So the presentation went ok, and i won't even fuss about being called
on the phone as i am in the damned parking lot just to make sure that
i was running on time. So that is good. In Other News, Harry is still
doing ok at his new job, and he has largely taken over feeding the
colony for the time being. I have been promised that once the weather
cools a bit and everyone's schedules get closer to normal, we ('we'
being this rescue group) will take another swipe at colony management
and have a trapfest. And Chrissy *finally* returned my phone calls (i
had actually been getting worried about her), and she is doing
ok...for Chrissy. She has taken in two women who were evicted. With
their something-like-forty cats. Now, knowing Chrissy, i have but
little doubt that at least some of these cats were *from* Chrissy; i
have learnt that she is not always diligent about re-gathering up
temporarily placed cats, largely because others (like scam-artist
Lisa) suck ASS at relieving Chrissy of *her* allegedly temporary
boarders. Lisa, in fact, has mastered the art of getting Chrissy to
not only take in Lisa's extra cats, but to pick them up from the vet
herself, and even PAY for them. This happens often enough that i have
honestly wondered if Lisa has nude pictures of Chrissy that she is
threatening to make public, or something. I am just grateful that i
have avoided being put on the Kitty Summer Camp list by everyone. But
my point in bringing all this up was to mention that Harry was fussed
at for feeding the colony yesterday by a manager at Eviljob, so now i
have to hunt this ass hole down in a building that is highly
populated, to say the least...'cos in addition to handling the
exchange poorly, Harry could not be bothered to get a name, or even a
department. More stuff to do. Yay. Ok...my exercise class is about to
start, so i'd best get out there. Whee.
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3 comments:
I did cat rescue for a while and it was *so frustrating.* I mean, it was so much harder to get homes for cats than for dogs, for starters. And then we had a local collector who would get overwhelmed with cats and we'd take 10 or so (plus tons of dogs), and then 6 months later she needed more help. We eventually just had to stop helping her because it never ended. And I had to close down the cat rescue and just focus on dogs, because in a small rural town, people just would not pay even $30 for a cat, and I couldn't even come close to vetting them for that much. It made me really sad.
Oh, this has been *very* frustrating. If I did not feel so for the little cats at my work, I would have given up by now, I think. Here, after getting all vetted-up, their adoption fee is $80, and that is almost right at cost for the rescue groups, but I (as a private individual) am not even coming close to breaking even; the one vet that would give me a slightly-higher-than-rescue discount on the speuters ($40 male, $60 female) could not afford to include their shots (FVRCP (I think?), and rabies) for that price, so I had to pay extra for those. And before I could get any of Eviljob's tame parking lot cats (we get a lot of pet-dumps there) into an adoption program, I had to get them tested for FeLV/FIV, which this vet gave me at cost or close-to-cost, but still...simple math puts me over $80 at this point, and I did not even get to collect the adoption fee -- it went to the rescue group that accepted the cat from me (Who on more than one occasion also accepted a donation/bribe from me of $80 to buy the cat a space in the adoption cages at PetsMart; they would get one adopted out, and I would pay them $80 and put my rescue cat in the now-empty cage before it was even cold). Sigh. Good times. Yep.
If I had not found the rescue group I am currently affiliating with (FREE speuters and rabies shots!!!), I would have had to do something drastic, 'cos there is just no way that I could afford to pay for all the cats in the technological park my building is in. I am so sorry that you had to give it up, because I know how I would feel...but I cannot say that there is anything else that can be done after a certain point; I mean, if I bankrupted myself to rescue all the cats in our tech park, twenty-four hours after I finished more would be dumped off. Only by then, I have no resources to rescue a damn thing. There is just no way to actually win until owners start taking responsibility for their pets - the same reason I had to draw the line personal pet-wise at five cats (all but one a rescue), because that is the absolute limit of my time, abilities, and money if I am going to still honestly do right by all of them. I *had* drawn the line at three...then four. Then I fell in love with Rhett (more importantly, *he* fell in love with *me* and decided I was his Mom) and decided to keep him.
And I have to say it: collectors are horrible. I honestly think that Chrissy is not an actual collector...just overwhelmed, disorganised, and being taken advantage of, but some of the people she helps *are* collectors (they like Chrissy 'cos she is totally non-judgemental, where I myself would feel a moral obligation to get authorities involved if it is as bad as some I have heard about). I know this makes me sound like a Nazi, unsympathetic, etc., but I am more looking at it from the poor little trapped cat's perspective than from the 'help a fellow human in need' perspective, which is how Chrissy is. But then again, Chrissy likes people more than I do. ;-)
Oh, we turned in that collector and didn't feel bad about it at all. When I saw the state the animals were living in, I really lost any concern for the woman. There was cat poop everywhere. There would have been dog poop everwhere but she had the dog and her 6 puppies in a kennel so they just sat in their own filth all the time. It was horrifying. Then went in and cleaned her out but a few months later she had a whole new batch.
I was really sad to give up cat rescue, but it was just impossible in that rural context. People just do not pay money for cats. I gave the FVRCP shots myself for $3 each, but still, the feline leukemia shots, rabies, and spay/neuter would be at lest $60 (I had a nice vet who worked with me as much as he could), and I couldn't even get that much.
I actually stopped a woman at the post office the other day that I heard talking loudly on her cell phone about how her blue heeler cattle dog just had puppies, and she doesn't know HOW that happened, and they might be part coyote! I know from doing rescue that the shelters are stuffed with cattle-dog mixes that do not get adopted. So I was really nice and non-confrontational, but I just asked her to get her dog spayed so more blue heeler mixes don't die. She got all uptight and said "People WANT them" and told me to mind my own business, which was fair enough, but still. Honestly, when I see puppies and kittens, instead of being happy, I just think "Great. That many more homes taken from shelter animals."
So I TOTALLY share your frustration.
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