Please spay and neuter your cats.<\/i> Dogs too, but I see cats as being more of an issue; there are laws about dogs running loose. There are no laws for cats.<\/p>\n
I work for a non-profit. We rescue cats. We take in surrenders and pick up strays; we take in pregnant cats, very angry cats, feral cats, old and sick cats. We take them in, we patch them up, and then we try to find them homes. And there is one undeniable truth: a lot more people want to give us cats than want to adopt one. We have cats who have been living at the sanctuary, cared for by us, for over 10 years. There are so many kittens out there, young cats – they can walk down to the MSPCA and be greeted with litters – so why would they want an 8 year old cat who needs a bit of medicine? And most of our cats don’t have overwhelming health issues, either. Some do, sure – and those ones we don’t even list as adoptable. But the ones who are simply old? Or who have been diagnosed with FIV? People pass them over time and time again.<\/p>\n
Our organization is getting our name out there. We’re adopting out more cats than we were before. But you know what we’re getting a lot<\/i> more of? Phonecalls. “I found a cat. It’s in bad shape.” “I have to move, the landlord won’t let me keep the cat.” “My son is allergic, I need to get rid of my cat.” Over and over and over. Multiple calls every single day<\/i>.<\/p>\n
And what gets me most is the sense of indignation these people have. I realize that they have busy lives and there are probably more important things going on than a cat. But they get pissed off when we tell them we can’t take any more. We’re full. Full.<\/i> We’re privately-funded, upkept with volunteers. We can’t afford<\/i> to take in any more. We can’t afford the food, the vet bills. And we certainly can’t afford to take in several new cats every single day<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Trust me, it’s not because we don’t care. We wouldn’t be doing this thankless job if we didn’t care. It’s not that we don’t want to help these people – we do. We want nothing more than to take in every unwanted cat. But we physically can’t<\/i>. And these people say to us well, what am I supposed to do? And we say… we don’t know. There are other shelters in the area. They’re full too. The SPCA will take the cat… because they euthanize probably more than 90% of the cats they take in. That’s a lot of dead cats, people. I couldn’t do that job. But someone does. And they’re probably sick of it.<\/p>\n
It astounds me how many people think they can give up 13 year old cat and someone else will “find it a good home.” They walk away with a clear concience. But the truth is, that cat probably died at the hands of a stranger. It probably was a very nice cat, a very friendly cat. There’s just too many nice, friendly cats.<\/p>\n
I am frustrated… beyond frustrated. I am angry. I am sad. I see the war raging over abortion – little bundles of cells that could become something. Potential life. And yet here are real creatures – real, live beings with thoughts and feelings, who are scared, who hurt, who want nothing more than to be loved – left forgotten behind an abandoned building. You think they WANT live like that? Hungry and alone? Yelled at and chased by the business owners who don’t want them there? Hit by cars, killed by coyotes? That’s no kind of life for a domesticated animal. As independent and snotty as cats are – and yes, I love them, but they are snotty – they are domesticated. They depend on us. They are spoiled creatures who need us to take care of them.<\/p>\n
I just wish people would think ahead. And I wish people didn’t see our organization – which is trying hard to help those cats who are truly in need – as a get-out-of-jail-free card when they no longer have the time to deal with unwanted behavior.<\/p>\n
The economy is bad. People are in rough shape. I understand that. It’s just fucking depressing. There’s only so much we can do. At some point we have to admit that we can’t save them all by ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Please spay and neuter your cats. Dogs too, but I see cats as being more of an issue; there are laws about dogs running loose. There are no laws for cats. I work for a non-profit. We rescue cats. We take in surrenders and pick up strays; we take in pregnant cats, very angry cats, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[67],"class_list":["post-1289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-other"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lunardreams.net\/baby\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}