The local spay/neuter organization I volunteer for received a request this week. A friend of one of the volunteers had recently had a cat pass away, and was looking for a companion for their remaining cat, who was now terribly lonely. They weren't really interested in going through one of the local rescues, as they wanted to "rescue" a cat themselves by taking in a homeless cat. But they ALSO didn't want a feral; they wanted a cat that would be friendly to them, and to their remaining cat. Could our group help them? They wanted a male cat, not too young or too old; about two years would be fine.
I put on my thinking cap. I know of LOTS of people who feed ferals and would love to find them indoor homes, but these people were looking for a friendly cat. I called the woman with all the barn cats (yes, I am still working to get her cats spayed and neutered; getting multiple slots in the local low-cost programs is taking longer than I anticipated); did she have any friendly male cats on her farm that she would be willing to re-home? YES, she said, she had several!
Then I went to Craigslist. Craigslist can be a scary, weird place, but it is also a place where people try to find homes for local strays, and for animals that they can't keep. GRANTED, sometimes it's for sketchy reasons ("moving", my a**), but still, a cat needing a home is a cat needing a home. Sure enough, there was a listing for a friendly stray cat that people had taken in but couldn't keep, and they wanted to find it a good home. Here's the listing:
" Looking to find a home for this sweet boy. We recently rescued him during the snow storms. We asked around our neighborhood and no one seems to claim him. We'd say he's about 8 months old. Very tall cat. We had him checked out by a neighbor who is a vet and she states he's in great health. We unfortunately just cannot keep him. He's very affectionate and loving and loves kids and other animals. He has these beautiful "droopy" eyes :) we are moving on December 3rd (Ed: *ahem*) and have to find him a home by then. Please contact me if interested!"
Look how cute this cat is!
I had the spay/neuter group contact the people looking for the cat and give them the two options: (a) their choice of friendly barn cat; go and pick one out, or (b) Craigslist Cat.
This morning I got the message: They took Craigslist Cat! They needed a cat, the cat needed a home, and now they'll all live happily ever after.
And I think it's time I got a "Cat Matchmaker" t-shirt. Ha.
5 comments:
good job!!!
Love this. What a cute cat.
Don't really understand why they didn't want to go through a rescue, though.........
James P., some people don't even like to walk INTO rescues/shelters because they say it's too depressing. And some people take objection to the paperwork that needs to be filled out before they can take an animal home. "Why do you want to know where I work? I'm not telling you that!" And some people don't see why they should pay a rescue for a cat, when there are plenty just walking around loose. I've had people flat-out tell me, "You guys are running quite a racket here! Grabbing stray cats off the streets and selling them!" *sigh*
I'm not saying these particular people are in any of those categories - they seemed to be more do-it-yourself-ers - but that's some of the reasons people avoid shelters. Add to that the fact that some shelters don't exactly have the best reputations (one local shelter (NOT one that I've volunteered for) used to mass-euthanize animals using the exhaust fumes from a VW bus back in the seventies, and people around here have LONG memories (myself included)), and ... yeah.
the state I live in recently tried to ban puppy mill puppies and cats from being sold in pet stores. We have about 20 of them that sell animals and most aren't from mills, so you would think it wouldn't have been a hard sell, but people from out of state came in and started calling shelters all kinds of names and calling them 'for profit' and fake rescues.. some even accused them of stealing dogs to sell.. SMH... (mostly because they figured if one state could do it they would all fall)
Congrats on finding a match.
Tails, I'd be curious to know how the out-of-staters justify being pro-puppy-mill. *sigh*
And if there's a shelter on earth that's actually turning a profit, I'd like to know HOW. Jeez.
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