House Of A Thousand Cats

tnrmakessense

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Couldn't agree more. People that T/N/R should be given tax breaks and awards instead of being vilified and labelled negatively. They reduce the number of cats that end up in animal control shelters, so they're saving the taxpayer money. Not to mention the moral issue of offering care out of your own pocket for a creature that so many ignore despite the fact that it looks exactly like the cat you or your relative or neighbor have in your home and love dearly.
 

Jcatbird

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Couldn't agree more. People that T/N/R should be given tax breaks and awards instead of being vilified and labelled negatively. They reduce the number of cats that end up in animal control shelters, so they're saving the taxpayer money. Not to mention the moral issue of offering care out of your own pocket for a creature that so many ignore despite the fact that it looks exactly like the cat you or your relative or neighbor have in your home and love dearly.
One day.......
We work to change viewpoints each day. Teaching, educating and continuing what we do can bring about change. It is bringing change. Maybe not as quickly as we would like but in my lifetime, everything has changed. I spend part of my time writing, emailing and texting officials. Both here and in other places. The almighty dollar can make a huge impression on tax payers and with the politicians who want to receive votes. If people learn that TNR does many good things, for communities and cats, they see things in a different light. I encourage every rescuer to pursue both ends of rescuing. Save the cats and teach your community. There are now programs that help to educate school children, take kitties to senior homes to provide healing comfort to those who are often without it and classes being held to educate new cat owners about the care and behaviors of cats. I am often amazed at how many know nothing about what to expect from a new pet. All kinds. We need to offer support to those willing to take home their very first pet.
 

tnrmakessense

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One day.......
We work to change viewpoints each day. Teaching, educating and continuing what we do can bring about change. It is bringing change. Maybe not as quickly as we would like but in my lifetime, everything has changed. I spend part of my time writing, emailing and texting officials. Both here and in other places. The almighty dollar can make a huge impression on tax payers and with the politicians who want to receive votes. If people learn that TNR does many good things, for communities and cats, they see things in a different light. I encourage every rescuer to pursue both ends of rescuing. Save the cats and teach your community. There are now programs that help to educate school children, take kitties to senior homes to provide healing comfort to those who are often without it and classes being held to educate new cat owners about the care and behaviors of cats. I am often amazed at how many know nothing about what to expect from a new pet. All kinds. We need to offer support to those willing to take home their very first pet.
Perfectly put. I think we've traveled similar paths.
 

moxiewild

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My partner and I are always discussing just getting rid of our dining table and making the dining room a designated cat space with trees and other cat furniture :lol: Unfortunately our dining room is one of the ONLY rooms in the house with a good, big window, so it’s a favorite hang out spot.

And our vet clinic is always making jokes that cats “know us”. If we walk in without an appointment, they pretty much greet us with “new cat?” now.

We have 10 inside, and are about to bring in another 5 fosters once I trap them, and there are another 12-14 outside.

I absolutely hate when people call me a crazy cat lady! I have NEVER once decided that I want a cat, and then go out to adopt one.

All of mine came from the streets and my traps, except my very first - a 15 year old with CKD, HyperT, and a host of other issues in a high kill animal control facility literally being wheeled off to be euthanized. And I was only even there in the first place to help pull a couple of death row dogs for the dog-only shelter I worked at, so I wasn’t even there to adopt!

Every cat I have ever taken into my home was in danger, most of it absolutely imminent and life threatening.

I could almost see “crazy cat lady” being apt if I actively sought out and chose to have these 24+ cats - but I find it extremely disrespectful when people insinuate that to be the case.

It completely ignores the immense sacrifices I’ve had to make because no one else - includingthe person calling me that - was willing to step up and actually do something to help these creatures.

Sometimes friends and family will point to how stressed the cats make me like “look at what they’re doing to you!”

And I’m like, “They? They?! They are not the ones stressing me out! It’s the owners who dumped them. It’s the owners who abused them. It’s the owners who hoarded and neglected them. It’s the owners who don’t neuter their animals and let them roam around outside to breed. It’s the random people who walk right past them when they’re clearly sick, starving, or injured. It’s the people who don’t want to help fix the problem by practicing TNR, or the people who feed to breed. It’s the people who actively seek to cause them harm or kill them. It’s the culling advocates. It’s the people who choose to shop rather than adopt. It’s the people who will post on Facebook about helping them all day long but won’t even entertain the thought of taking in a foster temporarily because they “already have two cats/dogs”. It’s the people like you, who say they care, but then point to people like me who have to pick up your slack by overextending ourselves, our wallets, and our homes just to save these animals, and yet you have the audacity to demean our efforts and everything we do by using a derogatory and sexist term like ‘crazy cat lady’ to label us”

UGH! Sorry for the rant! I’ve just never even had the chance to choose to have a cat as a pet before, so it gets on my nerves so freaking much when people make jokes like that.

Especially when they’re the same exact people who are like “The stray who lives by me got pregnant again and had a litter of 9 kittens, can you take them?” :argh:
 

moxiewild

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I should also mention - my best friend from childhood is strictly a dog rescuer (I do both, but live in an area with few stray dogs, so I focus on cats the most).

I started being referred to as a “crazy cat lady” by the time I had taken in only 4 cats! The second I had 6 cats in my home is when it became super prevalent.

Meanwhile, my friend did not earn her “crazy dog lady” label until she had 17 dogs in her home!!! She now has 24 inside, and one has even been killed by another due to an accidental escape.

But I still somehow get FAR more flak than she does.

In reality of course, neither of us deserve that. I was just pointing it out to support the difference in attitudes people have toward cat rescuers/cats and dog rescuers/dogs that was mentioned earlier.
 
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  • #27

JamesCalifornia

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We have 10 inside, and are about to bring in another 5 fosters once I trap them, and there are another 12-14 outside.
Every cat I have ever taken into my home was in danger,...
~ Same here. No cats leaves my yard hungry. Many are abandoned and some pregnant - hence the overpopulation.
We are "The Cat People" and coming soon to every neighborhood ... ! :paranoid: ´
 

tnrmakessense

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My partner and I are always discussing just getting rid of our dining table and making the dining room a designated cat space with trees and other cat furniture :lol: Unfortunately our dining room is one of the ONLY rooms in the house with a good, big window, so it’s a favorite hang out spot.

And our vet clinic is always making jokes that cats “know us”. If we walk in without an appointment, they pretty much greet us with “new cat?” now.

We have 10 inside, and are about to bring in another 5 fosters once I trap them, and there are another 12-14 outside.

I absolutely hate when people call me a crazy cat lady! I have NEVER once decided that I want a cat, and then go out to adopt one.

All of mine came from the streets and my traps, except my very first - a 15 year old with CKD, HyperT, and a host of other issues in a high kill animal control facility literally being wheeled off to be euthanized. And I was only even there in the first place to help pull a couple of death row dogs for the dog-only shelter I worked at, so I wasn’t even there to adopt!

Every cat I have ever taken into my home was in danger, most of it absolutely imminent and life threatening.

I could almost see “crazy cat lady” being apt if I actively sought out and chose to have these 24+ cats - but I find it extremely disrespectful when people insinuate that to be the case.

It completely ignores the immense sacrifices I’ve had to make because no one else - includingthe person calling me that - was willing to step up and actually do something to help these creatures.

Sometimes friends and family will point to how stressed the cats make me like “look at what they’re doing to you!”

And I’m like, “They? They?! They are not the ones stressing me out! It’s the owners who dumped them. It’s the owners who abused them. It’s the owners who hoarded and neglected them. It’s the owners who don’t neuter their animals and let them roam around outside to breed. It’s the random people who walk right past them when they’re clearly sick, starving, or injured. It’s the people who don’t want to help fix the problem by practicing TNR, or the people who feed to breed. It’s the people who actively seek to cause them harm or kill them. It’s the culling advocates. It’s the people who choose to shop rather than adopt. It’s the people who will post on Facebook about helping them all day long but won’t even entertain the thought of taking in a foster temporarily because they “already have two cats/dogs”. It’s the people like you, who say they care, but then point to people like me who have to pick up your slack by overextending ourselves, our wallets, and our homes just to save these animals, and yet you have the audacity to demean our efforts and everything we do by using a derogatory and sexist term like ‘crazy cat lady’ to label us”

UGH! Sorry for the rant! I’ve just never even had the chance to choose to have a cat as a pet before, so it gets on my nerves so freaking much when people make jokes like that.

Especially when they’re the same exact people who are like “The stray who lives by me got pregnant again and had a litter of 9 kittens, can you take them?” :argh:
I'm right there with you, on every point. I remember when I served on our animal control board in the hopes of improving the situation for cats at the shelter, a well meaning woman also on the board said to me "what would you do if all the cats were saved?" as though it was some sort of fun hobby. My answer was 1) levitate from relief 2) take a vacation 3) everything else I haven't had the time or energy or money to do.
 

tnrmakessense

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I should also mention - my best friend from childhood is strictly a dog rescuer (I do both, but live in an area with few stray dogs, so I focus on cats the most).

I started being referred to as a “crazy cat lady” by the time I had taken in only 4 cats! The second I had 6 cats in my home is when it became super prevalent.

Meanwhile, my friend did not earn her “crazy dog lady” label until she had 17 dogs in her home!!! She now has 24 inside, and one has even been killed by another due to an accidental escape.

But I still somehow get FAR more flak than she does.

In reality of course, neither of us deserve that. I was just pointing it out to support the difference in attitudes people have toward cat rescuers/cats and dog rescuers/dogs that was mentioned earlier.
I could go on a whole rant but I'll just say......couldn't agree more.
 

di and bob

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I'm so jealous.....I haev a incredibly hard time even getting ONE adopted around here. I saw thw shelter raised their adoption rate to 50.00, they spay/neuter all now before they go out, maybe now It will get a little easier. Of course mine are spayed/neutered too, but I can't even GIVE them away! :sigh:
 
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JamesCalifornia

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....I have a incredibly hard time even getting ONE adopted around here.
Of course mine are spayed/neutered too, but I can't even GIVE them away! :sigh:
~ Yes this is the problem - especially with adult cats. Also the longer we have them the more attached we become to the little devils ...:catrub:
 

moxiewild

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~ Yes this is the problem - especially with adult cats. Also the longer we have them the more attached we become to the little devils ...:catrub:
Yeah, I take in special needs, seniors, and displaced ferals that I work to tame/socialize. So I routinely hold onto them for a while, and it is definitely difficult.

I can give away young cats and kittens like candy around here, though. The healthy adults aren’t too bad either, so long as I can get them to show well (clicker training helps).

But those only make up a very small minority of who I usually take in. Most here are doing serious time with me! And I’m a mess every time I let one go.
 
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