A little bit of a vent...

As you guys know, I foster for the local shelter. I advertise my fosters online and then if someone is interested from there, they have to fill out the application, pay the shelter fee, etc. People are ALWAYS complaining about the shelter fee, and just want "free" cats, without realizing that they end up spending more in vet bills, IF they actually provide vet care. The fees for the shelter are not huge. A male is approx. $110 and a female is approx. $130 and this includes:
1) Spay/neuter
2) First vaccination
3) Deworming
4) Defleaing
5) Vet visit
6) City License
7) Microchip
Cats that are surrendered already spayed/neutered are actually cheaper. I mean if someone were to just take any cat to the vet, they would pay 2-3 TIMES as much for all of that!

Here is a conversation I just had with a potential adopter. I think I explained things well and remained civil even though I wanted to get nasty... I know I won't hear from her again though. The cats aren't what she wants, which is probably a good thing!

Her: " Hello Im interested in the black and white cat, just wondering if either of the cats are spayed or declawed? Or either are allowed outside? Thank you please email me back"

Me: "Hi there!

Yes, the black and white is a spayed female and the grey and white is a neutered male. Neither one is declawed, but it is very easy just to trim the tips of their claws so that scratching isn't an issue. They were both surrendered to the shelter as strays, so if you were to occasionally allow them outdoor access, I can't see it being a problem, but truthfully I am not sure how they would react as in foster care they are indoor, and were indoors at the shelter as well.
Sky, the black and white female, is a real sweetheart. She would just sit in my lap all day and purr if I were to let her. Are you familiar with the adoption process with the shelter? Let me know if you have any questions!"

Her: " Yes im familiar with the adoption process. That is where I got my first cat from 4 years ago and I still have her. So you are looking to money for this animal since it is a rescue league cat? For the shelter being so full, its too bad they do not cut the prices down. I think its about 100 dollars isnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t it?
I am looking for a male preferably for my cat princess since she doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t do well with female cats for some reason. They need to be neutered since I have her neutered as well. And I prefer them to not have long hair."

Me: "Actually where these guys are already fixed, the price is cheaper. It's $50 adoption fee, $11.30 for city licence and $5 for the microchip so it would be under $80. The prices are the way they are because they include so much with it. Their fee includes spay/neuter, first vaccine, a vet visit, deworming, defleaing, the city license, microchip, etc. If any cat were just brought into a vet to have all that done, they would easily pay more than double that, so it's really a pretty good deal! Depending on the vet, a spay alone costs between $200-$250, but if a cat is adopted through the shelter, the fee includes the spay/neuter. The shelter doesn't make any money themselves and are completely non-profit. The fees go to provide all of those services for the kitties, and to provide them with the care that they need. The shelter gets no government funding at all, so all of their money comes from fundraising.

These kitties are property of the shelter and I am simply their foster Mom, so if you did decide on adopting one, how it would work is I would meet you at the shelter itself, you would fill out the paperwork there and pay the fee, they would vaccinate the kitty and check it out to treat it for anything it needed and microchip it. Then you could take the kitty home from there. The kitties are in my home though, so you are more than welcome to come and meet them if you would like. The black and white short haired one is a female though and the grey and white one is a male, but he is more fluffy.

Let me know if you would like to come meet them, or if you have any other questions!"

You handled it WAY better then I would have

On a side note....

It costs $200-$250 to get a female spayed in the SJ area......OMG
It's exactly $100.00 here.
A male is $85.

Yeah, people assume. Wrongly.

I gave $70 to Daisy's foster meowmy right at the handover. I believe she spent more than that (kitten spay, etc.), but was a sweetheart because all she asked for was $70. Penny's foster parents were awesome too - They gave Penny to me free, even though I would've gladly offset their expenses (kitten spay, etc.) with a cash gesture-- They paid for everything --I have a feeling costs were at least $100 (They even provided Penny's vet record (as did Daisy's foster meowmy))

Lots of people don't understand.

The VERY cheapest spay around here is my own vet, Dr. Abbate, who charges $170 for a spay. The prices around here are very high and the only low cost option is to adopt through the shelter, where everything is included. Now that being said, if the prices for spay/neuter WOULD come down, or if there were more low cost options, I don't think we'd have half of the overpopulation problem that we currently have.

All financial transactions for my fosters are done at the shelter. I don't deal with the money at all, nor would I ever ask for any for myself for the fosters. If I wanted them to, the shelter would provide food and such, but I would never drain their resources and pay for all food, treats, toys, litter and such myself. Often we'll sponsor a foster for their spay/neuter so that they'll already be done before they go to their forever home and it lessens the adoption fee to make them more appealing.

I have to look at it this way though. If you're not willing to pay the fee for my fosters, you wouldn't be willing to provide them with all of the proper necessary vet care and if THAT is the case, you shouldn't have a pet to begin with!

And now with all this said I just read on Facebook that for the rest of the month, the shelter is adopting out any cat who is already spayed/neutered for simply a donation!

ARGH!!!!! I agree, that if someone cannot spare the $100 to adopt a kitty with everything included, how are you going to financially care for the new pet????? Alot of shelters are offering very minimal fees for adopting cats this month and the next due to all of the kittens that they are expecting to fill the shelters. So most of the rescues are offering a reduced fee to make room for kittens and their mothers that are due to come in to the shelters very soon. I think you handled the situation with this potential adopter with much professionalism. It bothers me that most people don't know how deforming and psychologically damaging declawing a cat is. Usually once you explain to them that it is like amputating your fingers to the first digit, they change their minds about it. I just don't think most people realize that.

One of my kitties was a orphan that I paid all the initial vet bills for. I know I would've been way ahead financially with the fee at a shelter or rescue.

Vent all you want! You do so much to help the kitties

I agree wholeheartedly with rescues BUT there are a few things I have issues with that came up when Mike and I were looking for a cat.

The first being the time it took them to respond to email or phone calls. We were at a local pet store that fosters for them when we began our search. Mike knew one of the girls that works there and mentioned that we were looking for a cat, so she referred us to the rescue. They were having a promotion that month where all cats (not kittens) were only $25. I emailed them the minute I got home (there was no phone number), gave them a quick description of us and what we were looking for (basically a cat that was used to being around dogs) and gave my home and cellphone number so that they could call. They called our house about a week after I sent the email, during a time that I told them in the email I would be at work, and wouldn't give Mike a number that I could call back when I got home (about an hour later). She said she would call back. We waited another week for her to call back, she didn't, so we continued with out search with other groups and posted our ad on Kijiji. It was about a week after we got Leiki that she actually called back (almost 3 weeks from when we first called) and sounded very angry that we had adopted a cat from somewhere else. We ran into this with a couple of the groups. I worked with dog rescue for a long time, we would always send an email out when we received and application or email and if we were going to be longer than expected, we sent them another email to let them know. So for me to not hear from them for that length of time, I just assumed that they weren't interested in us adopting from them.

The other issue that I have is all of the restrictions. Three of the groups that we contacted wouldn't approve us because we have an intact show dog, two wouldn't adopt to us because we live in an apartment, they also wouldn't adopt to us because we didn't have a fenced in yard - even though the cats were supposed to be indoor only. There were a few other things that I can't even remember right now.

Out of all of the groups we contacted, only one was willing to work with us and unfortunately they didn't have anything that would have worked in our situation at the time. They were very friendly people and when we're looking again, we will definitely contact them first.

I don't personally have a problem with the adoption fees (within reason), but I can see how some people would. If they are looking for an older cat, there are tons on Kijiji/Craigslist that come speutered and up to date on shots for free. Some people don't understand why shelters and rescues charge adoption fees for cats when they can get the same thing for free somewhere else. There are also TONS of kittens for free on there too and, depending on the area you live, you can get the speuter/shots done for less than $100. Just playing devil's advocate, because I can see why they say that - although I do share in your frustration.

I guess that's one of the problems in cat rescue, as opposed to dog (or other animal) rescue... there are so many cats and so many people trying to get rid of them that the people that are interested don't necessarily understand why they have to pay that adoption fee or why the adoption fee is the amount it is. They see the healthy, playful cat they adopted for $110 but don't see the one that came in so messed up that it cost thousands of dollars to get healthy.

Originally Posted by nerdrock

They called our house about a week after I sent the email. It was about a week after we got Leiki that she actually called back (almost 3 weeks from when we first called). We ran into this with a couple of the groups.
Out of all of the groups we contacted, only one was willing to work with us. They were very friendly people and when we're looking again, we will definitely contact them first.

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Some people within certain rescues also don't like impulse additions to the family and within reason can be tied up and not available 24/7, as a result they can sometimes can make judgements on how patient someone is or isn't.
Also, the people at rescues aren't paid, these are volunteers with a busy home, work, family life and serious obligations to juggle in some cases.
Since you have worked in a rescue previously, I know you probably know all of this already.
Sorry you are upset with so many rescues and were frustrated. The cat in your siggie is very cute though.
What breed of dog are you showing?

Originally Posted by cococat

Some people within certain rescues also don't like impulse additions to the family and within reason can be tied up and not available 24/7, as a result they can sometimes can make judgements on how patient someone is or isn't.
Also, the people at rescues aren't paid, these are volunteers with a busy home, work, family life and serious obligations to juggle in some cases.
Since you have worked in a rescue previously, I know you probably know all of this already.
Sorry you are upset with so many rescues and were frustrated. The cat in your siggie is very cute though.
What breed of dog are you showing?

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Oh I completely agree and understand, but I do think the time was a bit excessive. If she would have given us any indication that she was going to contact us again, we would have waited, but just waiting and not knowing what's going on, with no way to contact them, was simply confusing.

The one thing that I really didn't understand was the intact dog thing. I get that they're a rescue, I get that rescues don't support breeding, but this is an animal of a different species that is actively being shown and proving himself, we are very reputable dog breeders and don't have litters often, so it's just confusing to me.

We show standard longhaired dachshunds. I have a major problem with the way most modern shown specimens are being bred - too long, legs too short, chests too deep, no drives, basically useless for hunting and/or a liability. We also do real hunting with them and also trial them in field activities, so we need the conformation of a working dog as well. Fynn, is more of a working dog and our female (lives with my friend) is more of a show dog - she comes from a long line of import champions and we are very lucky to have her. We are hoping with our breeding program that we will be able to get a good line going of dogs that are suited to both the show ring and the working world. We have a long way to go, but we have high hopes for the litter that we have planned for the fall.

I don't want to hijack the thread, but if you'd like to see our dogs or want any more info on our goals and what we're trying to do, feel free to send me a PM