An elderly woman called earlier and I can’t get the phone call out of my head. She is being ousted out of her home and moving to an assisted living facility in two weeks. She has 3 cats she is unable to take with her and she wants me to take them all. In talking with her, I found out that a few weeks ago, she had 11 cats. She used a Hartz product on them for fleas and 6 cats died. She has two cats she will take with her to the facility but the remaining three cats have no place to go.
I told her I was sorry, that I couldn’t take them. I don’t have the room to put three cats into the house right now- they would at best have to go into one of the enclosures IF they got along with the one cat out there already. I am not prepared to do that. She started to cry and said she got my name off the Internet on a rescue page and if I wasn’t a rescue than what was I?
I lost my patience a bit and told her that I am someone who steers clear of owner-surrendered cats and concentrates instead on the ferals and strays. She didn’t like that answer and tried to guilt me into taking her three cats. I gave her several options of what she could do; she didn’t want to use craigslist, she didn’t trust anyone on there, she didn’t want to take the cats to the local shelter because they charge $65.00 a cat to surrender them and she “didn’t have the money.” I kept telling her I was really sorry- but there wasn’t anything I could do to help her.
I don’t know why some people wait till the last minute to take care of the most important part of their homes- their pets. She kept saying that she heard talk around the town about me and we are the best sanctuary around. I was glad to hear that, but it doesn’t free up the space, the money and the energy her cats will need to continue their lives.
I got off the phone and talked to Mike about it and he said I did the right thing. Owner surrenders never work out- they just never adjust to sanctuary living.
you can’t save them all – if her family is making her move, then they should step up and help
So sorry to hear about this woman and her cats. I don’t blame you for not taking them in, you can’t save them all. I was horrified to see that she lost six cats to using a Hartz product. I do hope somebody notifies the company to add those poor cats to what must be a growing list of lives lost. Do you care to share just which product, specifically, it was? Also, I found it very interesting that you stated that owner surrenders don’t do well in a sanctuary setting, could you please tell a little more about that?
I totally agree with how you handled that situation. It’s difficult to say no, but you have to sometimes.
It was their regular flea and tick spray for dogs and cats. If you search Google for Hartz kills or Hartz sucks you will find countless websites of people who have lost cats to these products. I lost a cat years ago to their product and I didn’t even put it on my cat- the grooming parlor did! Bravo survived three days of hell as we tried to save him after being shampooed with one of their brands of shampoo. It was horrible watching him die and my vet tried all the tricks in his book to save this black beauty.
Steer clear of any product from Hartz or ANY other over-the counter flea treatment. ALWAYS get these from your vet and yes they are costly but the cost is well worth it because if something goes wrong, you have backup from the clinic.
In my experience, cats who are used to being indoors, on laps and constantly being handled do poorly here. The stress of the change of routine causes many of them to become sick (such as Gump is now). It is so much better for the caretaker to find a specific home without much cat traffic for these cats to adjust and be happy.
I’ve seen it time and time again, the kitty paces the sanctuary much like a caged lion- going around the wire over and over. They start pooping outside the litterpan, sometimes stop eating. It just never seems to work out. Even if there aren’t a lot of cats in the sanctuary, the lingering smells of others who have been there can overwhelm a house kitty. That’s why I no longer take owner-surrendered cats. It’s not fair to the cat. Our sanctuary floor is dirt and grass. You can’t scrub odors out of dirt and grass.
Even if formerly owned cats do well with you, you must have a limit to how many you take in. The rescue-group I work with is always being asked to take cats. If it’s a special case, if the cat simply won’t survive elsewhere, we do, but we need foster-homes for them and those are rare. It’s a painful thing to turn down a cat in need, but sometimes it must be done. We help those we can. For our sanity’s sake, that has to be enough.
People don’t seem to understand that when they ask anyone to take their cat, it doesn’t end there. It does for the people who are surrendering the cat- they don’t have to worry anymore. It’s the rescuer who has to worry about the health of the cat, the welfare of the cat and the whole group as they adjust to yet another newcomer. I turn down cats on a daily basis especially lately. Its the ones who dump cats on porches and leave them abandoned, those arrive here. My sister rescues on a smaller scale in Florida. She fosters and she just told me about a mama cat and her kittens who were kept in a Tupperware container with only a few holes drilled in them! The container was left outside the shelter where she volunteers. We are not talking a full-size Tupperware/Rubbermaid bin here- we are talking about something you keep leftovers in! Mom is extremely emaciated but she will be okay- the kittens are touch-and go- there are four of them (all black) Mom is Siamese mix!
Do you find the same holds true when fomerly owned cats come from a home where there were multiple cats?