Calling all Fosters, Rescuers, Newbies - ANY AND ALL suggestions desperately needed!!!
This is long (sorry):
My DH's ex-girlfriend, her current husband & their teen son (my DH considers the boy to be like a step-son) have moved from the state & left their cat behind. We are renting the house till it sells, just to help them out (his idea, certainly not mine, except for the cat, I'd really buck about it)...
OK, I'll take in the cat, but here are the problems:
The cat is an abused cat!! The ex has mental & alcoholic problems & the son, who is often very nice, also has some issues (most of his pets, including inguanas, mice, hamsters, etc. always get broken legs and seem to have a high mortality rate..hmmm). The cat was adopted to them when her first owner died; the ex has told me how her boy & his friends terrorized the cat & hit her with baseballs and spray her with water guns as she tried to hide from them. The cat became mean (or should I say tried to defend herself) and was declawed all the way around. In almost 6 years, I've been visiting that home & have never seen the cat, but have been asking to have her all these years. The cat just hides all day, in the mom's closet & comes out only when the father is in bed at night (he does discipline the son, although the mom won't).
The cat has been hiding in some small cupboards under the bedroom closet, and comes out only at night to eat & drink & use the box (i might add that they did leave food, water & the box, which was about 70% turds & 30% urine soaked litter, although the box was adjacent to the food dish).
Now, the cat hisses at me when I open the cupboard door to peek in at her. Poor baby - she has absolutely no reason to trust humans.
And to make matters worse, the house has been shown by realtors 4 times in less than a week.
Should I just seize her by force & rehome her to the trailer where I'm staying? Or should I try living there for a while, and bring my other 5 kits to the new place, & see if things resolve (with the house being shown, I'd be worried about my kits escaping) and see if the new cat learns to trust me. Also, if the house sells, the sellers are willing to shorten time on the escrow, so I may at any time get less than 30 days notice to remove the cat permanently.
To me, this is so sad, and I want to help her, but I'm just not making the "connection" with her. Please give this some thought & send suggestions - I feel in my heart that some of you out there in TCS will have the answers that I pray for nightly. Thank you sosoo much! Susan
This is long (sorry):
My DH's ex-girlfriend, her current husband & their teen son (my DH considers the boy to be like a step-son) have moved from the state & left their cat behind. We are renting the house till it sells, just to help them out (his idea, certainly not mine, except for the cat, I'd really buck about it)...
OK, I'll take in the cat, but here are the problems:
The cat is an abused cat!! The ex has mental & alcoholic problems & the son, who is often very nice, also has some issues (most of his pets, including inguanas, mice, hamsters, etc. always get broken legs and seem to have a high mortality rate..hmmm). The cat was adopted to them when her first owner died; the ex has told me how her boy & his friends terrorized the cat & hit her with baseballs and spray her with water guns as she tried to hide from them. The cat became mean (or should I say tried to defend herself) and was declawed all the way around. In almost 6 years, I've been visiting that home & have never seen the cat, but have been asking to have her all these years. The cat just hides all day, in the mom's closet & comes out only when the father is in bed at night (he does discipline the son, although the mom won't).
The cat has been hiding in some small cupboards under the bedroom closet, and comes out only at night to eat & drink & use the box (i might add that they did leave food, water & the box, which was about 70% turds & 30% urine soaked litter, although the box was adjacent to the food dish).
Now, the cat hisses at me when I open the cupboard door to peek in at her. Poor baby - she has absolutely no reason to trust humans.
And to make matters worse, the house has been shown by realtors 4 times in less than a week.
Should I just seize her by force & rehome her to the trailer where I'm staying? Or should I try living there for a while, and bring my other 5 kits to the new place, & see if things resolve (with the house being shown, I'd be worried about my kits escaping) and see if the new cat learns to trust me. Also, if the house sells, the sellers are willing to shorten time on the escrow, so I may at any time get less than 30 days notice to remove the cat permanently.
To me, this is so sad, and I want to help her, but I'm just not making the "connection" with her. Please give this some thought & send suggestions - I feel in my heart that some of you out there in TCS will have the answers that I pray for nightly. Thank you sosoo much! Susan