The Volunteer/Cat relationship - Lee and June

June and Lee have been coming to the Sanctuary since 2010.
Lee writes:
We had heard about RAPS via the newspaper and June used to send donations when they were Richmond Homeless Cats. We came as visitors one Sunday, and loved this place immensely. As we are "cat crazy gals", we made ourselves a promise to start volunteering once we were both retired. This happened in 2013 & we have been visiting there ever since.

Angel and Kes

In our other life, we have 6 very special kitties of our own. Two are now senior kitties (16 next month) with health care needs. "Angel" has seizures & "Kes" our Snowshoe Siamese has been fighting kidney disease. When we are not doing kitty care we enjoy some other activities. We both enjoy the pool & June does the aqua-fit while I do my own deep water running. We both pole walk & learned the technique from a Nordic pole walking group we joined.

Lee loved sweet Jamaica in the Moore House

We have a regular Tuesday afternoon at the Sanctuary, where we go kitty-comforting in ten areas.  We start at the back pens. June likes to visit her sponsor kitty Careen in pen 5, and I go see Schatze, OJ, Pebbles & Sandy in pen 4. Then we go on to the new kitties in Pen 6, followed by the Moore trailer together & then New Aids.

Harry loved his cuddles with Lee

We then go into single-wide where June visits the kitties. I go into the leukemia room to visit with Smoochie and Bear; I miss my dear Harry and Mindy dreadfully. I head for the Hill House and Connor House to see which kitties are caged, and sit with them. June spends the rest of her time in Old Aids.

June gets lots of love from the cats

We love all the kitties at the Sanctuary and I especially like to look for the black cats. Buddy who lived in New Aids won me over a long-time ago. I was somewhat hesitant around black cats as had a bad experience many years ago. This dear boy who has since passed away helped me so much to feel comfortable and at ease with black kitties. They need love too and should not be overlooked.

Black cats need grooming, too!

When I finish in Hill House & Connor House I spend some time out in the front courtyard. We've recently lost dear Wonderful Wobbly Paulo but life goes on with more loving kitties surrounding me. They head butt, purr and are so happy for the attention. They return my love so willingly and sometimes my lap is not big enough!

Back courtyard - A. Vandenbrink

Our hope for the Sanctuary is that it will continue to thrive under our CEO Eyal's guidance. We read his detailed report in full and his plans for RAPS are commendable. He has a lot of interesting and good ideas. If a donor stepped forward with a large donation I would say buy the property RAPS sits on asap. If the Sanctuary were to lose their lease it would be tragic, and all the cats would be in jeopardy. That would be our number one priority.

Blog by Lee Turner, (ed. BJC)

Photos by June Price, Lee Turner & A Vandenbrink