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- Jan 10, 2016
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I live in San Antonio, Texas, which is a TERRIBLE city as far as resources for strays, no-kill shelters, rescue and foster organizations, etc. The no-kill shelters are always almost all full. To get a cat into the Humane Society you have to get there somewhere around midnight to 2AM to ensure that you're first or second in line, and wait all night until intake starts at about 10AM. I kid you not...8 to 10 hours of waiting with no sleep, and they only intake on Mondays and Fridays, and half the time they tell you they're not taking any cats that day, and you and your cats waited in line all night for nothing. It's atrocious.
I recently found a place to take two of the friendly strays I've been taking care of.
One of the strays is a calico, named Petunia, born about a year and a half ago to a feral mother I feed. She was one of a litter of 4. The other 3 just disappeared suddenly, but Petunia managed to survive and hang around. I got her fixed and vaxed and was looking after her.
The other is a black male cat, Jack, who I've been taking care of for about 4 years, since he was about 6 months old and followed me home. I grew VERY attached to him, and I believe him to me. I couldn't set foot outside without him following me everywhere I went, and whenever he heard my car pull up, he would come running to greet me. I loved him just like I love my own cats. I already had 5 cats in a 1-bedroom apartment, and they are hostile to other cats. I did try to integrate Jack into the household, but my cats just were not having it. I was pretty new to being a cat owner at that time and I know I made some mistakes, but I'm not sure anything could have been done to get them to get along. In any case, what's done is done, and there was no way Jack was going to be able to become a full-time member of the family. So, I just took care of him the best I could outside.
I tried a few times to find him a home, but nothing ever panned out. I'd heard so many stories about black cats languishing for a long time in shelters, and add to that the fact that he was no longer a kitten, and I convinced myself that getting him into a shelter was probably not a good idea...even though I'd made a promise to him that I would one day find him a family.
So recently a number of things all converged at once that together convinced me that it was time for Jack (and Petunia) to find a real home. Recently Jack got injured, he got some sort of open sore on his paw and was limping around. It healed up, but this is something that wouldn't have happened had he been living indoors. Another stray from another area of the apartment complex recently started hanging around...an intact male...and he started bullying Jack a little. So Jack would want to come inside, and then he would get bullied by MY cats, and it's like there was just no respite for him. And he started showing up covered in burrs. And then we got new apartment managers, and you never know when new management comes in, what their attitudes towards stray cats will be. (We had one manager in the past that had Animal Control out every week, rounding up all the cats and dogs running around). And finally, this summer has been a really hot one, and I saw Jack panting a lot and somewhat struggling with the heat.
So I started to think that Jack really wasn't living his best life, and I made the decision to take Jack and Petunia to this rescue organization. Petunia went first, because she was already up-to-date on her shots. And this past Sunday I took Jack. And now I'm second guessing myself and I feel awful about what I've done. I feel like I've betrayed them, especially Jack. And I really miss Jack.
To make things worse, the organization runs out of Petsmart, so of course I've been going almost every day to see them, and that just depresses me to see them in their little enclosures. They were both very active outdoor cats with tons of personality, running around and rolling in the dirt, and now they both just seem shut down and sad. And I see other customers showing a lot of interest in some of the other cats (especially the kittens, of course), but none in Petunia or Jack. And I just feel terrible. Maybe he wasn't living his best life, but it was the life he was used to, and now he's stuck in a small enclosure at Petsmart, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. (I don't mean to trash the organization; they are wonderful and are doing the best they can, but cages and enclosures are part of what comes with the territory of rescuing cats.) I avoided this for years partly because I just couldn't bear the thought of Jack being confined for a long period...and now my fear is that he's going to be stuck there for weeks or even months.
I really hope it turns out to be the right decision. Once they do get adopted I'll feel better about it, but until then...it's just really hard!
(This pic is Jack!)
I recently found a place to take two of the friendly strays I've been taking care of.
One of the strays is a calico, named Petunia, born about a year and a half ago to a feral mother I feed. She was one of a litter of 4. The other 3 just disappeared suddenly, but Petunia managed to survive and hang around. I got her fixed and vaxed and was looking after her.
The other is a black male cat, Jack, who I've been taking care of for about 4 years, since he was about 6 months old and followed me home. I grew VERY attached to him, and I believe him to me. I couldn't set foot outside without him following me everywhere I went, and whenever he heard my car pull up, he would come running to greet me. I loved him just like I love my own cats. I already had 5 cats in a 1-bedroom apartment, and they are hostile to other cats. I did try to integrate Jack into the household, but my cats just were not having it. I was pretty new to being a cat owner at that time and I know I made some mistakes, but I'm not sure anything could have been done to get them to get along. In any case, what's done is done, and there was no way Jack was going to be able to become a full-time member of the family. So, I just took care of him the best I could outside.
I tried a few times to find him a home, but nothing ever panned out. I'd heard so many stories about black cats languishing for a long time in shelters, and add to that the fact that he was no longer a kitten, and I convinced myself that getting him into a shelter was probably not a good idea...even though I'd made a promise to him that I would one day find him a family.
So recently a number of things all converged at once that together convinced me that it was time for Jack (and Petunia) to find a real home. Recently Jack got injured, he got some sort of open sore on his paw and was limping around. It healed up, but this is something that wouldn't have happened had he been living indoors. Another stray from another area of the apartment complex recently started hanging around...an intact male...and he started bullying Jack a little. So Jack would want to come inside, and then he would get bullied by MY cats, and it's like there was just no respite for him. And he started showing up covered in burrs. And then we got new apartment managers, and you never know when new management comes in, what their attitudes towards stray cats will be. (We had one manager in the past that had Animal Control out every week, rounding up all the cats and dogs running around). And finally, this summer has been a really hot one, and I saw Jack panting a lot and somewhat struggling with the heat.
So I started to think that Jack really wasn't living his best life, and I made the decision to take Jack and Petunia to this rescue organization. Petunia went first, because she was already up-to-date on her shots. And this past Sunday I took Jack. And now I'm second guessing myself and I feel awful about what I've done. I feel like I've betrayed them, especially Jack. And I really miss Jack.
To make things worse, the organization runs out of Petsmart, so of course I've been going almost every day to see them, and that just depresses me to see them in their little enclosures. They were both very active outdoor cats with tons of personality, running around and rolling in the dirt, and now they both just seem shut down and sad. And I see other customers showing a lot of interest in some of the other cats (especially the kittens, of course), but none in Petunia or Jack. And I just feel terrible. Maybe he wasn't living his best life, but it was the life he was used to, and now he's stuck in a small enclosure at Petsmart, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. (I don't mean to trash the organization; they are wonderful and are doing the best they can, but cages and enclosures are part of what comes with the territory of rescuing cats.) I avoided this for years partly because I just couldn't bear the thought of Jack being confined for a long period...and now my fear is that he's going to be stuck there for weeks or even months.
I really hope it turns out to be the right decision. Once they do get adopted I'll feel better about it, but until then...it's just really hard!
(This pic is Jack!)
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