Cats Think They Rule, Well Here They Do! Welcome to Cat World! Our Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Adventure Continues!
Top Cat Robin Jackson joins Tout Suite The Travel Kitty, Smiley and me to share her adventures from Cat World as our Best Friends Animal Sanctuary Tour continues. We visit with the lucky cats Robin care-takes as she shares great info about behavioral issues and socialization and expels some myths about important things like Feline leukemia. Tout says “Tout Suite!” (That’s hurry up in French ;)) Smiley says “I have a cat, this stuff is good to know,” and I say, “Click Listen, and join the Adventure!”
BIO:
Robin Jackson says the idea of working at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary was planted in her head while working as a flight attendant for Delta Airlines.
Robin first learned about Best Friends when she saw a copy of the Best Friends Magazine on a flight. “I said to another flight attendant, ‘Can you imagine how great it would be to work there?’ Growing up I was always the kid who brought the strays home, so working at a place where animals who have no place to go were welcomed seemed like a dream come true. ”
After 29 years of working for Delta, Robin retired. She sold her house in Camas, Washington, bought an RV to live in with her dogs, and was volunteering as a dog adoption counselor for the West Columbia Gorge Humane Society in nearby Washougal.
She remembered reading about Best Friends and decided to apply for work. She was hired in 2007 as a cat caregiver. She now is the team leader overseeing six of the cat buildings in Cat World.
Robin said she had had several cats in her life before joining Best Friends, bu all had passed away of old age over the years. By the time she arrived at Best Friends, “it was just me and the dogs.
“The cats at Best Friends’ Cat World taught me there is so much more to them than I ever knew. They taught me how to read their body language. I learned how to notice when they are irritated or feeling uncomfortable. What we think of as ‘bad behavior’ makes perfect sense from a cat’s point of view. For instance urine marking or tearing up furniture, there is a reason why they do what they do. Behavioral issues always arise from something medically wrong or emotionally wrong such as being declawed.”
Today Robin shares her life with two dogs and three cats. In her spare time she takes her dogs on long hikes, is an avid gardener, plays pool and reads.
But her favorite pastime is still her job. “I get paid to play with and care for cats. I’m very fortunate that my job revolves around my biggest passion, which is animals.”