The cats deserve better

[Aria]

I don't think the people at the vets mistreated her, but I still wonder what experience(s) she had, that caused her temperament to change.

Did she get back to normal? It's just stressful for them... I went away for 2.5 weeks and boarded my kitty. When I went to pick her up they asked me if she'd every had a stroke! She was behaving so oddly for them. When I got her home she literally did laps around the condo and wasn't normal for 3 days... then she settled back in. I don't think they mistreated her, she was just stressed and didn't know if I was ever coming back.

[Slave to the Phone]

I have been doing animal rescue for over 30 years. Mostly cats, but I certainly have had more than a few homeless dogs pass through my hands.

Some people do indeed suck. Some people make me want to beat my head against any handy hard surface due to the stupidity. Our current adoption prices are 75 for adult cats and 80 for kittens. All of the animals leaving our hands have been vetted and fixed.

I have had so many discussions about why I won't lower the adoption fee its not funny. Yes, we do have homeless cats that need homes. However, we pay for the vet services and if we can't pay, we can't do that for other cats.

OTOH, some people are amazing. There ia a Walmart manager who tapes up the broken bags of pet food and uses his own time and vehicle to deliver them to us. He has said he hates cats and thinks that dogs are a noisy bother, but he does this every month because he wants to fill hungry bellies, even if they belong to animals he doesn't like.

Once I was shopping just before Christmas because I had a coupon and there was an amazing deal on a specific brand of canned catfood. While I was loading every case and can I could find into my cart, someone with a cart full of dog stuff commented that my cats must love that stuff.

I stopped long enough to ask if he wanted some and when he shook his head no, I told him that it was to be sure that all of the homeless cats at our rescue got a nice dinner for Christmas.

As I was checking out, he gave the clerk his card and said that the cats' Christmas dinner was on him.

People drop change into our begging jars. It might only be a few pennies, sometimes bills. Every penny counts, every penny makes a difference, and I thank them every time. People check out and give their kids the change to give to us. I have only seen 1 kid pocket the bills and give us the coins.

So, yeah, some people really suck and shouldn't have pets. Others are amazing.

[Racket_Man]

I adopted my current doggie fur baby as a "rescue" from the local Humaine Society. She looked really pathetic in the cage/enclosure but I had browsed the pix and profiles the night before and I just fell in love with her. I got to take her on a "Test drive" in the walking/excersise enclosure behind the facility and that is what sold me on her. very enthusiastic, lots of get up and go AND VERY friendly and affectionate. sometime has separation anxiety and she loves if when my DD stays for a day or two. She loves when we have family get togethers for say Xmas or like now summers cookouts in the backyard.

In fact she is lying right behind me as I type this. She loves being close to me/guest sometimes overly so. can you way LOVE BOMB????? :LOL

My pervious doggie fur baby was a sort of a rescue. my next door neighbor was supposed to get this dog BUT something went sideways and her Uncle and family got him. They treated him with distain, would not interact/play with him, kept him in a kennel most of the time and then got pissed off when he pissed/shit on their laundry and chewed on stuff (still a puppy at the time I/we got him at 10 months). the family was going to have him put down, but neighbor interveined. We got him and had a few initial problems but that seemed to be solved with lots of playing, attention, (who teaching who) begging for human food, and lots and lots of love.

[SailorMan]

Did she get back to normal? It's just stressful for them...

She never got 'back to normal.' So, maybe it happened so early in her life, that it had more of an influence on her? Dunno.

I decided after I retired that I could finally adopt an animal. I couldn't do that before, because most of my postings were overseas. On ships, not bases.

On the animal shelter's website, her name was listed as 'Cy.' She only has one eye; when I adopted her, she'd just had the surgery to remove it. Nobody that was working there that day knew the story behind this.

My girlfriend had the realization that 'Cy' stood for 'Cyclops.' I thought that was a little mean, so I changed it to 'Cybil.'

I'd originally went there to pick-up a 10 year old cat named 'Oreo.' I wanted to adopt the cat that had been there the longest, because I understood that older animals are harder to adopt. I also picked-up Cybil, because the lady who was helping me thought she would be hard to place, because of the eye issue.

I was afraid that they wouldn't let me pick-up two animals. I'd previously lived in Northern California, and the shelters there investigated you as if you were adopting (human) kids -- not that I'm saying this is a bad thing -- and you could only adopt one at a time. I didn't want to point this out, in any way, as I was completing the transaction. I didn't want them to suddenly 'come to their senses,' and say: "One at a time, please!"

But I needn't have worried. As I was finishing-up, the lady asked me: "Are you sure you only want two?"

"That's okay," I thought. "I'll just stay with the 'Crazy Cat Person Starter Package.'"

Oreo was already named, otherwise I would've named him something else. My girlfriend thought his name lacked imagination. But sure, yeah, I get it: black-and-white cat = Oreo cookies. I guess he's prospering, and gaining some weight: when the people at the vet's office took to calling him 'Double Stuff,' I knew it was time to cut-down on the treats.

[Nunavut Pants]

Oreo is a common name for black and white kitties. So is Tux or Tuxie.

BTW, not all N. Cal shelters do the super-intense background investigation. Ours relies on the adoptions counsellors and the folks showing animals to prospective clients to get a "feel" for them. We ask questions, and trust that the answers we get are honest. And we very definitely adopt out multiples! We have "mommy and me" specials, where a mother cat and a kitten have a reduced adoption fee, and we also have bonded pairs, some of which are mandatory which means they cannot be adopted separately. I also know of several trios that have gone home together, including one of my favorite tripods kitties.

Thanks to everyone above for adopting from shelters. It really does help.

[Sparklyturtle]

When we adopted our two tabby girls from a cat rescue we had to fill out more paperwork than we did when we rented our apartment. I think the main reason why we got them was because I worked at home at the time, so I was always there. We were charged $196 US to adopt them, but that included two spay jobs, kitten shots, and two chips so that was actually a bargain. This was in 2005; right now, one of them is snoozing in my office chair so I'm sitting in the sewing machine chair, and the other is snoozing on top of a bin full of seam binding and zippers.

[ladyjaneinmd]

My current furbaby, known as Her Royal Furriness the Princess Rita, has been, and will always be an ONLY cat, as long as she has anything to say about it. She's 16 now, and in Stage 2 kidney failure, so I know our time is limited. I have made plans for later, after she's gone. I want to adopt a bonded pair, preferably 5 years or older - the most difficult to adopt. I think 3 would be too much for my allergies, but I could handle a pair.

But not until Her Royal Furriness has gone to the Rainbow Bridge. For now, her kingdom is set.