Tessie

Tessie woke us up at 6.30 this morning meowing for attention so loudly
we could hear her from the bedroom... so I went in and turned on the
light and said goodmorning and cuddled her a bit... then we left her
alone for a few hours. And then it was the fateful moment to put her
in the carrier and take her to the shelter... neither of us wanted to
do it but if somebody else was willing to take the time to find a good
home for her then it would be for the best... so we put her in the car
(Silver hissed a final 'good riddance' on the way out the door) and
drove her to the shelter. When we got there John started to say that
he wanted to know if she wasn't adopted so we could take her back and
the guy said 'that'll be three days. Nobody wants an adult or a black
cat so we'll put her to sleep on wednesday.' :( At that point I had to

Chakolate...

I wonder if he was testing you - trying to make you see how much you
really wanted to keep her. If not, he's the most callous person I ever
heard of working in a shelter.

sriddles...

I really disagree with this.
The shelter worker was probably simply telling her the cold truth. It
is not unusual for overcrowded shelters to have a 72-hour holding
period.
(Note: I am not talking about Karen--I know she does not fit in this
category)
Shelter people see so many people who relinquish animals. What they are
doing, is actually dumping their responsibilities, or "problem" if you
will.... on someone else. There is no need to mollycoddle the public so
that they might feel better about dumping their animals. Some of the
public seems to have this fantasy that when they take their pet, the
shelter will find it a loving home and everyone will live happily ever
after. It's just not true, and to perpetuate that myth is doing the
animals a wrong. People need to see the ugly side of
overpopulation--maybe then they'll think twice about unwanted litters
and neutering.

leave the room and John talked to the guy... I sat in the car crying
and then John called me back in. The end result is that we signed the
adoption papers for Tessie and paid the $75 fee and they're keeping
her for three days and vet-checking her etc. And then we get her back

Enfilade...

I am so glad Tessie will be getting another chance!

When you get her back again, when we had Nox and Smokey, we made sure
to spend some time in the room with the "Confined" cat so s/he wouldn't
get lonely (while the other had the run of the apartment) and we
switched them at night. The "confined" cat had the run of the bedroom,
with a litterbox in there and food, so it wasn't such a bad
"Confinement" and a week of this allowed them to get used to the smells
of each other before they met up again "in person." We did a similar
thing with the kittens.

Now both Nox and Smokey love the kittens. Smokey and Nox will never be
best of friends, but they can coexist without hurting each other or
stressing each other out.

As for the ridiculous "nobody wants a black cat," well, Nocturne is our
darling (and the only one we adopted from a shelter; the others were a
matter of "nobody wants a feral" *Smokey* and "nobody wants to feed
orphan kittens around the clock.")

Enfilade...

I should clarify...I know lots of people don't want black cats, and I
think it's both silly and sad. The colour of the fur does not indicate
the personality within.

When we picked out Nocturne, my family thinks I got her /because/ she's
a black cat (and I'm a Witch/Wiccan.) I deliberately didn't do
this--of all the cats we met, Nox is the one who wouldn't take her eyes
off us. She all but /demanded/ we take her home, at /once./

and we'll try again only this time we'll know that she's healthy and
disease-free... we couldn't afford to take her to the regular vet
right now so this is the only way it could work. We'll put her back in
the craftroom (only better kitten-proofed) and leave the door closed
for two weeks and see if Scouty and Silver settle down and get used to
her... and if it doesn't work then we'll find her a home ourselves.

NanCe via CatKB.com...

Congratulations on your new little one. Please remember to give it lots of
time - 2 weeks is probably not long enough. Your cats are reacting normally -
that's how they do it. Some day you'll see them chasing each other or lying
close by each other and you'll be glad you stuck it out.

I can't believe that they give the poor babies so little chance to
find a home... it's terrible. Three weeks I could understand, but
three DAYS? :(

polonca12000...

I'm so glad to hear you are giving Tessie another chance - thank you so
much!
Best wishes that Scouty and Silver give her a chance too,
Polonca and Soncek