By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
Kays Hill cattery is coming along very nicely now with one side of the pens in the building completed and full of unwanted cats. You can see a list of some other posts about the cattery, including its construction, by clicking this link.
They had radiators installed for this winter by a kind volunteer and it’s snug and warm in every pen. Hopefully in the future there will be the same number of pens the other side and outdoor runs too, but as always money is too short to do all this at present.
Many more cats have been relinquished lately by people saying they can’t afford to keep them any longer, more have been dumped in boxes by the gates.
Yes things are bad in the North East of England but I think people give up their pets too easily. I expect those people still have their luxuries, such as TV and new clothes. They don’t consider the financial burden of food and vets bills they are putting on Kays Hill and other Rescue Centres too.
Gerty is the last one of a family of 15 abandoned cats still without a home, she has been at Kays Hill for 20 months now, hard to rehome because she was so traumatised at the abandonment by the person she loved and trusted and also because she is very shy. She had a chance last year of a home but became so panicky when her prospective adopters went to collect her, that she was ill and had to be taken to the vets, the people changed their minds, no second chances for her.
Leanne had the good idea of teaming Gerty up with Marcus, a more confident cat and the photo of them shows how well that worked out. She looks very well and very content.
This is what it says under their photo on the rehoming page:
‘Gerty and Marcus are to be homed together as Gerty gets very anxious without him. Marcus is a very friendly cat with gorgeous markings and who loves attention. Gerty is more likely to stay out of the way but in the right home with her best friend, Marcus may help her come out of her shell’
We hope someone will come along soon and fall in love with and adopt both those cats, because although they are well looked after and loved at Kays Hill, it’s every cat’s right to be in a loving home environment of their own.
The person who abandoned the cats has never enquired even once about them. Of the 4 cats the RSPCA took, 2 in a bad state were PTS, we don’t know the fate of the other 2.
Of the others, one was PTS last year, this was tragic as he had just gone, along with one of his brothers, to a wonderful home, when cancer in his jaw was diagnosed. His adopter was heartbroken.
Thankfully the others are all doing well in their new homes, a happy ending to their story, we just hope Gerty has a happy ending to her story one day soon too.
words that come to my mind i could never print on the pages of poc!!
Kevin and Leanne are in a very difficult situation, they know if they turn away a cat because the cattery really is full up, the chances are that the person will dump the cat at their gates anyway or worse still, dump him somewhere else miles away.
We know our local Cats Protection has 100 cats on a waiting list to be rehomed list because they have no room with their fosterers, it worries me that those people will probably not patiently wait their turn…if ever it comes….they will simply get rid of their cat another way.
YES Michael it’s careless and selfish to take home a cat then want to dispose of him at some point when it’s inconvenient to have him around and expect a struggling cat rescue to pay vet’s bills, feed the cats and find good homes for them too and no Rose I don’t suppose many (if any) leave a donation too when they leave their pet.
“Careless” and “selfish” are words that come to mind. The behavior is a product of an instant, egocentric world that is out of control.
Thanks Rudolph for that insight. It seems that the richer a country gets the more likely it is that a pet will be abandoned 😉 This is because people like the idea of owning a purebred animal because he/she looks great and can afford the animal but then tire of looking after the animal for the reasons you state. I think it is a symptom of modern times. Perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps it is the concept of pet ownership as an item like a washing machine that results in abandonment.
Sometimes I despair of people, the other day there was a post on the CP page from someone who’d been on about 3 weeks earlier asking for a kitten or even two, she must have got one from somewhere because this time she was asking if anyone wanted the poor thing, she said it wasn’t “getting on” with her bird and work commitments meant she had to find a home for it. Not only that but she didn’t want anything for it though anyone who wanted it had to collect it! How cruel and thoughtless, anyone could have taken that kitten to use for any awful purpose. I don’t know what it’s fate was, I hope it ends up with someone kind (or, more likely, it’ll probably end up at KH to await a new home)
Michael, in Mumbai abandoning pets on the streets is the biggest problem that philanthropic organizations involved in animal welfare face. Its not uncommon to find “Pedigree Dogs” abandoned and later rehabilitated in some animal welfare organization. As India is steadily climbing up the Global economic ladder so also has been the sudden fascination to own exotic pets, most common being dogs. Sadly, a few pet owners realize later that money alone is not the sole criteria to owning a pet and hence sometimes pedigreed pets costing a fortune are abandoned due to behavioral or medical problems. Regarding cats, till date i haven’t noticed any “Traditional Persian cat” , most common pet cats in Mumbai or a “Mixed breed cat” roaming the markets or streets of Mumbai unlike the numerous moggy cats.Reasons could be that cat owners are a miniscule population of the dog owners in Mumbai city and hence till date India doesn’t have a single “Cat Club”.