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- Jan 14, 2013
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One day. I would like to become a proper foster for a proper rescue. But in my warm climate, I can't seem to avoid finding plenty of my own foundlings to contend with that keep me busy and almost constantly frustrated. Considering I'd just rehomed three feral kittens I'd fished out of a hole in my neighbor's bushes (much to the detriment of my gardening gloves) and had two black kittens I'd taken on to show the ferals that people weren't monsters still to rehome (I'd taken them on from a lady who had let a stray/or 'stray' have kittens in her bathroom and was now having animal control pick them up in the morning), I was ready for a break when I saw a little siamese slinking cautious and uncomfortable looking around a neighbor's house while I was walking my dog. I passed once, only curious because I'd never seen her before (and I am rather partial to blue eyes).
But when I passed another house nearby and saw her meowing at us while hiding in the bushes of yet another home, showing signs of motherhood, I tried not to think of what I already knew. Seeing someone outside the first house, I called out and got a rather rude reply that yeah, she'd been hanging around for a while, and no, no one owned her, and to take her myself if I wanted a cat. Now miffed and feeling the usual frustration I feel when I come across strays, I sighed and handed my roommate my dog's leash. Figuring I'd make a lame attempt and say I tried, feeling rather burnt out, I called out to her and she came running before my dog was what I'd call a safe distance for a stray's peace of mind. Helplessly, I pet her. A little dirty and skinny, but not too bad, and following me around to rub on my legs as if she were tied on there directly. I wandered a bit looking for others who might be outside, but everyone had noticed her, proclaimed she wasn't theirs and sent me on my way. She was following me like a dog.
By that time, my roommate was back from putting the pup back in the house and I decided to take a gamble and head in the direction she'd seemed to be going when I'd found her the second time. Sure enough, when I got close enough to a home near the back woods of the subdivision, she wandered off calling out two little dilute calicos. There were some bowls with food and water there, so at least they'd been able to eat. But speaking to the nice owner of that house, she'd felt bad enough to feed them, but had no plans to do anything else. I really, really didn't feel like taking on another batch of strays I'd have to do the long haul for, and I already had two 10 week olds still in my cages. Then they told me there used to be three kittens, but no one knows what happened to that one. It'd been missing at least a week.
Exasperated, I went home to bring crates and canned food and began a two hour tour of kitten luring. It worked for both, and I hauled home my frustrating catch.
A few days later, I finally heard back from the lady who had taken in my special needs cat(anti-depressants, constant stress, and chronic UTI, my profile pic), five years old, who I thought would finally do well in a home with no other pets. They hadn't been answering my phone or e-mails for weeks, and despite all I'd told them before letting her take him (she worked socializing ferals and with TNR programs and wanted a pet cat of her own for in her home, had a vet check that had checked out and had nursed many cats to health.). It was only to find out that she'd been too ashamed when she'd started having problems, had lost her job, and hadn't contacted me as I told her repeatedly to do if she had issues. If it wasn't working. I found out that she'd lied to me when she'd said he was doing pretty well two weeks and a month in. And I found out that he'd basically starved in depression, with her trying to force feed him and not understanding his mental issues despite everything I'd told her and outlined. She thought her experience outweighed mine due to her history with ferals and was too proud to ask for help. I was devastated to hear he'd suffered so thoroughly and now I was thoroughly disillusioned and definitely not feeling like taking on the responsibility of other animals to try and rehome.
But where I live, a rude response from a rescue around here is better than no response. They all pull from the kill shelters, and tell off any individual trying to rehome cats themselves, and I'm never willing to play roulette with anything I take care of even once. So I began vetting them and spaying them, only to find out that the little siamese mom who'd originally found me was FIV+. Now I have yet another special needs cat that I need to rehome. I've been looking for five months.
On top of that, I disclosed her status when trying to find homes for the kittens, which scared off quite a few people. The fact that I am charging a rehoming fee that's over 10 bucks is earning me nothing but lectures. Mostly because this is craigslist. So I have to throw out most responses since they sound like Scams or people telling me that they'd adopt it for free. Or the ones who say they're interested based on the pictures and then don't respond when I remind them that she's special needs.
I finally tested her kitten when she was 6 months old, and she is thankfully negative. But now she's older, so it's a harder matter to find her a home.
Once upon a time, I had good luck rehoming these sorts of cats through catster or the petfinder classfiieds. But all those have been much more tuned for the legitimate rescues. I appreciate that, really, I do. But I'm an individual trying to help two cats and I know someone willing to take in an FIV+ cat isn't looking for that cat on Craigslist. This is a military and college city. I live in the Jacksonville, FL area. They're constantly overrun and don't want to work with an individual.
I've tried facebook, and while they got some shares, they don't get comments and it doesn't go far. From what I can see, it's far, far more useful for dogs than for cats. There are just too many cats.
I wouldn't mind keeping an FIV+ cat, but my own female is the cause of almost every headache I have in my house. She's a terror and attacks other females and despises strange cats. Even with the use of feliway, calming treats, slow introduction, separation, positive reinforcement. It means nothing to her. She's a royal jerk no matter what. She only slightly ignores kittens, but once they become adolescents, she starts up her bullying and intimidating. She was the main reason for the constant stress in my 5 year old failure rescue's life. I don't know how many times I've thought of how much more good I could do without her around, but she's 10 and just a classic tabby that I've had since my sister pulled her out of traffic at 5 weeks old and she realized she couldn't train her husband to keep a cat indoors. So I'm stuck with her. No doubt she'll live to 30 out of spite and is great with people, but I really cannot keep these little guys. She's escalating and starting to chase them back into their condo cage if she can get them out of my sight for a moment while having supervised time out of the cage. She's also taken one of them down to the floor recently trying to knock down drag out with the 7 month old kitten, but she and her mother are very non-aggressive. The mother, in fact, can't seem to understand what's happening if anything bad happens. She just stares and runs off. But there's still risk in it.
Does anyone have any other suggestions? I can't pay for newspaper ads that would get me the same lame responses that I get from craigslist. And I go by the vet's offices where I put up flyers and no one has even taken a single number. I don't mind keeping them for a while, but they really don't deserve to live their life in a cage like this, and I seem to be going nowhere.
