Who saved whom, at Small Things?

Small Things didn’t start out as a kitty shop.

Initially it was an Arts, Books, Crafts & Delights shop – that happened to have a resident cat – Kumquat. (Our phone number – 586-7828 – spells “kumquat.” What else could we have called him?) And while the Northern Fudge we sold was a big hit (one of the “delights”) not everything else was.

The cat adoption part started with Adopt a Cat Sunday - and Sundays, from 1-5 p.m., we had fixed, friendly shelter cats at the shop – watched over by my friend Kim. We quickly realized there was more interest in the cats than the crafts. So, over time, we changed over to having items that were strictly cat-themed.

Save for the books. Admittedly, there is not a lot of interest in our new books by northern writers or in our almost-new used books. But a couple of us are book-freaks, and we are optimistic that, while a person may not need a new cat every week, they may want a new “read.” (We live in hope.)

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Small Things has also developed an ongoing Cat Café. No, we don’t serve cats. We do always have sweets and coffee on hand, and people are welcomed to come in, enjoy a snack and a chat, and play with the cats. We’re delighted when folks buy small things – rent does have to be paid – but a purchase isn’t required.

We also have five new additions. Four gigantic goldfish and one plecostomus (big scum-sucker.) I really like fat goldfish, in the same way I like chubby cats. And I thought the cats would enjoy watching the fish – a “cat TV” of sorts.

Nah!

But there are two things the cats like about the fish. First, the fish tank has a filter that causes a water fountain effect. So a couple of our cats – notably Ralph the Large – like to hop on the hood of the aquarium and avail themselves of the running water. (“Hop” might be putting it more lightly than Ralph’s landing really is.)

The second is the cat treat segue (segway.) You see, every morning, not only do our goldfish get flakes from a tin, they get pellets and our pleco gets an algae wafer from rattle-y bags. And the wrappers for the pellets and wafers sound identical to the cat treat packages. So, unless the volunteer wants to get mugged by peckish cats, she or he is best to use this time to also serve out a few Friskies.

Our goldfish get more attention than many children do, or at least some days this is true. Our Thursday volunteer, Heather, noted that one of our goldfish had a wee lump. Our resident “cat-whisperer,” Steve, put the fish in a washbasin and ran it down to the fish specialty store. Where is the camcorder when you need it?

Turns out one of our fishes had an infection, so every day for the next week we had to weave tablets of antibiotics into our water filtering mechanism. Why not just pop them into the water with the food? Because goldfish are carp and they’ll eat them whole. Not a problem if the goldfish queued up – but the biggest guy would get a least two of them, and he’s not the lad with the problem.

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Small Things is an unusual assortment of cats, books, crafts, fish, AND PEOPLE. We have teachers, cleaners, handymen, administrative folks, a home-based mommy, a librarian, a counsellor, a waitress, a lawyer, a student, an angel and a seamstress. And we might never have met except through our volunteering at Small Things.

Will Small Things survive in these very challenging economic times? We hope so. We are blessed with reasonable rent and all of us are volunteers. The cat adoption fees are used toward our rent - and I love the twist in all of this. We are there in theory to save cats - our cats come primarily through the City Shelter. And yet it’s their adoption fees that save the store.

So kitties, get hawking your wares in the window. We’ve got rent to make.

Jan Carrie Steven is a volunteer with Cat Adoption Trust Sudbury (CATS) and the co-ordinator of Small Things: Cats & Books. For more information, go to www.smallthings.ca. 

Posted by Arron Pickard