Precocious Kitty

I want to tell you about my most recent heartbreak.

My neighbor found a kitten, pure black with blue eyes, in her garden. Since there are many feral cats in the area, we all thought it just got away from its mom. We put it down and so the mom could hear its cries and find it. After a day and a half of the kitten crying, I was able to get her out from under my neighbor's back porch where she took shelter.

I brought her indoors for the night and decided to bring her to the Animal Rescue League in the morning. She followed me around the house and curled up on my shoulder to nap, basically we bonded. I knew that it would be hard to hand her over, especially since I earlier this year I lost my 6 year old tabby, but I was unable to keep her.

Convinced I was doing the right thing I, and my mom, brought the kitten to the ARL. The receptionist told us that she looked underweight and asked if I would be willing to care for her for a week or two until she was four pounds otherwise they may have to put her down. I agreed that I would and she got the vet to look at the kitten.

The vet said that she was one and a half pounds underweight and that she had an upper respiratory infection (there was no symptoms that I could see). According to the receptionist that ups the possibility that she would be put down. And she said that upper respiratory infection in cats is highly contagious, and since I have a 16 year old cat at home I can't bring her home. My 16 year old could get sick and die.

I left crying (so was my mom who was dead set against me keeping the cat from the beginning). I made the receptionist promise me that they would do their best for her but I...I don't know what will happen.

Remembering another persons experience handing over a cat to ARL, I have become convinced that part of the receptionist's job is to try and convince the person relinquishing their animal to change their mind. The policy that (if true) has totally killed me. I wish that she would have just said "Thank you, we'll do our best. Goodbye." I spent the rest of the day bawling.

My advice? If you can't keep the animal and can't find it a good home yourself (I did try), bring it to a no-kill animal shelter. But if you want to adopt, to find the right cat/dog for you no matter the shelter's policy. (The ARL was and is at this time full of cats and would have been able to send her to a foster home if they had room.)

I have decided to become a foster parent for cats as soon as possible, which may be awhile.