Follow Me Day

Happy 20th Birthday Emma!!!




Huh? Well, the title just means that I had people following me around all day. This morning I had a Junior in High School doing a job shadow with me for a Money Management Class. That's what I said. She was supposed to pick a business she was interested in. Ok. Problem was I had all of one appointment this morning. Wow. I talked for two straight hours and ran out of things to tell her. Emily asked me to help Tom with a cat declaw so Morgan (the HS student) was able to observe that.  I also had her watch the dog spay - without me. There's only so much I can do.
Morgan left at 12:15 (mainly cause I said I had to break for lunch), and Brandi, the extern, came in a t 1:00. She spent the afternoon following me around. I had quite a few more appointments as well as a phone call from a client who wanted to let me know updates about Therapy Dog International. Another client came in and talked to me for an hour about cat behaviour classes. She wanted me to help her and the cats at the Animal Shelter and also hold classes for clients with cat problems. I'm really not sure how practical this would be but I gave her some suggestions and told her I'd think on it.

 

Some people think of cats like this little fellow...



Other people think of cats like this one...

Of course, all cats fall somewhere in between. Cat behavior problems are quite common place and my approach is to offer suggestions. In reality, the cats do what they want to do and the owners decide what they can live with! Cats are hard wired differently and they do not respond like dogs do. I have some success with cats but often it's figuring out the cause for a behavior and fixing that.Shelter situations are never ideal and it can be hard to help the cats when there's huge barking dogs all around them!


All shelters across the United States are overflowing with cats. We need to do something about the pet overpopulation so each life is precious - as all lives should be. Boy I'm getting preachy. It can be difficult dealing with local attitudes about pets all the time. Education is key but I haven't had much success with that. People find it hard to change how they grew up. Lets leave this blog with a happy kitten picture -