Friday, August 12, 2011

Uh-oh

Curious George is sick.

And I am angry.

I told the people at the shelter, repeatedly, that I had a cat with chronic health conditions and needed to adopt a healthy cat.

And they assured me that George was healthy.

And then I got to the shelter last night, and they said that there was a virus going around, and that George had sneezed, "once". "But we really don't think he's got it, and we'll give you some pills to take home, just in case he might come down with it."

Well. I should have known right then, but foolishly, I thought, "ah, what's one little sneeze?"

Within five minutes of getting George home, it was obvious that he had an upper respiratory infection. The wheezing is a pretty sure sign. And then, I noticed that his ears were badly gunked up. And oh yeah, his one eye is all cloudy.

Jeezus Christ.

The shelter was closed last night, but I called this morning and left a message on their answering machine. A message stating that George was sick and would need to come back to the shelter.

Because what part of "my other cat has a chronic medical condition and cannot be around sick cats" did these people choose not to understand?

I have George sequestered in the spare bedroom, so hopefully Little Girl will not catch whatever he's got before I can get him back to the shelter, but man, I am not a happy camper this morning.

I am angry. And that shelter's got some goddamn explaining to do.

5 comments:

Badass Nature Girl said...

Is this the same shelter that you were telling me about with Dipshit and the other sick cats???? Girl, if this doesn't tell you not to go back there any more, I don't know what will. Give them HELL and here's sending some prayers and Light that Little Girl doesn't get it. That just sucks.

rockygrace said...

Actually, this is not the same shelter. Which tells me that this is evidently a pattern in the shelters - they are either not seeing obvious symptoms, which frankly I find hard to believe, or they are willfully ignoring obvious symptoms, which I find frightening.

Thanks for sending good vibes - I am scared to death right now that Little Girl will get sick before I can get George out of the house.

Badass Nature Girl said...

WTF??? These shelters get too comfortable some times, but there's just no excuse for it, and there's absolutely no excuse for them knowing about Little Girl and exposing her like this. Not to mention, here's a cat that you wanted to welcome into your home that's now being kept in a bedroom for the day. That pisses me off too.

Anonymous said...

I have been told by my vet that shelters routinely medicate cats with low doses of antibiotics to keep them appearing asymptomatic (so that people will adopt them) because they simply can't get rid of what she refers to as "shelter crud." Once they go off the antibiotics for twelve hours, they pretty much all get seriously croupy. Our shelter kitty (Jane) really struggled to get on top of her pneumonia-like condition in the first ten days of her life with us.

Argh. Is it possible to preemptively medicate both cats to keep Little Girl healthy and improve the health of George? (Bridgett)

rockygrace said...

Bridgett, that's a good question. I'm not sure what kinds of meds Little Girl could take that wouldn't interfere with her heart meds.

Of course I realize that cats can get sick. But to try to introduce a new, sick cat into a house with a cat with heart disease ...

Honestly, at this point? I'm angry and I'm scared and the damn shelter has not returned my calls and I'm ready to just throw in the towel. And that's a shame. For George, for me, for Little Girl, for everybody.

I just want to cry. And punch somebody.