I just read the post from White Cat Lover about having to put kitties down from the shelter, and it jolted me back to Earth.
There's a sweet kitty at the shelter I volunteer at who's been there since January. When he first came in he was so scared of people, and hid at the back of his cage and would not come out in to the play area.
Gradually he got better over time, and was great in the play cage on his own. I bonded really well with him, and I would have a great time playing with him, and cuddling him. He wasn't a lap cat, but he loved rolling around next to me and getting head rubs, and would purr softly for me as well.
He didn't really bond with any other volunteers like he did with me. He would hide in the hidey holes of the scratching posts for other volunteers and refuse to come out. But as soon as he saw me, he would jump out immediately and meow very excitedly. Everyone would comment about how he was never like that for them. If I was doing an office shift, the other volunteers would get me to walk into the cat room so he would jump down and they could put him back into his cage
Unfortunately because he is still very shy, he snaps at people when they invade his space. One of his eyes is damaged, and I don't think he can see out of it, and I think if people come at him, even just to pat him from that side, it scares him.
He's now bitten two volunteers (the first one kinda deserved it...), and has been quarantined each time. This last time he hasn't come back to the cat room even though I know his quarantine time is up, and he's no longer in his quarantine cage out the back. He's also not on the adoption board.
It's been in the back of my mind that he may have gone nuts at someone who was cleaning his cage, and that may have been the "final straw" to euthanize him, or they just decided he was unadoptable, but I'm too scared to ask because I don't want to know.
But after reading WCL's post, I'm pretty sure this is what has happened.
I volunteer for about 10 hours a week at the shelter, 5 of those hours being directly with the kitties, and have known this boy for 6 months now and become really attached to him because he's my special buddy!
I'm so upset that I never got to say good-bye to him, and he had to spend his last days in a small cage in quarantine with nobody able to pat him, play with him and give him cuddles. I got to visit him a couple of times, and each time he would come to the cage door and purr to me, and it broke my heart that I couldn't do anything more for him.
My poor boy
I'm going to have to ask tomorrow just to put my mind at rest just in case they managed to place him into a rescue group...
There's a sweet kitty at the shelter I volunteer at who's been there since January. When he first came in he was so scared of people, and hid at the back of his cage and would not come out in to the play area.
Gradually he got better over time, and was great in the play cage on his own. I bonded really well with him, and I would have a great time playing with him, and cuddling him. He wasn't a lap cat, but he loved rolling around next to me and getting head rubs, and would purr softly for me as well.
He didn't really bond with any other volunteers like he did with me. He would hide in the hidey holes of the scratching posts for other volunteers and refuse to come out. But as soon as he saw me, he would jump out immediately and meow very excitedly. Everyone would comment about how he was never like that for them. If I was doing an office shift, the other volunteers would get me to walk into the cat room so he would jump down and they could put him back into his cage
Unfortunately because he is still very shy, he snaps at people when they invade his space. One of his eyes is damaged, and I don't think he can see out of it, and I think if people come at him, even just to pat him from that side, it scares him.
He's now bitten two volunteers (the first one kinda deserved it...), and has been quarantined each time. This last time he hasn't come back to the cat room even though I know his quarantine time is up, and he's no longer in his quarantine cage out the back. He's also not on the adoption board.
It's been in the back of my mind that he may have gone nuts at someone who was cleaning his cage, and that may have been the "final straw" to euthanize him, or they just decided he was unadoptable, but I'm too scared to ask because I don't want to know.
But after reading WCL's post, I'm pretty sure this is what has happened.
I'm so upset that I never got to say good-bye to him, and he had to spend his last days in a small cage in quarantine with nobody able to pat him, play with him and give him cuddles. I got to visit him a couple of times, and each time he would come to the cage door and purr to me, and it broke my heart that I couldn't do anything more for him.
My poor boy
