Community Corner
Socializing with Cats: One Volunteer’s Passion
In the first episode of the "I am" series, Red Banker, superhero Johnna White volunteers her love to the sheltered animals at the Monmouth County SPCA.
Last month the Monmouth County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals (MCSPCA) sent out an urgent email seeking assistance from the community. Due to patches of warm weather in the late winter and early spring, homeless cats multiplied at an unusually high rate. Because of that, and because of what is already an overwhelming population of needy cats and dogs in our area, the MCSPCA had reached critical mass at their facility in Eatontown. The in-facility cat population there hit a record 565 cats. In-coming cats doubled at the MCSPCA and space was and is at a premium.
Visit the center and see the extraordinary efforts of the folks who work and volunteer there. They are sharing any and all available space with cats and kittens and dogs and rabbits and, well, everything they can shelter. Think Noah's ark when you think of the MCSPCA, which is why the Society asked society to lend a hand or house. Adoption, foster care and hands-on help at the facility is needed.
Enter Red Bank resident, Johnna White. This extraordinary person is one of those people you pass on the street or at the farmer's market or wherever and do not realize that you are passing an actual superhero, whose special powers include love, appreciation and whimsy. At a time when time is impossible to come by, White volunteers hers two or three days a week, two or three hours a day to cat socialization at the MCSPCA, which in her words, means, she "plays with the cats."
But according to the folks at the MCSPCA, cat socialization, is one of the most important things non-SPCA staff can do for these animals, particularly at a time when adoption is absolutely necessary. White, essentially, prepares the caged cat to be loved in a "forever home," by exposing them to play and affection from a human. Many of the cats at the facility are naturally apprehensive and anxious being caged and yet wanting contact. White gives them that contact, that love that takes the cautious feline and transforms them into or back into a loving pet. White, along with the many other volunteers at the MCSPCA also get to know the cats and can offer rather detailed personality information about each to potential adopters.
Apart from the adoption end-game, White and her fellow volunteers are everything to these caged animals. They have no idea that they are waiting for a home. There is no Disney talking animal consciousness about longing for a family in these cats and dogs. They only know and understand their current living situation and because of that, successful adoption or not, people like White are everything to them and it shows.
Spiritual texts may suggest that humans hold dominion over all the critters on the Earth, but it's people like White that take that philosophy one step further...as so-called "higher life-forms," humans have a responsibility to nurture our animal companions in this life, and that does not just mean our pets at home, but all animals everywhere...to do otherwise would be inhuman...or perhaps, more appropriately, unearthly.
If you'd like to be a good Earthling, contact the SPCA...in Monmouth County, you can check them out on the web at: http://monmouthcountyspca.org/ or visit them on Wall Street in Eatontown or give them a call at 732-542-0040. If you too would like to volunteer, contact Volunteer Coordinator Perri Blind.
