Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Summer

With the first day of summer comes the bad news of "too many cats" in the shelter.  Sadly, despite my best efforts yesterday and today, more cats came into the shelter in 90 *minutes* than I took out in two days.

Take a moment and read that last sentence again and let it sink in. 

I rescued 8 more little lives today and I need to remember that I made a difference to them.  Here are a few of the faces that I managed to take off the shelter website that are now safe:




When I was at the vets office yesterday I ran into a really nice Mother and teenage daughter team.  (LOVE mother/teenage daughter teams!) They were smitten with the kittens that I rescued and of course I gave them my "fostering is great" speech.  They were picking their newly spayed cat.  (Always a good sign)  As I was leaving, they waved goodbye and said, "Thank goodness our cat won't have any more litters!"  "Whaaaat?"  I asked them how that happened, and they said sheepishly..."We planned it.  She's so pretty we wanted her to have a few litters with our friend's cat.  But don't worry - we found them all good homes!"

Without further ado, my "fostering speech" quickly turned into my "Guess how many kittens died at the shelter this morning." speech.  Stupid. Ignorant people.  At least their cat is spayed now.  I hope they don't call me about fostering.  Or maybe I should suck it up and take them to the shelter to see what happens to the kittens that they "made". 

We also rescued an adorable 4 week old dilute calico kitten today.  She was brought into the shelter after somebody saw a woman "dump her in the street."  Nice. 

As I was leaving the shelter, I glanced back at all the little faces that had just arrived and wondered if they would survive. 

The summer is here.  Yippee. 

12 comments:

Zippy, Sadie, Speedy and M'Gee said...

Really, what mom was saying is "we can't foist any more unaltered kittens off on friends/family so we decided to bite the bullet and finally have her spayed". Idiot.

Tia and Millie said...

Or that they finally realised that what they were doing wasn't good and they wanted to stop it and so did something about it. The thing I don't understand is why you wouldn't want her to foster for you. Surely any foster home where cats are cared for and loved is better than a cat dying? While I don't agree with them churning litters out of their poor cat, it doesn't mean that they would be bad fosterers. Remember, they had her spayed and took her home. They didn't dump her in the street with a pregnant belly and no food. Doesn't that say something?

House of the Discarded said...

Tia: You have a very good point. I think I was just frustrated and exhausted. Their attitude about the kittens being euthanized at the shelter was "how does this involve me?" Despite my best efforts, I didn't feel like they fully understood. I should've mentioned that - thank you for bringing it up.

Beth

hmacross said...

I find it frustrating when dealing with people who breed their pets "because they are so cute and have a great temperment". When I mention all the homeless animals in shelters & resuces they say "but I found homes for the kittens". So hard to get through to them that there are only so many homes for animals.

Thanks for rescuing those that you can, and for trying to educate people.

Deb said...

God, you are a strong woman. I was all morning at our local shelter yesterday and found myself counting kittens and then figuring that many adults would never find a home. Our shelter is FULL and yet they still come in.The fundraising is starting now for the summer but how is the money supposed to make a difference? All it does is feed the extra hundreds that pass through between May and October. They want to expand but I feel it will take a long time for that to happen. And the municipalities and town people who distribute the tax money really do not give a damn. I wish $2 from every tax payer in our area went straight to the shelter to help clean up the huge mess that these irresponsible people have made. Put it towards free spays. But no....there is always somewhere more important for it to go.

Anonymous said...

I moved to southern Ontario recently and I am shocked at how stupid people are in this area. My sister has 2 cats that are spayed (never had litters). She lives on a farm so the cats go out. Their rich neighbours who are putting in a 50K pool and landscaping currently have countless "barn" cats that reproduce at an insane rate. This according to my sister is the norm in this area and she is the exception for spaying and vacinating her cats. How do you educate morons? I offered to go speak with them but my sis said don't bother, her husband tried +-96*9+and the response was "they're just barn cats". arg!!!!

Caroline said...

I agree with Tia at least the Mom and daughter finally had their cat spayed. You did an excellent job rescuing all those Mama cats and their babies. Even though she is safe I feel bad for the last calico mama who has 8 kits. Poor mama, she'll be glad when they leave home!

Chrissykat said...

You are my new hero. Do you mind if I post some of your words on my FB page? I'd like to give the "90 minute" stat along with a spay & neuter msg.

House of the Discarded said...

Chrissykat: Thank you!!! Yes, I would be thrilled if you could pass on my spay/neuter message..

Beth

Anonymous said...

You should ask her they had the kittens microchipped with their name as the emergency. Then they can have an idea of what really happens to the kittens in these "good homes". Our dog rescue is named as an emergency contact on the microchip and it cannot be changed (part of the contract) so if the dogs ends up at a shelter we can trace back to the owner.

Anonymous said...

too bad the mother/daughter duo weren't spayed themselves. Who needs more stupid reproducing- the human race is dumb enough!

Nikolai said...

What a pathetic excuse. Here is what Mr. Unable to Bend can do. Put the litter box on a raised surface, and sit on a stool to scoop. That's what my secretary did post hip surgery. And she had four cats.