mommy cat update

[radfringe]

went to work yesterday morning - finally got ahold of the humane society in Tunkhannock -- guess what? they don't take in animals, just do referals, offer coupons for neuter/spay... arrrggghhh...

meanwhile, the guys were busy cleaning out the shipping/receiving yard and Simone was busy trying to move her kittens. So I grabbed Simone and the kittens, put them in a kitty crate.

got on the phone with a couple of other places - no luck there for placement -- that just left the SPCA :eyes:

I talked to one of the guys that has been helping to feed the cats - he said he has a friend who volunteers at the SPCA - he called him and the friend showed up couple of hours later. We swapped Simone/kittens into another carrier and they were off to the SPCA.

I did mention to him about the freaking attitude I got on Friday. He just nodded and said - "well they hear alot of excuses and tend to get a bit hot-headed..." to his credit he said we were doing the right thing.

[alittlelark]

1. The rescue groups tend to seem cold and stern......

but remember.... they have had many fur babies die in their arms. It is a defense mechanism.... distance...distance.... They have big hearts, but they have been taken in by (unlicensed kitten breeders) too many times. When they KNOW they can make a difference they are soooo ALL OVER IT. They have an unpaid and difficult job.

Talk to them from that perspective.

[radfringe]

2. I realize that

however their attitude discourages people from doing the right thing.

I know of several people that WON'T go to them, even to adopt because of the accusatory attitude.

I've been working with a greyhound rescue group ( http://reghr0.tripod.com/ ) for over a year - and yes some of the dogs are returned in bad shape and with "getting divorced - can't take dog with me", "moving", "allergies" etc. excuses - whether or not we believe the reasons is moot - we take the dogs back, foster them, get them back into good health and then make a better effort to place them in good FOREVER homes.

If we took the same attitude as the SPCA, people would not be returning the dogs, they would be just letting them loose, dumping them or worse.

[NMMNG]

3. I realize what the SPCA is up against

But they need to realize that being nasty to people trying to drop off animals is going to cause an increase in animal abuse/abandonment, not a decrease.

There was a stray cat that hung around one of my jobs. One of the employees wanted to catch it and take it to the SPCA but they wouldn't take it because their policy was to only take "pet" cats, not strays. They told her to call animal control (animal control would come out, tranquilize the cat to catch it and then kill it).

When she finally got the cat to trust her enough to let her catch it (it took many months of repeated attempts, by which time it was winter and a miracle the poor thing hadn't frozen to death) she took it in and had to lie to them. She made up a story about having gotten it from a friend who moved, and said it didn't get along with her current pet cat.

Thanks to her undying effort, that cat is alive and (hopefully) living in a wonderful home.