Yesterday, I was collecting monies from my donation boxes around town. At one market, this woman (she looked like a church lady) dressed nicely in dress and heels, asked if she could talk to me for a minute. Turns out, she has 3 tomcats that are fighting with her 4 females (all spayed) she wanted me to come out immediately and get the toms and take them away. I told her I can’t do that. I can trap them for her, get them neutered but there are no homes for these cats- and these are all mackerel tabbies, very hard to rehome.
Then she started talking to me about the way that stray cats are treated- she bought me a cup of coffee and we sat down and we chatted. During this campaign she asked where I lived. I normally don’t tell people right where I live, but she disarmed me and I told her. She gave me $40.00 for the CATS and told me I was a true angel to strays. I should of known-
Lo and behold, this morning, I go outside and discover large piles of white fur by the shop. I look for signs of blood, broken claws teeth- anything nothing just top fur not even undercoat.
So I just start feeding and I hear growling underneath the shop so I grab a flashlight look underneath and see what are the odds? Three mackerel tabby toms glaring at me. I know they are toms because they are chubby cheeked and it smells like cat pee under there in the worst way!
Mike said, I should have told her when she asked me where I lived: “You know where the narrows are? Well in those hills, there’s a road. You turn on that road, and you go out through the pucker brush, around the blackberries, watch out for the trains at the railroad crossing, but you just keep going until you come to the river. Then you cross the river if you can- follow the road until it doesn’t go anywhere. Our farm is right there! LOL I wish I was quick-thinking like he is, but I happen to trust people and that gets me into so much trouble.
I do have news for her though. Because our vet debt is now at $534.00 the $40.00 is not going to touch the testing, neutering and caring for the three tomcats. At best, it pays for one test on one male and that’s it. Next time, I will take Mike’s idea and run with it, being careful to get them on a road I know that dead-ends at the river and you CAN’T go any farther.
Or maybe when they ask you for your address then you should get theirs as well… sorry…people are so self serving sometimes.
Our rescue-group had its president’s address listed on Google. It was never given out, but Google or the googlites who run it must have copied the address from a registration form. People dropped cats off at her home. I was able to change the address – to the central post office in town. We’ve received calls saying that we need to change our address on Google, and there is only one reason they would go to the trouble of going to our address without calling first.
It was that promise of the check to come that lowered my guard. I guess I will have to resort to a P.O. Box now, pity, I thought the money spent for that privilege should really be spent on a cat!