Shelter Kitties

Here's yet another post about cats on my dog blog. It's sort of a product plug, too. I had a bunch of cat shampoo leftover from Annie, so yesterday I used the rest of it to wash some of the shelter kitties. This stuff is really great: Vet's Best Waterless Cat Shampoo. It's just a foaming leave-on cleanser that you massage into the cats' fur. Surprise: they actually enjoy it!

I mentioned in my posts about Annie how difficult it is for cats, particularly kittens, to stay healthy in a shelter environment. I learned something kind of gross through fostering Annie, but it helped me begin to understand a little bit of what shelter cats go through. Cats are obsessive self-groomers. Most of us have seen a cat lick its leg a few times, swipe it over its face, and then repeat the process multiple times. Here's the thing, when cats are sick with an upper respiratory virus like Annie's, they don't stop grooming themselves just because they've got runny noses and goopy eyes. As the yucky stuff gets smeared on their legs and faces, they continue to lick and groom, which results in them ingesting and spreading the junk continually. Gross, I know, but I wouldn't have thought of it if the shelter staff hadn't explained it to me. I'm really glad they did. By the time Annie came home with us, her front legs were super covered in crusty old dried up glue. So the first thing we did was give her a bath with this shampoo. It loosened up the gunk enough to rub it away with a towel. Then once she dried, her fur was silky soft and good as new.
 
While I'm not claiming this shampoo is all a cat needs to kick a cold, it certainly helps give a better chance of recovery if the cat isn't re-contaminating itself 24/7. Of course getting out of the shelter is still the best thing for a cat, but in the meantime I figured I'd do this small little thing to maybe help some of them have a fighting chance. If nothing else, a few cats and kittens got some extra love, a great massage, and shiny fur to show off because of it. These are a few of the kitties I washed yesterday. They're all at DeKalb County Animal Services, just like Annie was, and they're all hoping to find furever homes where they can lead healthy and happy lives. More information on adoptable pets can be found on the shelter's Petfinder page: http://www.petfinder.com/pet-search?animal=&breed=&age=&size=&specialNeeds=&declawedPets=&children=&status=&id=&internal=&contact=&name=&shelterid=GA423&sort=&preview=

Also, here's an Amazon link if anyone is interested in the cat shampoo: http://www.amazon.com/Veterinarians-Best-Clean-Waterless-Bath/dp/B0002AQN2M