Shelter Duty

So every week, I spend a couple of hours at my local animal shelter volunteering on the "Critter" team. The critter team is so called because we feed and socialize all the animals in the shelter that do not fall into the category of dog or cat.

I love dogs and cats...I love all animals...but the critter team is fun because we get to work with and learn about so many different types of animals...from rabbits and rats, to parakeets and iguanas,  to peacocks, roosters and pigs. We get a wide array of animals through the shelter...of course not all at the same time.

While I was on duty this past week, I took a few snaps to share...

This is Lena, a beautiful young girl, who has already been adopted since this photo was taken (yaay!):

Meet Dex, a very friendly little piggie...

...he runs right out to get pets and scritches...this is unusual for guinea pigs in the shelter, they are usually far more timid. Dex was surrendered by his owners.

And here's a different type of piggie who is currently in the shelter:

Miles is a pot-bellied pig who was surrendered by his owners when they had to move out of their house and couldn't bring him along.  He wasn't too keen on that carrot, but a few minutes later, he was grubbing around and found some earth worms...apparently, he prefers worms to carrots. The shelter is trying to get a place for him at Pigs Peace Sanctuary...fingers crossed for Miles!

UPDATE: Miles ended up going to the BaaHaus Animal Rescue.

This little lady is Doris. She was adopted by one of the other Critter volunteers...yaay for Doris!

Birds get adopted very quickly as a general rule, with the exception of  chickens and roosters. Unfortunately, with the new fad around here of keeping chickens in the city  for their eggs (boo) we get hens and roosters very often. The shelter tries to place any "farm" animals in sanctuaries rather than adopting them out.

Moving on to Roscoe now...a very sweet little ferret, up for adoption with his cage mate, Elizabeth (not in photo). I had never met any ferrets before volunteering here...they are very charming and fun little guys...very playful.  For socialization we bring them out into a special play area, and they have a wonderful time chasing cat toys and being chased around and tickled. They are a lot of fun...and their bodies feel like furry serpents.

This next fellow is a bearded dragon...he's basking under a heat lamp. I don't think he has a name yet. He likes to eat bugs and also a wide variety of fruits and veggies like collard greens, turnip greens, dandelion greens, squash, blueberries and melon, just to name a few. Not sure where he will go...he's not currently up for adoption.

And this lad and lady (the big one is a female, the little one is a young male) are red slider turtles...they are aquatic:

And finally, meet Harriet:

She is the sweetest, funniest, friendliest little rat you could ever meet. She was found after being abandoned in an apartment building. When she came into the shelter, she had a large tumor under her left front leg. It turned out to be a benign and easy-to-remove tumor. She's had that removed and is recovering in foster care at my place.

Here she is exploring the premises...

Feets close up:

Here she is enjoying a chickpea that she found nestled on her dinner plate. Harriet is vegan too! And just in keeping with the blog...I'll describe Harriet's vegan dinner..she had brown rice, chickpeas, cherry tomato, steamed butternut squash, red leaf lettuce and broccoli sprouts.

OMG, she's hilarious...it's difficult to get a still shot of her because she's always on the move. This photo makes me laugh every time I look at it:

I totally  understand if it doesn't make anyone else laugh...cuz maybe you had to be there :)