Unless he is adopted in the meantime, Rocky, a tabby cat, has four days to live from the date of this post (Nov 20th 2013). He is likely to be euthanized at 6:45pm on 24 Nov. at Hillsborough County Animal Services, 440 N Falkenburg Rd., Tampa, FL 33619, (813) 744-5660. That is what we are told.
Rocky is a handsome, fit, 2 year old, grey/brown tabby random bred (a better description is “freeborn”) male cat. Although the FB page states “no sex” – perhaps that means not sexed. Here he is at the shelter:
His story is particularly poignant, although somewhat sketchy. I don’t have a lot of detail. It seems that Rocky’s owner was a military person or connected to the US military. He or she was deployed. I presume that means sent abroad, perhaps to Afghanistan.
As a result Rocky’s owner asked a friend to care for Rocky. The friend accepted. However, the friend has relinquished Rocky to what I am told is a “high kill shelter” – Hillsborough County Animal Services.
The reason? Rocky hissed! These are the exact words on the FB page:
Not sure what happened with handsome Rocky, he was nice with me but hissed at his neighbors
That statement is not really clear but for someone like me it is clear that there is no good reason for abandoning Rocky. Is there ever a good reason to abandon a cat? A cat hissing after he has been moved to a new home and is feeling anxious and defensive is perfectly natural. I am speculating that this is what happened. I don’t know for sure. If I am correct, a bit of patience and TLC is all that is needed for Rocky to settle down.
Conclusion? Rocky has had a raw deal. You can’t blame the person who was deployed abroad but we can, I believe, fairly apportion blame on the “friend” who appears to have turned out to be not be as good a friend as first thought. That is my assessment but I don’t have the full facts.
Relinquishing a cat to a high kill shelter because he hisses for good reason is not decent behavior. I am spreading the word to see if Rocky can be saved. It just takes one person in the area of Tampa, Florida, to pick up the phone (813 744-5660) and say, “I want to adopt Rocky, I’m coming right now!”
Shared this boy on my FB page yesterday and again today , earlier . Story sounds so hookie ! But you just never know . Hope he gets out and should be out by now!!!Shelters usually post “unknown” for sex when they are really busy or the animals is so matted or “feisty” they can’t be handled . Of course I’ve seen them when it was VERY obvious what sex they were and still listed as unknown!
Whoa! That is very heavy-handed to put the cat in a kill shelter because he hissed. It shows a great deal of ignorance and a terrible lack of empathy. I mean that not just toward the cat but also toward the friend. It just about sounds too horrible to believe somebody would actually do this to a deployed soldier. I hold out some hope that this story isn’t true.
I agree totally. It is plainly wrong. There may be something about the story that is unreported and which might help us understand what is happening.