Monday February 10 - PAWS Chicago

It is now 35 days since I landed in the US and I have been so blessed with the weather. It might be very cold since I left Seattle but all in all I have had only two days of precipitation, one of rain in Seattle and one of snow in Chicago.

I have had the odd cloudy day but most of the time I have seen the sun and today is no different.

It was 9 degrees when I left the hotel and headed for the train at Merchandise Mart, the nearest station to get me to Armitage station to visit PAWS. 

The Chicago train system is interesting with the train tracks running above the roads, there is an inner loop for the downtown area and the Mart station appears to be just north of the loop itself and a place where the trains leave the loop. 

Even more interesting is the speed at which the doors close, you have to be really quick!! For some time now I have been wondering when cell phones will be banned from public areas as some people really like to share their calls, well I wonder no more, the Chicago trains have a polite message that asks people to be aware of the impact on others when using their cell phones, so it begins - LOL!! 

Along the way I saw some of the longest icicles I have ever seen!! One went right from the roof top of a three storey building to the ground below! 

It was only a short journey to Armitage and, after a coffee at Starbucks I took the relatively short walk to PAWS. I have been amazed at Starbucks in Chicago, so many people sitting on their laptops, working, and seem to spend hours their and probably do not spend much!

At PAWS, I had to complete a survey just to visit, turns out it was an adoption survey so I had to be a bit creative in parts! I was allowed on most of the rooms but had to have a volunteer with me! There were several rooms of different sizes and some looked out onto the street. 

All rooms had lots of glass so there was plenty of natural light and contained beds, trees, toys, bowls of water but no dry cat food, they get fed twice a day!  There were many adult cats with just a few kittens although I was told there are condos upstairs for the overflow! 

Some particular kitties that I enjoyed, Milo a young black kitten with small gold spot on top of the head. Zambia a grey tiger with some dashes of pale orange/cream. 

Penny a delightful brown tiger who moaned a lot. Spade a beautiful tuxi and an escape artist,, he proved this by getting out as we were going onto his room! Ash, a Titoes family look alike! Ginger a very friendly and lovable tortie. There are so many loving and lovable cats there! 

The one who really stole my heart though was Billy, a white with ginger markings very similar to Ginseng. He is so loving and affectionate, I not sure why he does not have a home, I would have taken him in a heartbeat. I guess it must be because he is 11 years old and it is so sad the way the older adults get overlooked so much of the time!!

On the way back I decided to ride the train round the loop to see what it is like, some lovely views of Chicago but the loop itself is much shorter in length than I thought it would be!! On the way back to the hotel I even found Chicago's Rainforest Cafe!