Recently my roommate was taking the trash out and found a stray kitty roaming around them looking for food. She took her in and immediately called me to see what we should do. Because of my love for cats I quickly got roped in and wanted to help the kitty. She is not a true feral cat, she was exposed to humans before so she was anything but aggressive. She purred and cuddled right away. I could tell she's been out on her own for a couple months because she was terribly skinny. She looked pitiful, her bones were showing through and she had flea dirt all over her with scabs. I took her into the vet and was pleased to know she had no diseases just fleas, which was treated within 24 hours. She's a little miracle.

My roommate has 2 cats and we had to keep them separate for the first two days so the others wouldn't catch any fleas. My roommate and I would walk out of the bathroom (where we kept the stray kitty) and the other two would hiss at us because we smelled like the other kitty. It's been about a week and they still hiss but they will at least get close to each other. It takes time for new cats to get along with each other so this won't be an easy process but I've got patience! Oh and because of her pretty bright green eyes I named her Jade and she's about 10 months old.

These are from the first day I took Jade in...

 

And this picture is just one week later and she already has a fuller belly and her fur is looking healthier!

Hello my name is Koren and I am 21 years old. I am a Senior at Oakland University in the Elementary Education program. I am engaged to my high school sweetheart, before we got engaged we dated for six years! Some interesting facts about me are that I am a member of Alpha Delta Pi sorority at Oakland, I'm very close to my family, I love animals, tea, and chocolate.

Recently I went on Oakland University's Alternative Spring Break trip to Alabama. Alabama was hit with a series of tornados and a group of 40 students went over there to help. My roommate and I volunteered together in hopes of helping others and letting them know that other people care. The bus ride was around 15 hours total and broke down on the highway about an hour before we arrived. The bus driver was able to figure out the bus was over heated and 20 water bottles later we were able to make it to a gas station to fix the problem, wew! During the trip we stayed at a Boy Scout Camp, which was built in the 1940’s, so it was a lot like camping. Our work sites throughout the week were definitely enduring, physically and emotionally. We usually traveled about an hour in the mornings to get to the cities where our work sites were located.

A lot of our work sites included sorting to find personal items and cleaning up debris, which ranged from toilets, trees, and parts of the houses. One of the house owners was named Glenda and the only thing left of her house was the foundation and debris. Our group was able to clean up the entire area for her in just one day! Another site we went to was a burnt house and we had to go into it and clean it out and work on the outside cleaning up the garbage. I’m really glad I went on this trip because I made a lot of new friendships and we were able to help others and lessen their burdens. Overall, the trip was a great learning experience and I would love to go again next year.

Here's a video one of the girls made from the trip, Enjoy!