The Santa Kitty Toy Hop Comes to Kitten Rescue

For the past several weeks, my human has been snatching up cat toys — some came from cat shows, some came from pet stores. She mostly got small toys so she could buy lots, but she also got a couple of cool wand toys because she knows how much kitties love them. She also included some sample bags of Zuke’s G-Zees cat treats — the human who was in charge of the Zukes booth at MeowWorld gave her a bunch when she was breaking down the display at the end of the conference.

Boodie helped me do quality control. No, she did not eat any treats she was not supposed to!

As you can see, this bag of toys and treats was meant for good kitties only! But that was okay, because all the cats at the place my human was going to are good kitties.

So where did my human take this awesome bag? To Kitten Rescue! Kitten Rescue was founded in 1997, and it is now one of the biggest rescues in Los Angeles. Every year they find homes for around 1,000 cats and kittens. Most of these live in foster homes, but there is also a facility that is not far from where we live. There is room for about 150 cats and kittens there. Some are cats that people board while they’re out of town (boarding fees go to help pay sanctuary expenses), but mostly there are free-roaming cats who don’t have fosters and who are looking for homes. These are kitties who don’t really get to have Christmas (or Hanukkah) unless someone brings it to them. Which is where my human came in.

One tuxedo kitty got a little bit too excited about the bag of toys and treats! But before she visited the main area where the adult cats were, my human stopped by the kitten room. There were only a couple at the moment, but they were very cute!

This is Serenity

This is Bane. The two of them were a lot of fun and my human spent time playing with them and tossing toys around. But they, and the other kittens that spend time in the kitten room get lots of toys because there’s a kitten cam, and they get lots of fans. My human wanted to visit with the adult kitties because she felt they needed the attention and toys more. And she was right.

There was a lot of excitement the moment my human walked in with the bag. I mean, it’s a bag — how could that not be exciting to a kitty?

Some kitties need some encouragement to join in on the fun.

Some dove right in!

The buildings that house the cats are divided into different sections. One area that was partitioned off was for the cats who were less well socialized. But that doesn’t mean they did not want to play! In fact, my human remembers how she bonded with Boodie (who did not like humans much at first) by playing, so she stepped right in with some toys and one of the wand toys.

They had a great time.

Of course there is always one cat that has to try and steal the toy.

In fact, this guy got so happy, he jumped on the beams and started poking my human on the head.

Kittens are cute and it is very easy to play with them because they are so energetic. But it is the adult cats, especially the shy ones and the ones who are not sure of people who need playtime with humans. This kind of enrichment is good for them because they don’t have to get up too close to humans they don’t know well — but at the same time they realize that humans do good things for them, and give them nice things.

Grown up cats like playing (so do grown-up humans, even if they won’t admit it sometimes), and they are grateful when you are willing to have fun with them.

Look at these faces — don’t you think they deserve homes for the holidays?

My human was so happy she did this! I hope you are inspired to go play with some kitties at your local rescue too, especially the adult kitties. Even if you don’t have room in your house for another cat, you can still bring joy into the lives of some at your local rescue!