunteered at other shelters before, but this is different from any of them. It’s a complete no-kill shelter; and once they take one in, if it does not get adopted, the cats are there for life. Unlike other shelters, the cats are not kept separated from each other inside small confinements; instead they match their personality with other cats and put them together in a single room. Each of the volunteers are assigned one room so that they really get to bond with all the cats in that room, and can spot if they are sick or not behaving normally for any reason. Often they try to get bonded pairs of cats to get adopted together. For example, the room i am assigned to had 6 cats and recently two of them – Mr. Ink and Samual Jr. got adopted together. Also all the cats pictured in this blog are available for adoption right now.

If you are looking for a cat I would suggest that at first you look at the shelters in town which does not have a no-kill policy, because these are the cats with the highest risk of getting euthanized. If you don’t find your cat there then you should look into places like these as you know that even if no one adopts them, they will be taken care for life. But personally I believe you should never compromise with the type and breed of pet you want just to be able to adopt from a certain place. If you are not happy eternally with your choice you might eventually end in returning the animal to the shelter once again. I have volunteered for only a couple of years and still I have seen that happen more number of times than you want. But adopting is a noble act as no matter what you are saving one life so I will always encourage adopting over anything else. Sometimes if the shelters does not have what you are looking for immediately when you are ready, you can wait a few weeks or months to see if that kind of animal becomes available.

Another thing I would like to point out, about adopting cats, is that it is always better to adopt an adult cat than small kittens. The adult cats have well-defined personalities, so you can pick one up that suits your requirements –  a cuddle buddy, an explorer, a love bug or a personal assistant! In fact, another place I volunteered at (Capital Humane Society) has a well-defined scientific cat classifier that you might be interested in checking out. Also most of the times adult cats are litter-trained and a great deal is already known about their activity levels, sociability and health. These information are always useful, especially for first time pet owners or for people who already have other animals at home.

Finally, whether you adopt from a kill shelter or a no-kill shelter you still open up place for another animal. So before you go buy animals, please consider adoption.

[short post] Initial thought on Nicole Krauss’s ‘The History of Love’

Since I read Jonathan Safran Foer’s book and watched Nicole Krauss’s interview (They are a literary power couple. I look up to them.), I have always wanted to read her books so much. But I was too lost with work and had too many unread books, also I somehow knew that her books are going to affect me in a very deep way even without having read them. So I saved it.

But just as I’m going to graduate and move to a complete new place I had to build a world for myself where I didn’t feel alone, lost and lonely. So as a pre-graduation gift I gave myself a lot of books (10 in all).

I was saving to open the box till I had moved and more importantly graduated.. I waited more than a week but then my self-control gave away and I couldn’t resist the temptation of this book anymore – The History of Love. I started reading it only two days back and it has already started affecting me…

My feelings so far can be summarized in a single line of thought: If we are all going to be solitary at the end of our lives then why don’t we spend our youth preparing for that loneliness (spending more time alone, developing hobbies, looking inwards and strengthening ourselves from within) instead of yearning for companionship all the time?

Her writing inspires me to go deeper inside myself, and eventually to start writing about people other than me… 

I envy Heath Ledger

I am running on a strange clock. When people ask me when I got this bug, if I was traveling and got jet lagged then I laugh inside. I reply ‘No, may be I just stayed up late one night and from there… ‘. But deep down they know me, they know how disorganized I am and that is not something I am proud of…

So one weekday night I suddenly planned to get back into schedule. I went to sleep early hoping I will get up early, best at 7:00am, and start living life like a regular person. But fate had different plans… there was a thunderstorm at night (being in Nebraska that’s not uncommon) and the sound woke me up at 3:00am (how rare is that… I pride myself on being the heaviest sleeper in the world, a fact that my friends and family will be more than happy to confirm).

So unlike my nature, I woke up at 3:00 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. I thought about working or reading a book… but my darling MacBook Air was right next to me.., and I try to use it at every opportunity I get. So I went to, where else, YouTube. I browsed through a few of my subscribed channels and finally decided to watch a movie. Recently single and thoroughly disappointed with the men of my race, I have been considering interracial dating and this movie ‘Blind Dating’ attracted me naturally. Don’t watch it… no matter how cute Chris Pine looks ignore that movie… even though it’s available for free on YouTube, please save your sanity and a few minutes of your time… So yeah, it was unwatchable and still I was not sleepy. So what else was available for free? One of them was ’10 Things I hate about You’. Now I had heard good things about the movie from many people. But who watches a teenage chick flick which takes place in high school? Also I hate to admit it but I never liked Heath Ledger much. Specially since he died due to drug overdose. Although I admire his acting skills and all, and ‘The Dark Knight’ is one of my favorite movies of all times, but I have always been a supporter of the underdog – just because he was already so popular made me cringe. Also I always thought his death gave him unfair publicity. Anyways, at 4:00am in the morning it’s better to watch a teenage movie that you have heard good reviews about than watch something like Blind Dating once again. So I relented. Oh and what a movie it was! I mean it takes place in a high school! It’s based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew!! Who would have thought this movie will have two totally strong and individualistic characters?! I loved the movie. You see, it was all a conspiracy, I had to go to sleep early, there had to be a thunderstorm, I had to wake up at 3:00am, go through the torturous Blind Dating, and I had to watch this movie and fall deeply in love with the movie, with the characters (Kat & Pat). I am not very proud to admit it (I’m on the other side of 25 and I should be busy completing my Master’s thesis right now) but I have watched the movie 2 more times since then….

I’m also doing this #100happydays thing on Instagram where you find out one thing you were really happy about that day, and of course the character of Pat and the hopes of finding one like him in real life made me really happy. So again, unlike my character I posted a photo of him from that movie on my Instagram. I would never do that unless it was the #100happydays stuff and guess what… I got 10 more followers and crossed 100 followers on Instagram and that photo of him is the most liked photo of all times on my Instagram (makes me kind of irritated that a simple Google search and stolen pic can do that when no one notices when I spend hours trying to capture good photos to post there). But that’s beside the point… It’s more deep or weird or childish (as you prefer to call it)..

Since I was very young I have always been obsessed with dying young… and dying violently… I want to die in a car crash… a violent car crash and not die immediately… anyways, that’s kind of morbid. I always wanted that and frankly I still do… Let alone anybody else, I myself never understood my obsession. It was never about dying young solely, because I also fancy getting a terminal disease. I mean no disrespect to anyone who is suffering or someone who lost a dear one. I feel if I know that my time on earth is limited I will be able to live my life more fully. But that is stuff for a different post.

Now the problem is I envy Heath Ledger. To know his popularity you just need to go on Instagram and look at how many profiles are there on his name, where people post only his photos time and again, again and again. I mean you can always do a Google search and be overwhelmed, or you can just turn your head and ask the person sitting right next to you what they think about Heath Ledger. I mean ask the next stranger on the road now, and I kind of know what you’ll hear – something on the lines of ‘What a talent wasted for eternity!’.

His youth, his talent captured in time… he will always be good-looking, he will always be talented… he will never grow old, never lose all his hair…. never wear a hideous piece of clothing again or commit a fashion faux pas.. He will never abuse paparazzi again or behave badly with someone.. more importantly, he will never act in a bad movie again, or even give a poor performance in a good movie, his talent will never die… He will always be young and beautiful and talented… People will always mourn his loss from this world.. and he will be forever etched positively in our memory… I’m jealous!

P.S. It is meant as a light-hearted comic post. Please don’t take it seriously. No disrespect to anybody intended.

Tell The People You Love That You Love Them

I came across an excerpt of this writing on Instagram. I thought it was a book, and because I found it so compelling I wanted to read the work. But a quick Google search revealed that it was a blog. I absolutely love what’s written here;
“But there is nothing more beautiful than being desperate. And there is nothing more risky than pretending not to care.”
I am this person. I feel guilty and sad and misunderstood often. but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I mean why does everything have to be cold-blooded? Why can’t people be emotional? What’s wrong with feeling with all your heart and taking things personally?

P.S. But i have better taste in music than Rihanna and i am not really afraid of dying!