Wednesday, November 07, 2007 , the wee hours

I can’t save them all, but it doesn’t mean I don’t want to

A woman called me last week, saying she was calling on behalf of her mother.  The mother’s husband was terminally ill and couldn’t get around in their house anymore, so they were having to sell their house to move to an assisted-living facility.  That’s what I got from the message, anyway.  The woman wanted me to call her mother because the mother had two cats she needed to get rid of, ages 14 and 12.  The new apartment didn’t allow pets.

I received that message late last week, and every time I thought to phone, it was late in the evening.  I thought I was calling an elderly person, and didn’t want to call too late and disturb them.  I hate it when people phone me because it’s so hard for me to get around to calling back, so I try to hide my number-- I don’t know how this person got my phone number.  In any case, I called today and found out that the woman I was called wasn’t very “elderly” at all (she was perhaps in her 50s), and that she’d taken her two cats to local animal control on Monday.  She kept saying she’d taken them to the “SPCA”, but after I’d asked her some questions I figured out that she’d taken them to animal control.  I hung up the phone and started crying… I felt so horrible that the these two elderly cats would be spending the last days of their lives at animal control.  No one is going to adopt 12 and 14 year old cats.

Flippy saw me bawling and I told her what was going on, and she told me to call animal control.  It was barely 4:30 yet, but of course, they closed at 4:pm.  I called and left a message.  Then I looked on their website of “adoptable cats” and saw one of the cats, the 12 year old (named “Pinto").  The 14 year old wasn’t listed.  I wondered if they’d euthanized him already.  I guess I’ll find out in the morning, as I’m going to call them as soon as they open.  There has to be a better end of life for these cats, or cat, than what they’ve been given.  I would have felt much less sadness if the owner had told me she’d put the cats to sleep.  At least that would have been courteous.

I’m pretty sure we have a home for Greg and Spiderman, so if I can move them out, maybe I could foster these old cats if they’re still around tomorrow.  Best Friends was going to take G & S, so maybe they could take these two.  Or maybe I can get someone at the vet’s office to care for them.  I think they deserve so much better than they got.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/07 at 02:22 AM
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