Meet the City Cats

January 10, 2012

As the clock ticked down the last minutes of Operation Silent Night on December 23rd, the staff and volunteers couldn't get over the empty kennels. The echo in the  lobby. The complete absence of animals in the building. Sharon Cornett, our Board PResident, remarked that the shelter hadn't been empty since it was built. We were all in awe of what we had accomplished, and what it meant for the animals in our care.

The other half of the Operation Silent Night story is the new recruits - the animals in local municipal shelters who we were able to take in because we now had kennel after empty kennel.

After a visit to Caroline County Animal Control, we were able to pay our success forward by completely clearing out one of their cat rooms. We had the space and were more than happy to welcome Atlanta, Daytona, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Portland, Powhatan, St. Louis, Seattle, Tampa, and Wilmington to RAL. Pictures of the empty kennels were emailed to me as Pam, our Director of Kennel Operations, and Carolyn (Super Volunteer) left with a van full of gorgeous, friendly, adoptable cats. The pictures are striking - most of these kennels had two feline residents!

Most of the "City Cats" were spayed or neutered today at the Loving Spay+Neuter Clinic. Despite a couple of crying dogs, the cats were very friendly and curious, rubbing against the front of the kennels, reaching through the bars to snag a sleeve, and posing for pictures.

All told, we brought over 30 new cats from area shelters to RAL. They will all be spayed/neutered, microchipped, brought up to date on vaccination, and loved before they continue their search for new homes. You can meet our pets online or stop by the shelter during adoption hours (Tuesday - Friday, 4:30 - 8pm; Saturday - Sunday, noon - 4).