Save the Date! April 21, Meow Mixer!

Very exciting personal news--I'll be taking the lead on Meow Mixers this kitten season for Washington Humane Society! I'm both thrilled and terrified I'll make a cake of it. The first one is scheduled for Thursday, April 21 in the evening (likely 7-9 although the times aren't nailed down yet).

If you're in the DC area and thinking of adding a cat to your heart, please come! The events are open house style with snacks and soda so you can nibble while meeting great cats. There are usually both kittens and adult cats, although we've been known to focus on one side of the age spectrum depending on that Mixer's theme. One of my favorites was a Baby Shower Meow Mixer where mama cats had reduced adoption fees. We also did one with more senior kitties and gave a free cat bed out with adoption of senior cats.

I'm having a hard time keeping my brain from just staying in hyperfocus on the events. I've been debating themes, flyer and tweet ideas, blog posts, restaurants to approach for free snacks...  The "good" side of my ADHD is coming out for this one!

My personal favorite flyer idea for the first event, although I'm worried it might be just due to my weird humor, is my boyfriend's idea of a grayscale, noir-style image and the words "They're coming..." with a small explanation below that kitten season is starting up and we'll be overloaded with cats and kittens so now is the time to come in and meet the first of the season's awesome litters. He wants these as postcards which I can easily envision, but I'm fairly sure that would be too expensive. I also received permission from Randall Munroe (awesome XKCD artist) to use his Cat Proximity comic on a flyer (I think it'd be suitable for flyers at local dives and indie places). So I'll want to use that at some point. If you think any ideas I've mentioned are awful, please tell me! I have my first planning meeting the first week of April and hope to come to it with a full plan of theme, flyers, sample tweets, blog posts, possible partners, etc. Maybe we can do a small door prize or raffle (25c tickets? I want it to be really inexpensive) if I talk with my local (favorite, has shown tons of support for WHS, and just has amazing people!) pet supply shop, Living Ruff.

I did make sure that one of my friends, an amazing volunteer who has been at the shelter longer than I have and has worked events in the past, would be available to help. I figure there's no shame in making sure I have support I know for the first event. I've helped with these events in the past and done quite a bit of work on them, but I've never fully taken the lead on a Meow Mixer before so I want to be sure I have support I know I can count on.

I hope all of you are doing well in your kitten season preparations. Also, if you observe Lent, many wishes for a blessed Lent. I didn't attend Ash Wednesday services but I did rub my forehead against an ash-colored kitty which counts in my mind.

Busy Week

I have my final project presentation tomorrow in my technical writing class (I made a guide to adopting an animal in the DC metro area--planning to figure out how best to translate it to the web, seriously so proud of the finished project, there are so many different shelter procedures that it took work to figure out the commonalities--duh, love of animals).

Then I need to give Nikolai a bath when I get home because Thursday is his first Meow Mixer! If you're in the DC area and want to meet Nikolai (and other awesome kitties who need a home) come to the Washington Humane Society on Georgia Ave at 7pm for Mexican appetizers (yay for donors!), information, and great cats.

I love these events and I'm even more excited now that Nik will be there. It'll be his first event since the one I signed him up for the other week got canceled due to weather :(

If you can't come to the Meow Mixer, send good prayers/vibes/wishes/etc that Nik and the other cats meet awesome families and have fun. I'm a little nervous for how Nik will do but his coat is looking a lot better than when I first got him (guess that salmon oil really does work) and he's so outgoing now that I'm certain it'll be a positive experience.

Wish him luck!