In Love (adopting?)

rubsluts'mommy · Oct 7, 2005

I know I shouldn't add to the chaos, but I was just at my local Petsmart (well, one of them) and saw this ADORABLE cream tortie kitten. she was in the kitty bed, and when I placed my fingers (didn't tap with my nails) on the 'glass' she was alert and reaching for my fingers. the sheet on her said she was 5 months, good with other cats, playful and loving. if I'd had the cash right then, I'd have adopted her and she'd be here with me.

She's an absolute DOLL. and I haven't been able to stop thinking about her. I don't know how JoJo and Jack would take having a kitten in the apartment, but in time I believe they'd get used to her. I brought Jack home after 6 weeks of JoJo being the solo cat. She hissed for a while, and they wouldn't play with each other, but they got over it and now chase and play-fight all over. Havingn Jack helped bring JoJo out of her shell. She was a very withdrawn kitty. I'm just wondering if it's worth begging friends and family for adoption money. I can afford food and whatnot... it's just the fee that kills me. It's double what I paid in fees for each of the other two. I guess Chicago has steeper fees. I got the other two in Upstate NY.

Amanda

lionessrampant · Oct 7, 2005

Yeah, that's how I ended up with Leo. He was at the PetsMart near Diversey and Broadway. Which one did you find your little Tortie at? Maybe I saw her the last time I went in! And it the agency was Precious Pets, Inc., then yes, their rates are unusually high, probably because they're a very small organization with no shelter that I'm aware of to house the animals.

Aren't they so hard to resist?!

rubsluts'mommy · Oct 7, 2005

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

Yeah, that's how I ended up with Leo. He was at the PetsMart near Diversey and Broadway. Which one did you find your little Tortie at? Maybe I saw her the last time I went in! And it the agency was Precious Pets, Inc., then yes, their rates are unusually high, probably because they're a very small organization with no shelter that I'm aware of to house the animals.

Aren't they so hard to resist?!

Yup, Diversey and Broadway. Her name is Aphrodite. I want her so bad, it hurts. It's $100 for her. She's spayed, microchipped and all... and she's good with other cats... whcih would be good with my two little fuzzy monsters.

I remember paying 45 in fees for each of mine, back in Syracuse.

I just sent an email to my father about her. Maybe he'll sympathize and Paypal me some money to help. Back in Syracuse, I had just brought JoJo home, and I knew her littermate brother was still at the Humane Society shelter. As I observed JoJo being very scared, I scrounged together the fee and called them, letting them know i was going to return for her brother. They said he was already gone. Someone had just adopted him a couple days before. That's when I went in search of a suitable male playmate for her. I found Jack at a private rescue outside of Syracuse a few weeks later.

I think Aphrodite could certainly hold her own with these two. She's alert and active enough, from what I saw.

So d**n cute, I tell ya. I was head over heels as soon as her paw reached for my fingers.

ARGH!! It's so frustrating...

Amanda

lionessrampant · Oct 7, 2005

It seems that the going rate for adoptions around here is about $75. Leo's was $55 at the same PetSmart, but a different organization. I got him from the Anti-Cruelty Society. I got Lola from Treehouse Animal Foundation, which is in Uptown. I volunteer there and it is, by far, the best shelter in the entire city. Their fee is a pretty standard $75. The smaller rescues tend to want $100-$150...mostly because their adoption rates are so small and they don't have the resources to host fundraisers, etc. Anti-Cruelty unfortunately became a kill-shelter shortly after I adopted Leo and Treehouse remains no-kill, as is Precious Pets, which is Aphrodite's sresuce group.

How long have you been in Chicago? I'm assuming you're from Upstate NY. If you need any help with navigating the city or the northside, you can PM me. There are a few other Chicago TCSers running around as well. I'm a Lincoln Park girl myself...where are you?

rubsluts'mommy · Oct 7, 2005

All the cats, including the one adult Maine Coon mix, were 100 each.

I've been here for two years, livng in Printer's Row. I am not originally from Syracuse. I lived there for two years. I treated it as a jumping off point for being an adult. I'm now 33, and was living at home with my parents for most of my adult life. That was in California. I loved the state, but couldn't stand the traffic and a bunch of other things. I couldn't live on my own out there, it was too $$$. I also had no desire to live half my life behind the wheel of a car. I love driving, but only on the open road. I hated commuting more than nearly anything. I had to leave. I love where I am in Chicago, because I'm within a matter of blocks of every El line.

I do like Lincoln Park, as well as other areas, but due to certain allergies, I can't live just any apartment. I'm allergic to mold and mildew, which I could bet you is in a majority of apartments. Where i am, the building is old, but the apartment units are less than 30 years old, and in very good condition. My building is 'going condo', and I hope to get my s**t together so I can buy my current unit. At that point, I'll most likely gut the bathroom and make sure there's no mold. I don't think there is, but it can hide well. Especially in a bathroom. The cog wheels in my brain (where the hamsters work OT turning those wheels) have been churning out ideas for reconfiguring the bathroom and kitchen. This is what happens when you grow up in a fixer-upper house with an overly ambitious father. If I can't buy my unit, I have no clue where i'll move. Space is vital. I know it also isn't cheap!!

Amanda

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

It seems that the going rate for adoptions around here is about $75. Leo's was $55 at the same PetSmart, but a different organization. I got him from the Anti-Cruelty Society. I got Lola from Treehouse Animal Foundation, which is in Uptown. I volunteer there and it is, by far, the best shelter in the entire city. Their fee is a pretty standard $75. The smaller rescues tend to want $100-$150...mostly because their adoption rates are so small and they don't have the resources to host fundraisers, etc. Anti-Cruelty unfortunately became a kill-shelter shortly after I adopted Leo and Treehouse remains no-kill, as is Precious Pets, which is Aphrodite's sresuce group.

How long have you been in Chicago? I'm assuming you're from Upstate NY. If you need any help with navigating the city or the northside, you can PM me. There are a few other Chicago TCSers running around as well. I'm a Lincoln Park girl myself...where are you?

momofmany · Oct 7, 2005

You're making me homesick (displaced Chicago native)......south, west and north sides - 30 years.

Aphrodite sounds beautiful - got a petfinder link to her?

nekokaasan · Oct 7, 2005

As long as you can afford the food and veterinary care, I say go for it! She sounds lovely.

As for the fee, we paid $100 apiece for the boys.

rubsluts'mommy · Oct 7, 2005

Originally Posted by Momofmany

You're making me homesick (displaced Chicago native)......south, west and north sides - 30 years.

Aphrodite sounds beautiful - got a petfinder link to her?

I can't find her on petfinder. I went to the website for Precious Pets, and they said they don't have listings for all the kittens, there are so many. I wouldn't mind going back and taking a pic of her, if the people at PetSmart would let me.

I'm gonna have this cat on my mind...

You know what they say... you don't adopt a cat, a cat adopts you. Maybe she was just being playful, but she just stole my heart. At one point, I knelt down to look at the others, all siblings, in the bottom containment area. I stood up and found she'd gotten up out of her kitty bed and was eating. She was kneading the floor while she ate. So cute!!

Amanda

lionessrampant · Oct 7, 2005

Originally Posted by RubSluts'Mommy

All the cats, including the one adult Maine Coon mix, were 100 each.

I've been here for two years, livng in Printer's Row. I am not originally from Syracuse. I lived there for two years. I treated it as a jumping off point for being an adult. I'm now 33, and was living at home with my parents for most of my adult life. That was in California. I loved the state, but couldn't stand the traffic and a bunch of other things. I couldn't live on my own out there, it was too $$$. I also had no desire to live half my life behind the wheel of a car. I love driving, but only on the open road. I hated commuting more than nearly anything. I had to leave. I love where I am in Chicago, because I'm within a matter of blocks of every El line.

I do like Lincoln Park, as well as other areas, but due to certain allergies, I can't live just any apartment. I'm allergic to mold and mildew, which I could bet you is in a majority of apartments. Where i am, the building is old, but the apartment units are less than 30 years old, and in very good condition. My building is 'going condo', and I hope to get my s**t together so I can buy my current unit. At that point, I'll most likely gut the bathroom and make sure there's no mold. I don't think there is, but it can hide well. Especially in a bathroom. The cog wheels in my brain (where the hamsters work OT turning those wheels) have been churning out ideas for reconfiguring the bathroom and kitchen. This is what happens when you grow up in a fixer-upper house with an overly ambitious father. If I can't buy my unit, I have no clue where i'll move. Space is vital. I know it also isn't cheap!!

Amanda

Yeah, your allergies would make it hard to live up here. I live in a rehabbed vintage place and it just...never gets clean! Especially since it's a rental.

Good luck with securing your unit, though. Even if you can't, it's a renter's market, although with Printer's Row's incresing popularity, I can see where cost would be a concern. I was hugely lucky to find about 500 or so square feet of glorius space in Lincoln Park for around $750 a month...a bargain considering that I can SEE the park from the front of my building.

Best of luck with APhrodite. I've seen that Maine Coon Mix...she's been there for quite a while. I get to feeling sorry for the Precious Pets ones...they don't 'rotate' them and since they're so pricey, the Anti-Cruelty kits get swept off to new homes while the others just sit there. It's a shame cost should play into this so much, but sadly, it does. It's a big Catch-22 for the little shelters...adopt out more to lower prices, but you can't adopt out more UNTIL you lower prices.

lionessrampant · Oct 7, 2005

Originally Posted by Momofmany

You're making me homesick (displaced Chicago native)......south, west and north sides - 30 years.

Aww, we miss you! Come back!

30 years here? I've been here for 20 (i.e. my whole life) and it's going to be so difficult to leave should I ever have to. My family has been here for 2 generations now.

sweetie's mom · Oct 8, 2005

Originally Posted by nekokaasan

As long as you can afford the food and veterinary care, I say go for it! She sounds lovely.

As for the fee, we paid $100 apiece for the boys.

I paid $125.00 for Sweetie at Petsmart in Maryland - from Last Chance Animal Rescue. She had been spayed, had all her shots, and was treated for kennel cough and ear mites before I got her. I thought it was a bit expensive, too, but after all they did for her, I didn't mind at all! I've had her 9 months and I don't know what I'd do without her!

momofmany · Oct 8, 2005

Originally Posted by lionessrampant

Aww, we miss you! Come back!

30 years here? I've been here for 20 (i.e. my whole life) and it's going to be so difficult to leave should I ever have to. My family has been here for 2 generations now.

My family settled there in about 1902. We visit on a regular basis, in fact, my husband is heading up there tomorrow - his grandma passed yesterday and there will be the traditional Polish funeral, complete with lots of food and drink. She and her husband owned a tavern (not a bar, a tavern) on the north side for many years up there. We can't get the dogs boarded so I'm taking home duty.

2 things keep me from returning: the winters and the housing prices.

rubsluts'mommy · Oct 8, 2005

Originally Posted by Momofmany

My family settled there in about 1902. We visit on a regular basis, in fact, my husband is heading up there tomorrow - his grandma passed yesterday and there will be the traditional Polish funeral, complete with lots of food and drink. She and her husband owned a tavern (not a bar, a tavern) on the north side for many years up there. We can't get the dogs boarded so I'm taking home duty.

2 things keep me from returning: the winters and the housing prices.

I'll admit, being a California native, that the winters are brutal. It's not so much the snow that's the worst (Syracuse has Chicago beat by a mile in that respect), it's the wind coming off the lake. When I first moved here, I had people telling me the snow is really bad. I starting laughing about halfway through that winter. My comments usually ran like this: "Are you kidding? a foot of snow pushed to the roadsides every hour or so is nothing to Syracuse. I'd get a couple feet within an hour or two, depending on the day."

Shovelling my driveway in Syracuse was the worst part. The local guys who plowed the roads in my neighborhood were evil... truly evil. I'm sure out in the 'burbs of Chicago, the snow is a bit more of a challenge. But it's still no comparison to upstate NY. The wind, on the other hand, will knock you on your rear-end as you round a corner. And, I discovered very quickly that umbrellas are useless when it's raining here(the wind turns 'em inside-out).

JoJo is on the back of the couch, behind me, alternating between sniffing my freshly washed hair and headbutting the back of my head. She's such a strange cat.

Well, I'm off to an open house for the grad programs at Columbia. I'm thinking I'll give up trying for UIC adn apply at Columbia. This shall be fun.

Amanda

In Love (adopting?)

rubsluts'mommy

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lionessrampant

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rubsluts'mommy

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lionessrampant

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rubsluts'mommy

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momofmany

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nekokaasan

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rubsluts'mommy

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lionessrampant

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lionessrampant

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sweetie's mom

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momofmany

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