I just talked with my old neighbor. She and her husband (both elderly) started feeding a sweet calico stray outside last year (they named her Calli). They are both older and are living on fixed incomes so they couldn't afford to take her for her shots and get her fixed. Plus, they are "old school" and not educated in the way to take care of pets. But, they fell in love with her.
Well, she had litter of six. The husband went out one morning and apparently petted Calli the wrong way, and she scratched him. Now, he is in his 70's and on a lot of medication, so immediately called his doctor to make sure there wouldn't be a problem. The doctor said it should be fine but to call the humane society to make sure.
His wife called, explained the situation, and someone from the humane society was there in an hour. She told her "well, basically, since there aren't any rabies shots on record, we need to trap her, kill her and cut her head off and examine the brain to make sure she didn't have rabies".
My neighbor was in tears! Now, I know that is one way to deal with it, but isn't another option to isolate the cat for 10 days to make sure she didn't show any signs? How cold can someone be? She didn't trap her, but the next day, another worker (much more compassionate) came and got her and her kittens. Calli was euthanized and her kittens went up for adoption.
First, I know they should have taken her in to get her spayed once they decided to keep her, but they are living on a very fixed income living on what little social security gave them, plus...like I said they are from a generation that didn't think about spay/neutering. (I will also say these are my old neighbors...as in, over a year ago, and just found out about this today).
But, did she have to say what was going to happen that bluntly? They did love that kitty.
Well, she had litter of six. The husband went out one morning and apparently petted Calli the wrong way, and she scratched him. Now, he is in his 70's and on a lot of medication, so immediately called his doctor to make sure there wouldn't be a problem. The doctor said it should be fine but to call the humane society to make sure.
His wife called, explained the situation, and someone from the humane society was there in an hour. She told her "well, basically, since there aren't any rabies shots on record, we need to trap her, kill her and cut her head off and examine the brain to make sure she didn't have rabies".
My neighbor was in tears! Now, I know that is one way to deal with it, but isn't another option to isolate the cat for 10 days to make sure she didn't show any signs? How cold can someone be? She didn't trap her, but the next day, another worker (much more compassionate) came and got her and her kittens. Calli was euthanized and her kittens went up for adoption.
First, I know they should have taken her in to get her spayed once they decided to keep her, but they are living on a very fixed income living on what little social security gave them, plus...like I said they are from a generation that didn't think about spay/neutering. (I will also say these are my old neighbors...as in, over a year ago, and just found out about this today).
But, did she have to say what was going to happen that bluntly? They did love that kitty.