In a gravel lot on Riggin Road, a doublewide trailer sits fully equipped for human occupation. The amenities include a kitchen with shelves and a sink, restrooms and a fenced-in backyard. However, all the furniture is for cats. Inside the door, a waist-high metal gate closes off the house from the door. Upholstered towers dot the living room and a purple catwalk runs along the ceiling, with holes cut through the wall to create a building-wide network.
A one-eyed black and gray cat is bounding across the floor toward the door of Muncie Animal Rescue Fund’s Catty Shack.
“His name is Valentina,” Cailee Morris said.. “We have two other cats [that are] missing eyes. Their names are Pirate and Jack. Cats adapt surprisingly well to that kind of injury.”
The 22-year-old knows the names of all 60 cats in the facility. She has even had the opportunity to name many of them.
“One of the very fist cats I named was Harley,” Morris said, “I named him that because a woman brought him in; she’d been riding her motorcycle and saw him in the road. It jogs your memory of the cat’s story, because sometimes they all run together.”
Morris, a senior human resources management major, has been volunteering for ARF, a rescue and adoption home for dogs and cats, since the beginning of her freshman year. Morris first volunteered to fulfill a requirement for her Honors 199 class to volunteer 20 hours.
“They gave us a list of places we could volunteer; ARF was the first one on the list, “ she said. “I was like ‘I’ll go see what that’s all about.’”
Morris finished her 20 hours of service within a week and a half.
“My initial reaction was that if they were going to let me work 1 to 5, I’m going to get it out of the way and move on to the next assignment,” Morris said.
But she has been volunteering there ever since.
“She’s trustworthy and very reliable, pretty much everything you could want in a volunteer,” said Dana Salkoski, manager of the Catty Shack. “Over the years, we’ve become friends.”
Salkoski has even trusted Morris with running the Catty Shack when she is on vacation.
In the beginning, Morris exclusively scooped litter and cleaned. After a few months, she learned how to give cats flea and ringworm medication, and eventually, vaccinations.
After moving off campus her junior year, Morris began taking in foster kittens that were too small or too sick to be kept with the general population.
“She’s not a crazy cat lady,” said Morris’ roommate Grace Williams, 22. “When she fosters animals, we kind of take care of them together.”
Morris’ current ward is a kitten named Holly, a mixed breed with orange tabby facial markings. The kitten had tapeworms when Morris received her, but has since completed her medication and has regained her appetite. Morris said that while they believe Holly is between 4 and 6 months old, they cannot be sure because the tapeworms had deprived her of the nutrients needed for proper growth. Holly weighs 2 pounds and should be moved into the Catty Shack for adoption in about a week.
Once a day, the cats receive wet food at the Catty Shack.
“It’s like piranhas feeding,” Morris said.
As soon as Morris and her director placed the first paper plate on the ground, dozens of cats swarmed the location. Some staked claims on plates and others patrolled the floor anticipating where the next would be dropped.
“They know who they can eat with,” she said. “It’s one of the first lessons the new cats have the learn: who they can and can’t fight.”
Orange cans of food were dumped onto the plates and soon the sound of licking and gnawing filled the house.
The job isn’t just playing with kittens and that having that warm fuzzy feeling. There are hazards to it as well.
As Morris walked to a cabinet to retrieve a pair of elbow-length leather “raccoon gloves,” she pointed to a cat named Colin, recalling a story about one of her first and most brutal injuries. She had cornered Colin to load him up for a visit to a vet and attempted to fit him into a carrier.
“I got ahold of him and all up my arms, just blood,” she said.
Morris and another volunteer donned the gloves and proceeded back to Colin.
“He got his teeth cleaned that day, but he was less than happy about that,” she said.
Since Morris worked as an orientation leader at Ball State, she was able to volunteer at ARF over the summers between her freshman and junior years.
But last summer Morris interned at Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, Iowa, her first away from ARF since she began.
This internship has led to a leadership development position, in which Morris will be rotated between the various arms of the financial institution to learn about the entire business.
She is in contact with the Des Moines branch of ARF, so that she can volunteer once she moves to Iowa.
In addition to her day-to-day manual duties, Morris has undertaken a project that will continue to help Muncie’s dogs and cats after she has gone.
The Honors College requires Morris to complete a thesis, a task she has turned into a labor of love for ARF.
Morris approached her directors and explained all the human resources-related tasks that she could perform for them. Since the operation is so small and manpower is often spread thin, it is difficult for the organization to train new volunteers. Having saying that her training was very “learn as you go,” Morris is devising a more efficient training program.
Morris is producing a video that will teach new volunteers the ropes, while leaving directors free to keep the shelter running. The video will be available to watch onsite or as a private YouTube video shared with those seeking to volunteer. After passing a quiz, new volunteers will be ready to go.
The script has been drafted and sent to ARF headquarters for approval.
Morris views her volunteering as a way to bridge a gap she perceives to exist between Ball State students and Muncie locals. She said there are stereotypes on both sides.
“When Ball State students get out and volunteer in the community, they make an impact on the community, and impact in who we are,” she said. “We aren’t just here to drink and party and stay in our little bubble on campus, but we’re here to make a difference and help people.”
