Getting a depressed Cat to Play

Of all the efforts I put into to socializing these outcasted kittys at the Anderson Animal Shelter, I never think that it means much to anyone let alone the animals; however, on this Thursday's visit Thomas totally surprised me.  He actually ran and played for the first time since I met him months ago!  He went from a cat that looked like he was dead in his cage to a cat that runs and chases a laser pointer!  It was hopeful, and made me feel better about the efforts I made for these cats.  This took months of taking him out of his cage to isolated rooms with a couple other of the FIV+ cats, and after watching the other cats chase the laser beam, he finally decided to try too!  I just wish the hope floats and someone would help me and adopt these cats into good homes.  Though, I keep saying when I get enough funds, I am going to add-on a three season room and take all the FIV+ cats out of the shelter and permanently foster them! 

Thomas(blue bib) & Alvin playing

This play session was quite active with all the FIVs+ playing except for Ginger, who just laid in a basket the whole time.  Makes no sense; he can do that in his cage.  He still insists on coming into the play room anyway, making more work for me by having to carry him! I am hoping he will surprise me one day by running after the laser pointer beam too.

As the play session ended, I took each cat back to their respective cages, not without drama, however.  It is getting harder to round them up as they don't want to go back in there.  Loverboy bit and scratched me (for the first time) and I could not get him out of the tunnel he was hiding in; Miss Ellie started hissing and clawing me all the way back to her cage. Ok, its clear they don't want to go back to the cage, I'm sorry, I don't have a better option. I can't blame them.