tonkakatt

let me tell you a story about how much people suck!
Current mood: pissed off


I volunteer at the local humane society for cats (cat shelter), in fact I'm the vice president.

this past weekend we were closed for adoptions because our shelter manager who is a vet tech had a convention to attend.

on saturday, our president stopped by to check on something and noticed 3 boxes by the fence of our back shed. they were taped up and labeled for different rooms. she figured that since we have yard sales twice a year for fundraising someone dumped off their junk, so she and her husband decided to put them into the back shed.

well when they picked up the boxes to bring them inside they noticed movement and it became obvious that there were cats inside the boxes...taped shut left out in the hot sun for hours????

the police were notified and they came and took the shipping info off the boxes (an izuzu dealership in Fitchburg Ma) they the police) wouldn't take the cats, and the dog officer/animal control wouldn't come out beacuse "nothing happened" aside from a dumping....and illegal dumping of animals/animal cruelty.

our "intake policy" is very strict and for good reasons. we only accept healthy cats with proof of vaccination history, they must (state law) be vaccinated for rabies at least 30 days prior to us allowing them into our shelter. we also only take friendly adoptable cats. the reasoning is that we are a small organization with limited space, funds and volunteers. all our cats are free roaming unless they are new intakes or sick then they are caged. if we have aggressive cats it puts the other cats, volunteers and visitors at risk of injury. this is a system that has proven to work for us.

so back to my story, since it was so late on saturday they put the 3 cats in cages in the back shed until we could bring them to the mspca to be delt with (euthanized or whatever they decided to do). they were older, had nasty skin conditions and weren't friendly, which being boxed in the hot sun may have contributed to this somewhat. we could't risk exposeing our current healthy population to possible fungal/ringworm, rabies, fiv, feline leukimia, fip, fleas or whatever they had.

this is where it gets interesting.

I stopped by Sunday am to see if anyone needed help cleaning, and Flo was there she had just gotten to the shed (the shelter was all done) she had cleaned the first cage already, I came out and checked out the new "dumps", one got away while she was cleaning and I retreived him and put him back when she was done with the cage....his skin was all scaley and matted, and he was really stinky. she had one cage left, this cat got away immediately and gave chase around the room, she caught him and put him into a carrier while she cleaned the cage and gave fresh litter, food and water and a clean towel. when she was releasing him from the carrier back into the cage he jumped out of the cage again and we tried to capture him, he went from one end of the room to the next, finally she had him. she was wearing big yellow dishwashing gloves, and he started freaking out and biteing her throught the gloves she let go yet he was still latching on with his claws and chomping both her hands and arms. she freaked as did I and we left him in there and locked the door.

she went inside the shelter and washed up and we called her husband and the shelter President to let her know what happened. she kept screaming and crying, I felt so sad for her. I drove her to the emergency room where we stayed for 4 hours, the Pres. Kathy came over too. she needed a tetanus (spelling?) shot, and iv antibiotics. she also got a prescription for antibiotics. now in case you don't know cat bite are actually more serious than dog bites, they don't maul the skin as much but the risk of infection is much greater they have a bacteria in their mouths called pasturella, their teeth are long and thin so it pushes the bacteria deep inside the skin trapping it. I got bit a few years ago and even though I went to the hospital immediately, I had cellutilitis (spelling?) they had to cut and drain the puss pockets thet formed, and I have permanent nerve damage (not good since I'm a hairdresser and need my hands) I missed work for about 10 days. it was super painful and sucked ass royally.

so what happened to the cats you ask????

well that day our towns wildlife person came out and used his rabies pole to maunver it back into the cage, the other option was to shoot it. we are a "not-kill shelter" and shooting it was fine with us at that point, it was the clean up that bothered us. (sick huh?) our towns wilflife person (I forgot his official title, but its different than the dog officer/animal control officer we share with a few other towns) has an annual budget of $500. to euthanize and rabies test the cat with is pretty much mandatory at this point will be close to $200. that doesn't even cover the other 2 cats. so the shelter is going to have to cover the costs until we can fight with the town to reimburse us.

the only way to test for rabies it to kill and decapitate the cat and test it that way...(I think the spinal fluid is used). if it tests positive Flo will need to have a series of rabies exposure vaccinations, or she will die!

did I mention how much people suck?????



ps, thanks for the comments on my last journal, I'll be checking out lots of neeto stuff!

and give yourself a cookie if you read all of that

::::::update::::::

we had a vet come out to the shelter and euthanize all 3 cats, he did the decap. and sent the sample out to the lab to check for rabies. Flo is doing very well, she only needed the iv antibiotics until this am, then they took out the catheder in her arm. most of the wounds are healing nicely.

I had my first nutty lady call me today...our newsletter went out and it has my home phone in it since I'm planning a pasta dinner/auction fundraiser in the fall, so people can order tickets, ask questions, offer donations of items to auction off. well this fruitloop wanted me to take in a stray pregant calico thats been hanging around her neighborhood. grrrrrr, I'M NOT THE SHELTER!!!!! I was like "lady call the shelter, there's nothing I can do for you except send you a low cost spay/neuter certificate." (one of my other responsibilities) she was upset because no one was there to answer her call and she didn't want to leave a message(she called other places too and got their machines) even when we are there we don't answer the phone cuz its usually fruitloops calling. I tried to explain that there's a priocess, they need rabies vaccinations before we can allow them into our shelter. they need to wait 30 days (I think) after the vaccination before we can allow them into our shelter. if we were larger with more space, cages, and volunteers we could change that policy. but then all our volunteers would need to have a pre-exposure rabies series in order to volunteer there. since we are slim on help to begin with I doubt a potential new volunteer would be willing to have a series of 3 shots over a period of 6 (or 8) weeks before they could start with us...not to mention dole out $200 to pay for the shots. (its probally more now)

anywho...have a chocolate milk if you read this update. it'll taste good with the cookie.