A lost litter: The Humane Society offers pets a home and students a friend

Pacing back and forth in her tiny and hopefully temporary living quarters, Callie appeared anxious as she greeted friendly guests and watched others pass by. Her drab, gray surroundings were tidy and clean to welcome visitors, but brightened only slightly by the pink, purple, orange and blue of a small, fleece throw in the corner.

Just large enough for a place to sleep, eat and use the bathroom, Callie had room for only three or four slow, watchful steps as she peered outside, but never uttered a negative word about her humble arrangement.

Rather than complaining about the bother of having a clear Plexiglass back wall and steel grates for a front wall, Callie’s comments consisted only of meows.

As a well-fed, well-taken-care-of cat from the 4 Paws adoption agency, Callie and the rest of her feline friends at PetSmart have no need to complain or feel sorry-nor should any of their visitors, said a cheerful woman with long, red hair.

“These are the lucky ones,” Crystal Blasi, a Cache Humane Society volunteer, said of the seven adult cats living on display at PetSmart in hopes of being adopted. A narrow, dull side room is home to two rows of ive 2-foot by 2-foot steel cages – three of which are currently empty due to recent adoptions. But Blasi, 31, of Logan, smiled kindly as she said life in the room isn’t as bad as it might seem.

“Every day, volunteers come in and clean the cages,” Blasi said. “They pet the cats and hold them – which is most of their interaction – but it is a good cycle for them.”

But Saturdays, like this one, are a little more exciting for the cats than the average day of sleeping, stretching and eating in the Logan pet store. From 11 a.m.-3 p.m., a crowd of animal lovers and their loyal, leash-bound friends wander among the aisles of available pets and supplies during the Cache Humane Society’s Pet Adoption Day.

As a shopping cart turned a sharp corner en route to the back half of the store, where the animals stood eagerly in their kennels, it appeared as if a black, floppy-eared puppy was steering all by itself.

A brown-haired boy of about 7 or 8 years old could barely see over his drooling shopping companion as he pushed the the cart toward a cluttered table where Humane Society volunteers were seated.

On each end of the pushed-together folding tables sat a different pet, one of which didn’t quite fit in with her surroundings-and apparently didn’t care to either, according to a hand-written, brightly colored sign posted on top of her cage.

Jaye, a lone, white cat among a wide variety of dogs in the immediate area, sat motionless and didn’t respond to interested visitors who tried to grab her attention with friendly pokes and gestures.

The calm, pure white cat of four to five months old was “curious, but a little frightened of dogs,” according to her colorful biography. This seemed to justify her anxiety and unresponsiveness, since a large, black and brown canine sat fewer than 5 feet away and a wide variety of dogs were constantly too close for comfort.

The boisterous, attention-seeking puppies and dogs may have drawn the biggest crowds and the most new homes, but those who detoured inside the quiet, secluded cat house didn’t show any disappointment.

“We love kitties!” 4-year-old Olivia Garrison announced as she dragged her 3-year-old brother Lucas in front of the shiny cages. “This one is sleepy – oh, smell stink,” Lucas said as he distractedly jumped from cat to cat and stopped to point at Frankie, a pale-colored male Siamese that slept peacefully and obliviously through visitor after visitor.

Lucas didn’t try to contain his sheer excitement as he stuck his finger through the inch-wide grates in every cage and energetically commented on each cat’s activity.

“Kitty is eating!” he yelled to his mom, Kellie Garrison, of Hyde Park, who stood right next to him and attentively listened as Lucas pointed to a black cat on the upper row.

“Is he eating?” Stat said, laughing as she and others who were tightly gathered in the room recognized the young boy’s misunderstanding.

“Nope, he’s pooping, Lucas. He’s in the poopy box.”

Oreo, a thin, shiny black cat, sat nonchalantly in his recently cleaned litter box as he fixed his metallic, lime-colored round eyes on the small boy watching from down below.

“Olivia and Lucas have an older brother with a fur allergy, so we can’t have any pets at home,” Kellie said of her kids’ obvious love for the animals. “This is a big treat for them to see and play with the cats.”

After tidying things up in his litter box, Oreo’s nickel-sized, piercing green eyes remained affixed on the small group that had gathered in his once-peaceful living quarters.

Of all seven occupants of the white, hallway-type room, Oreo, sitting stiff, straight and tall, seemed to be the most intrigued by his surroundings and the least at ease with the intruders.

As Megan Rose, a young, thin girl in neon green pants, dangled a long, red feather inside the cages, a white tabby named Henry eagerly leapt at each indication of movement and Callie stretched up on her hind legs, revealing a soft, white front. After intently batting at the feather, Callie finally succeeded at stopping the nuisance for good by pulling the strange object inside her cage.

In the meantime, Oreo remained motionless and stared anxiously at the commotion while Blasi revealed the reasons for the fear and confusion in the scaredy-cat’s eyes.

“Three weeks ago, Oreo was left in a crate in front of PetSmart with his brother- not neutered, with really bad worms and horribly skinny,” she said, using hand motions to emphasize the way Oreo’s spine portruded down his back and could be easily felt due to starvation.

Blasi explained that any cat “surrendered” in Logan must go to Animal Control, which has a five-day waiting period for people to claim pets, but said no one claimed the two sick cats.

“Saturday night, an Animal Control officer called to see if we could take them in,” she said as she swept her long, straight hair away from her face and pushed up her sleeves. “Adult cats don’t get adopted very often, but thankfully, we were able to find a foster home for his brother and then Oreo just got here Friday morning. He has only been here one day.”

Blasi, who has volunteered with the cats for the past three years and has two of her own at home, said she saw a need in Logan that she hadn’t noticed other places.

“When I moved here from Salt Lake, there seemed to be cats everywhere,” she said of strays roaming around neighborhoods and streets. “That’s not something I had seen before, so I called the Humane Society and also got in touch with a program called ‘No More Homeless Pets.’ We do everything possible to save the cats and never turn any away.”

While Blasi spoke, a small boy in matching hat and coat tapped on the clear back wall and pulled his unenthusiastic older brother into the cats’ room, exclaiming, “The gatos! The gatos!”

A toddling curly-haired girl in a pale pink coat squealed “woo!” as she poked a finger gently into Henry’s side while holding onto her mother’s hand. After finally retrieving her feather, Megan Rose cautioned Callie, saying, “Now don’t take it again or else I’ll have to go back down there and sneak it out.”

As people of every age wandered in and out of the tiny space, Frankie slept, Henry rubbed up against the metal grates, Callie paced and Oreo kept a watchful eye on the changes in his new, but hopefully temporary surroundings.

Visit PetSmart or contact the Cache Humane Society for more information. Since each cat is immunized and spayed or neutered, the sponsoring agencies ask a $65 fee to cover costs.

-lindsaykite@cc.usu.edu