There is a blog I like to read where one of the bloggers is moving a long distance and therefore will be placing two older cats in "good homes."
I hope this cat owner stays cat-less after the move, or chooses to foster rather than own. Or adopts senior cats that otherwise might not get a home.
Reading posts of this sort give me an aching heart. I look at my kittens and pray they won't go to homes that will give them up when they are settled, mature, fat, and deserve a secure life, just for the sake of a few thousand miles an a month or so of turmoil.
What if the "good home" doesn't work out? Where will the cats end up then?
When I think of what so many shelters workers and independent rescuers sacrifice to help cats that belong to other people or were dumped on other people, I just can't imagine how people can give up their own pets, just because, for a short while, there will be inconvenience for both. When the owner is ill, or a family member has died, or a house burns down, or a person becomes depressed and recognizes that they are taking it out on their pets...I can see situations where one might choose to give up their pets.
But moving?
Think how many rescuers moved animals from the hurricane regions all the way to Canada when shelter space ran out in the south.
Moving?
No excuse. It is a REASON perhaps. But it is not an excuse.
6 comments:
What if the "good home" doesn't work out? Where will the cats end up then?
That's the question which will probably always keep me out of full-time rescue work, because it would either keep me awake at night, or would turn me into a hoarder. Of the eight cats in our house right now, three are here because the owner died or is sick. The other five, though, are here through the neglect of their former owners. After I've worked so hard to earn their trust and to make them feel safe, it's very hard for me to then pass them along to another home (even though I rationally understand that it's the only way to be able to keep helping). It's scary, though. I've put off any desires I have to go looking for needy cats, as I've got all I can handle in the ones that find me on their own.
George and Colin came to me in that way. Their owner was going to put them down if they could not get re-homed. Thoughts like that make me want hurt people.
I've heard so many excuses while working at the shelter. It made me feel bleak.
I know. When I was a little foreign service brat, it always broke my heart to have to leave our pets behind --back then, it was a long, involved process. These days, my cousin has moved her cat from New Zealand to the US and is preparing to do it in reverse, so it is possible to move long distances with cats.
When I was doing rescue, this man called. "We're moving to Oregon, and we need to get rid of our dog."
"Why?" I said. "They allow dogs in Oregon."
Long story short, he was moving THAT day. "Dumping the dog" was the final item on his checklist. I met him at a McDonald's parking lot, and took a lovely, sweet 12-year-old Sheltie from him. 12!
I found a permanent home for this old gentleman, and he lived to be 16. It was clear before the man dumped him that he'd never set foot in a house.
Really, it makes you want to hurt people, sometimes. ... Gina
That is something I can't understand. Try as I might, I just can't. They're babies...family...
Yet, a goodly portion of the feral cats at my work come from the college apartment housing right behind. The kids up and move and decide it's easier to just get a new cat, I guess. For as long as I live, I hope that I will remain unable to understand; I don't think I want that kind if motivation in my head.
Wolfangel- you approached the problem differently - you automatically thought to bring the cat with you (as is proper), and when the cat wasn't happy, you thought of the cat's best needs over your own. I applaud that.
What this thread is against is selfish people not wanting to be bothered with the inconvenience of moving with a cat.
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