A good deed
I have been banned from looking at petfinder. And for good reason. We don't have room for any more pets ... at least until we move to a bigger house. But I can't resisit. There is a certain animal shelter about 45 minutes away. It is a kill shelter, and it lists on its site the last day the animals have.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent all day fretting about 10 cats that were going to be euthanized. I e-mailed my friends and co-workers and rescues. I even e-mailed a morning DJ who has a pet segment on her show. (She very sweetly wrote me back saying she would ask around -- she was at home sick that day.) There was nothing I could do. As it turned out, a rescue did go in and take the cats. Yay!
But, of course, the cycle starts again. This week, there were four cats and a dog that were to run out of time today. This time DH (dear husband, as they say on the newlywed boards, or perhaps it is "damn husband" ...) called the rescue that took the cats last time. However, it had no room. It did have a lot of kittens, and if the volunteers can get the kittens adopted, that will free up room for more cats. DH and I volunteered to help take care of some of this rescue's cats (it keeps cats at one of the big chain pet stores, which is just minutes from our house). So that is a good deed, but it didn't help the cats in immediate danger at the shelter (though if they could hang in there, maybe with the kitten adoptions, there would be room for them in rescue). I do feel good about helping the rescue kitties -- they are cute. One is no bigger than a kitten herself and is very playful. The other is an outdoor cat that wasn't taken care of and was allowed to have kittens over and over.
I even considered going to the shelter and adopting the cats to try to find homes for them myself. (One of them was a nine-year-old owner turn-in. I'll never understand the logic of taking your senior pet to a kill shelter. Putting it to sleep yourself would be kinder, and even that should be after you have asked all your friends and family to ask all their friends and family to take the cat, and if that fails, at least try to find a no-kill shelter. But I digress.) It would be quite a squeeze in our house, and I didn't know whether the cats would get along.
Thankfully, it didn't come to that. DH found out from a shelter volunteer that the cats and one dog at the shelter were spared ... barely. Other animals got adopted, making room and buying these some time.
The other good deed in this situation was by my sweet friend Kat. I told her about the dog whose time was up (she also was in on the previous panic about the 10 cats), and she contacted people she knew and found someone on a farm who would foster the dog. However, the shelter does not work with foster homes, so Kat is making the 45-minute drive to adopt the animal and take it to the person on the farm. Isn't that sweet? Kudos to Kat! My fingers are still crossed that this solution works out.
I still should be banned from petfinder, though, because I cannot go through this anxiety every week. But for now, everyone at this shelter is safe. I am doing all I can, and that's all I can do.
A couple of weeks ago, I spent all day fretting about 10 cats that were going to be euthanized. I e-mailed my friends and co-workers and rescues. I even e-mailed a morning DJ who has a pet segment on her show. (She very sweetly wrote me back saying she would ask around -- she was at home sick that day.) There was nothing I could do. As it turned out, a rescue did go in and take the cats. Yay!
But, of course, the cycle starts again. This week, there were four cats and a dog that were to run out of time today. This time DH (dear husband, as they say on the newlywed boards, or perhaps it is "damn husband" ...) called the rescue that took the cats last time. However, it had no room. It did have a lot of kittens, and if the volunteers can get the kittens adopted, that will free up room for more cats. DH and I volunteered to help take care of some of this rescue's cats (it keeps cats at one of the big chain pet stores, which is just minutes from our house). So that is a good deed, but it didn't help the cats in immediate danger at the shelter (though if they could hang in there, maybe with the kitten adoptions, there would be room for them in rescue). I do feel good about helping the rescue kitties -- they are cute. One is no bigger than a kitten herself and is very playful. The other is an outdoor cat that wasn't taken care of and was allowed to have kittens over and over.
I even considered going to the shelter and adopting the cats to try to find homes for them myself. (One of them was a nine-year-old owner turn-in. I'll never understand the logic of taking your senior pet to a kill shelter. Putting it to sleep yourself would be kinder, and even that should be after you have asked all your friends and family to ask all their friends and family to take the cat, and if that fails, at least try to find a no-kill shelter. But I digress.) It would be quite a squeeze in our house, and I didn't know whether the cats would get along.
Thankfully, it didn't come to that. DH found out from a shelter volunteer that the cats and one dog at the shelter were spared ... barely. Other animals got adopted, making room and buying these some time.
The other good deed in this situation was by my sweet friend Kat. I told her about the dog whose time was up (she also was in on the previous panic about the 10 cats), and she contacted people she knew and found someone on a farm who would foster the dog. However, the shelter does not work with foster homes, so Kat is making the 45-minute drive to adopt the animal and take it to the person on the farm. Isn't that sweet? Kudos to Kat! My fingers are still crossed that this solution works out.
I still should be banned from petfinder, though, because I cannot go through this anxiety every week. But for now, everyone at this shelter is safe. I am doing all I can, and that's all I can do.
posted by Shel | 11:45 AM
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