A Tennessee cat owner hasn’t been allowed to search for her pet after her kitty was accidentally sent to a feral cat barn home. This is standard procedure not to give out the address of a feral farm and to allow the shelter to do all they can to help.
Janie is a black beauty who was taken from her Knoxville home and placed in quarantine after she bit the mother of her owner. Carrie Klapperich placed Janie into the care of Young Williams Animal Center thinking she’d be cared for and could come home after the required time spent in kitty jail.
There was unclear identification on the cage and the Janie was a bit hissy for the shelter staff. Her behavioral led to a series of mix-ups that have left Janie lost and Carrie desperately wanting her cat home where she belongs.
It was only when Carrie went to retrieve Janie she learned due to temperament, Janie had been accidentally placed with a group of feral cats heading to a barn home in Anderson County. Many shelters have implemented a barn cat program to rehome unadoptable cats. They work for their food and also control the rodent population.
Shelter Director Nichole Boudreau said in an interview with WBIR News they’re doing everything they can to reunite Janie with her owner stating
“We are completely empathetic and apologetic to what happened and we own it 100 percent and we’re doing everything we can to reunite them. I’ve been doing animal rescue in shelters for twelve years now and I’ve never had this happen.”
It would seem the easiest solution would be to allow Carrie to go to the farm and search for her cat. Unfortunately, the shelter has a confidentiality clause with their barn home clients and no information will be released to the public. This isn’t unusual because people would likely dump cats there rather than take them to the shelter if they knew the location.
A mix-up at the farm has made the situation worse. Janie got loose from a shed where the cats taken to the farm were being held to decompress and adjust to their new home.
The owner of the farm told Young Williams he thought he spotted Janie up in the rafters one time. This is something she liked to do at her home, so the family hopes she’ll be spotted again and become comfortable enough to show herself and be trapped.
The farm owner has also been informed what Janie likes to eat and the names she answers to.
If any of the readers here are ever faced with quarantining a cat, check with your personal veterinarian. Many offer accommodations that would be more personalized and would know the history of the cat, should problems arise.
Cats go to their deaths every day due to mix-ups in paperwork or for being labeled feral when they’re really only scared and missing their owner.
Please send your thoughts and prayers to the kitty and her owner with the hope they’re soon reunited. I’ll be keeping up with this story and hope to have a happy ending to post in the near future.
Completely agree. It is data protection gone mad. It is rules without common sense. Shelters must apply common sense and discretion to the application of rules.
I understand the need for rules… BUT… this is beyond acceptable! The shelter should have the barn owners contact Carrie so they can meet and resolve this. Poor Janie!