Nutro Recalls Dry Cat Food
Loving a shelter cat
Sorry about the lack of updates and replies folks – I’ve had a busy (and rough) couple of weeks, and I’ve been writing but it’s just not flowing (but it’ll be great when I get the stuff I started finished, I promise!)
Particularly rough is that over the weekend I went to the Humane Society to volunteer and found out my favourite cat, Nestle, had gotten quite ill and was euthanized on advice of the vet. I was planning on adopting her if she was still there come this fall.
I feel particularly bad, because her story is sad from start to finish. She was removed, along with several other cats, from a home where she was not properly socialized. Not feral but very fearful and anxious. She never really got over her timidness the entire time she was at the shelter (almost 2 years) and was in and out of foster care to no great improvement.
She did not show well in the shelter. She spent most of her time in her cage in her little house, burrowed under blankets, so half the time you couldn’t even tell that there was a cat there at all. Yet, despite her shyness, she was an extremely sweet, nice cat, who loved being pet and cuddled (as long as you didn’t pick her up.) She was tiny and a beautiful chocolate brown. She had a small growth on her ear that I’m sure further hindered her chances at adoption, but that just further endeared her to me.
I know it’s a bad idea to get attached to animals in a shelter, but I did – she was going to be my baby, and this hurts. At the same time, I’m also glad that she was loved by at least one person during her difficult, too short life. I hope she’s at peace now.
Related posts:
- Goodbye Bart
- Goodbye Tiger
- Pick one to live and kiss the other 12 good bye
- DIY Cat Toys: Catnip Socknots
- The cute fat cat: perpetuating a dangerous stereotype
Tags: euthanasia, humane society, ill, in memory, loss, memorial, nestle, shelter, sick
(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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May 27th, 2009 at 9:44 pm
She was loved. Although Nestle’s life may have been tragic and far too short, you gave her a piece of yourself. In doing so, you made her life all that much better. I am sorry for you loss.
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Anlina Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:51 am
Thank you. I know we can’t save them all, but some days I really wish that I could at least save more cats. Nestle really deserved and needed saving.
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May 28th, 2009 at 8:16 am
Too short, but at least she was loved by one person. *Hugs*
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Anlina Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:50 am
One of the animal care workers was also very fond of her, so it comforts me to know that there was someone to give her attention even on the weeks when I couldn’t make it down there.
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May 30th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
I’m so sorry about Nestle. She was fortunate to have had you. While shelter workers and volunteers are always doing their best to make all the animals feel loved, sometimes, the sheer number of them makes it hard to give enough time to each individual animal. You gave her such a gift by allowing yourself to get attached and spending extra time with her. I’m sure that she knew she was loved.
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Anlina Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:50 am
I hope she knew. I wish I had spent more time with her, but you do the best you can and that’s all you can give.
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June 1st, 2009 at 12:12 am
Aww, I’m so sorry :< I know I would feel the same way.
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Anlina Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:47 am
:hugs: Thanks.
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June 2nd, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I’m so sorry for your loss, and I’m so sorry that Nestle never found her forever home. This year I ‘lost’ my favorite shelter dog, Smokey. Smokey was a ‘lifer’ at the shelter, there for at least the 2 years I volunteered at the shelter. Like you, I planned to adopt him if no one else did by my deadline. Before that day came, Smokey died of sepsis in his run.
Like Smokey, I know Nestle appreciated the extra attention and love you gave her.
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Anlina Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:47 am
I’m so sorry to hear about Smokey. It’s great that you were able to give him some love while he was there.
It just seems extra tragic when shelter animals die – bad enough to lose your life, but to not have a loving family and comfortable home at the end… it breaks my heart.
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June 6th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
So sorry about Nestle. Poor thing.
Why are brown cats so rare? I met one once, his name was Oscar just like my boy. The shelter I worked at had named him “O” because there were over 30 cats in the home he was rescued from, so they just named them each a letter of the alphabet.
After the sick ones were put down, the remaining kitties were given proper names using their letter. He was my favorite from that home, and one of my favorites in the kitty room.
I will never forget answering the phone one day to a man saying, “Is Oscar still there?” I said Yes he is! The man said, “I think we are going to come get him today. He sat on my shoulder like a parrot.”
They did come get him, and a few weeks later came back and got another boy, too. Thanks for reminding me of that happy memory from the shelter.
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Anlina Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Aww, I’m always happy to hear shelter stories with happy endings.
Nestle is the only brown cat that I’ve met in person. I know there are certain breeds where that colour is standard, but in mixed breed cats, brown seems to be pretty rare. The closest you usually get are the black cats whose coats start getting that reddish undertone.
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June 28th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Poor cat, spent its last two years rotting away in a cage inside a shelter. This is the reason sheltering should be done away with and fostering should take its place. Humane Society’s are simply warehouses for animals with no love, minimal care and almost always zero compassion. The cat likely would have lived a long and happy life (and still be alive) if the humane society had put any effort whatsoever in to finding a foster home where it would be loved and properly cared for and free of the diseases running rampant inside that place. Unfortunately this wasn’t the first such incident and won’t be the last and people will continue to sit by and watch it happen and not do a thing about it.
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Anlina Reply:
June 28th, 2009 at 10:02 pm
I’m sorry your experiences with Humane Societies have caused you to form such a negative view of all of them.
Humane Societies do essential work in communities, and while it might be a nice fantasy to do away with them and resort exclusively to fostering, that’s simply unrealistic.
Quite frankly, I’m offended at the ignorant assumptions you have made about our Humane Society. It is far from the compassionless warehouse that you assume.
The entire board of directors (which includes me) is extremely passionate about animal welfare, otherwise we would not take on such a stressful, difficult job.
The staff have great compassion and have a huge emotional investment in the animals there. They work very hard at an emotionally taxing job because they love animals.
Our many volunteers spend their free time at the Humane Society socializing and giving love and attention to the animals because they genuinely care.
Is everything perfect? No, it’s not, there will always be room for improvement at any organization. But everything we do is done with compassion and the animal’s best interests in mind, and we work hard to maintain a high standard of care (every shelter is vulnerable to outbreaks of disease, but disease is hardly “running rampant” at ours – I can’t even remember the last time a major quarantine was required.)
I also suggest you actually read the post you’re responding to, before commenting. I mentioned quite clearly that Nestle had been in foster care for part of her two years at the shelter and did not spend the entire time “rotting away in a cage”. Her foster families couldn’t keep her, but there definitely was an effort made to place her in foster care.
If you have some practical ideas for finding enough foster homes to handle the hundreds of animals that we shelter each year, please do share them. Criticism is easy, but blanket statements about shelters that are not relevant to our specific shelter are distinctly unhelpful, especially when they come with no suggestions on how to improve things.
Also, I’m disappointed that you would choose a post where I am clearly grieving to go on a anti-shelter rant about how horribly we must have treated the cat. How about you have some compassion?
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June 30th, 2009 at 6:04 pm
Sooo cute! Poor kitties…
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