New Orleans - Homeless Animals

March 28

Good evening from new number 11 (aka Jayme).

             We all got up, ate breakfast and climbed in the van at 9 a.m. to go to our first day volunteering at Animal Rescue New Orleans. After about fifteen minutes and a particularly terrifying trip to the round-a-bout in the sky, we arrived almost thirty minutes early to the shelter. The regular volunteers put us to work right away with most of us (Becca, Audrey, Stephanie, Nikki, Micha, Mariah, Myself, Emmie, Mollie and Kourtney) walking dogs and cleaning their kennels and the other two (Eliot and Tori) taking care of the cats. While this seemingly would have taken the three volunteers well into the afternoon to walk the more than forty dogs and take care of the thirty cats, it only took us until 2:00 p.m.

            All morning, the dogs in the Isolated Care Area had been staring and begging and barking at us. They wanted attention and I was determined to give it to them by the end of our day. When we were done with most of the odd jobs that they had left for us, one of the volunteers, Kendra, gave Becca and me permission to help her clean their cages by taking them out and playing with them across the street.

            The most playful puppy by far was also the worst one to get attached to. Patti Cake, a small black puppy, has scabies. Now, I had been eyeing little Patti Cake all day and even though my roommate battled the itchy-scratchy, miserable infection, Patti Cake need some love too. So, I donned a long sleeve t-shirt and gloves and took her out anyway. My scabies status is pending. (On the way back to our bunkhouse, I sat on a trash bag in front seat isolation).

            Since we were done at the shelter early, we decided to go down and check out Magazine Street. Even though we split up into groups, we all went to the same places. There were cool vintage shops and ridiculously expensive boutiques. I think we all found at least one thing to cart home with us though. We all met up at an AWESOME sweet shop called Sucré that had incredibly overpriced, but delicious and fancy looking, desserts and chocolates.

            Most of us abstained because we knew we were going to a place called The Creole Creamery, which is basically the NOLA version of Sparky's. IT WAS SO WORTH IT. Creole Cream Cheese Ice Cream. 'Nuff said.

            After ice cream, we went and had many adventures at Tulane University. We knocked out a few Scav Hunt photos and embarrassed ourselves by forgetting that, in most cities, you can't just walk into traffic when you want to cross the street.

            All in all, it was a successful day. Fo reals.

 

Love Jayme

 

P.S. We have a house cat named NOLA who likes to snuggle. He also likes to sneak in the house and hide so that we can't kick him out. He's clever. We may or may not bring a cat home to Columbia. No promises.