A Return and a "Rescuer"

Just another manic Monday at the shelter...but not really! Lol we had no pick ups today and only 2 adoptions today, meaning it was a pretty slow day . It's nice to have a day where we aren't all going crazy and stressed out. We were able to catch up and knock off a lot of things we've been meaning to do but haven't had the time for.  We spent most of the day cleaning, doing laundry, bathing some animals, and restocking medicine and other items. I was also able to update some of the cats with their vaccinations and flea preventative. They have to get some once a month and some of them have been here for longer than a month. Tomorrow though we're going to have 10 dog and 5 cat pick-ups...so we prepped ourselves for tomorrows ensuing madness.

I was also in cat receiving today and the two people that did bring in cats turned out to be some interesting ones. The first was a woman who adopted one of our sweet calico female cats about 2 weeks ago, and she ended up returning her today. Her excuse was that the cat meowed too much for attention. She then proceeded to tell me that she is going to pick up a cat she adopted from animal services tomorrow. Seriously? Basically, she got sick that this cat meowed too much so she was "done" with her and decided to try out another one. It's sickening to think that this woman believes that these precious animals are like clothing items...just try one on and return it if it doesn't "fit". The confusion and stress it brings to the animal is terrible and it makes me sad that these poor things have to put up with people like that.

After she left another woman came in that has brought in a total of 50 cats to the shelter, including today's 8. FIFTY! To make a long story short, she is a self-proclaimed "rescuer" that couldn't afford to care for any of them any more, so she has brought in 10 cats at a time until today (to bring in the last 8 of the bunch). She called us before she started bringing in the cats to make sure that we wouldn't call the police on her and to see if we would accept her animals. We said yes as long as she brought in 10 at a time and tried to find homes for at least some of the cats. What is REALLY sad to me is that she believes she was a rescuer when in reality she was a hoarder trying to make excuses...a real rescuer actually tries to adopt out animals and not just keep them.

The bawling woman was repeating over and over that they were all "sweet and lovable" kitties and I took her word for it. And this is what I got:

Turns out most of these "adorable kitties" were ridiculously feral and all had Feline Leukemia and Aids. As I was moving one of them, it turned on me and quickly managed to scratch the crap out of my arm. Ugh. I was so sure I had a good grip on her scruff and legs but somehow she was able to swipe at me and launch out of my arms. I'm assuming the woman tried to save outside cats along with some indoor cats, and those feral ones carried most of these diseases and transmitted it to the others. Although one tried to kill me, I truly feel terrible for these cats because of the conditions they were living in and the diseases they were carrying. Just another Monday at the shelter!