- Joined
- Jun 2, 2005
- Messages
- 17
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- 0
Hey to everyone on this board.
I am Mom to my 3 cats and stepmom to 2 abandoned outside cats. And caretaker of another persons 43 or so cats at a private sanctuary/rescue type place.
I'm the ONLY person allowed there to care for the cats. Thats a lot of poop for one person. So I'll have lots of questions for you all. I'll start with one.
I've been at this job for about 2 years. Prior to this I had no experience working with this many animals. I'd offered to volunteer there a couple days a week because this santuary was willing to take an abandoned cat that my parents had been feeding for a few years on their front porch. They were moving to another state with a very hot locale and were unable to take her because she is somewhat feral and they were afraid she would eat their toy poodle if she was in the house. (she had attacked the dog before) I was there as a volunteer for a few months when the the person who cared for the cats was fired for stealing and the job was offered to me. I took them up on it.
It's 7 days a week and I can accomplish everything in a matter of 4 to 6 hours. When we have any sick cats that need to be caged separately {or God forbid, with diarrhea!! Oy the mess!} that can tack on an additional 2 hours. And giving medications....yikes! But I'm getting pretty good at that. This place is not zoned for the amount of cats we have so we are unable to advertise for volunteers for fear that we would get in hot water with the city and all the cats taken from us. So it is just me and to put it mildly... I am overwhelmed!
These cats are all well taken care of with lots of roomy enclosures and immediate visits to the vet if they are sick. But it's not the amount of work that is getting to me. My problem is the guilt I feel because I can't give them even a fraction of the love and attention they all deserve so much. I find myself putting off going to work because of this guilt which in turn makes me feel even more guilty. sheesh.
Does anyone else ever get this awful debilitating guilt? If so, how do you deal with it and have a life outside of the sanctuary?
btw... holy
that's a lot of great smilies! I spent 20 minutes checking them all out! How fun! Oops! gotta get to work!
I am Mom to my 3 cats and stepmom to 2 abandoned outside cats. And caretaker of another persons 43 or so cats at a private sanctuary/rescue type place.
I'm the ONLY person allowed there to care for the cats. Thats a lot of poop for one person. So I'll have lots of questions for you all. I'll start with one.
I've been at this job for about 2 years. Prior to this I had no experience working with this many animals. I'd offered to volunteer there a couple days a week because this santuary was willing to take an abandoned cat that my parents had been feeding for a few years on their front porch. They were moving to another state with a very hot locale and were unable to take her because she is somewhat feral and they were afraid she would eat their toy poodle if she was in the house. (she had attacked the dog before) I was there as a volunteer for a few months when the the person who cared for the cats was fired for stealing and the job was offered to me. I took them up on it.
It's 7 days a week and I can accomplish everything in a matter of 4 to 6 hours. When we have any sick cats that need to be caged separately {or God forbid, with diarrhea!! Oy the mess!} that can tack on an additional 2 hours. And giving medications....yikes! But I'm getting pretty good at that. This place is not zoned for the amount of cats we have so we are unable to advertise for volunteers for fear that we would get in hot water with the city and all the cats taken from us. So it is just me and to put it mildly... I am overwhelmed!
These cats are all well taken care of with lots of roomy enclosures and immediate visits to the vet if they are sick. But it's not the amount of work that is getting to me. My problem is the guilt I feel because I can't give them even a fraction of the love and attention they all deserve so much. I find myself putting off going to work because of this guilt which in turn makes me feel even more guilty. sheesh.
Does anyone else ever get this awful debilitating guilt? If so, how do you deal with it and have a life outside of the sanctuary?
btw... holy