Prayers, Please and Maybe Suggestions?

[k9Karen]

I'm one who would most likely be considered one of the "dog people", but "dog people" aren't your enemy - I'm sure they can be convinced (with very little effort) that finding a home is much better than euthanasia. If you love animals, and I do, as all "dog people" do, something like this will make us want to help. Talk to them, don't dismiss them. I'll bet you'll find that most of them are on your side!

[Sue and Kids]

Thank you for the kind wishes for my hubby, Traci. The neurologist said today she thinks his seizure was due to low blood sugar and it won't happen again. However, we have a State law that says, if you have a seizure, you can't drive for 6 MONTHS! I think that's excessive! Now he is "grounded" and me along with him.

I'm one who would most likely be considered one of the "dog people", but "dog people" aren't your enemy - I'm sure they can be convinced (with very little effort) that finding a home is much better than euthanasia. If you love animals, and I do, as all "dog people" do, something like this will make us want to help. Talk to them, don't dismiss them. I'll bet you'll find that most of them are on your side!

Karen, I didn't mean to imply that our Humane Society's "dog people" are "enemies" or bad people. When our director made the announcement at our meeting about the cats being destroyed, no one said a word. It was sad to me that no one seemed to care. The only gathering of the members has been for the fundraiser meeting today, and I couldn't attend due to taking my hubby to the doctor.

A fundraiser, for what? Do you mean this fundraiser will take away from the scheduled meeting?

Do you have time to wait for this scheduled meeting? When is it? I mean, it doesn't sound like you can trust the director at all, regarding any time frame. There's nothing wrong with asking her, yourself, you have to have an idea what she's thinking.

I'm sorry. I should have made mentioned that the fundraiser is for the Humane Society. It will take a majority of the day and the normal quarterly meeting will not be held.

I was alone at the Cat Rooms yesterday with the director. I asked her straight out what the time frame is for the cats. She told me that her heart condition is so bad, that her doctor said she could die at any time. Her husband works many hours and can't care for the cats. I wish she would have stated that at the meeting - that she needed our help in getting the kitties a new home or no-kill shelter placement. I don't know why she had to give the kill facility as the only option. Her health is much worse than I realized. It's not an excuse for her not making plans for the cats, but I gather it was a shock to her also that she is that ill. She said she wanted to get the cats relocated as soon as possible, so that we don't have to deal with it all at once when she dies. The director indicated that, as long as she is alive, the cats will remain there and be cared for.

Have you attempted to talk to these dog-people, and get ideas from them, especially how they managed to adopt out all of the dogs, and actually ask them for help?

The dogs have been adopted due to the efforts of two ladies. One put the dogs in a Facebook page. (Our cats are in the page too.) The biggest effort has been put in by one lady using Petfinder. She gave me access to her Petfinder page and I filled in information about all the cats there. She has a good response for dogs on the site but there doesn't seem to be any interest in the cats, I'm afraid.

If this is a Petsmart with a sizeable adoption area, you could probably work with them to get the majority if not all the cats there to showcase for adoption, since they can often be placed together in two's and three's. Please make that appointment with the manager ASAP, the sooner you know if the cats can be showcased, the sooner you can start.

We want to make an appointment with the manager next week. We have 8 kitties who are social enough to go to Petsmart. One of the remaining 9 is a feral who doesn't like anyone. I've tried to befriend her for years. The others are very sweet but very shy. They would be terrified at Petsmart. We are hoping to visit the last remaining no-kill shelter in the area next week also, to see if they would accept our kitties.

Have you attempted to contact every single board member? They are equally as responsible for ensuring and helping to place the cats. Members are NOTHING if they cannot work together, and for the good of the pets and the Humane Society as a whole.

Once we have gotten information from Petsmart and the shelter, I will start to contact the other board members. I don't want to do that until I can give them some concrete information. Then we can go from there.

I completely understand your wish to do much of this privately, but time is of the essence and you have to do the right thing: pissing off a sick director who obviously doesn't care one iota for the cats she took in, wouldn't bother me, the cats deserve loving homes and are literally depending on you and others to save them from her. You have to get several others involved with this, ASAP.

Have you talked to your own vet about this? Does she know people who can help?

Our vet is a close friend of the director. Once I've talked to Petsmart and the no-kill shelter, I will get in touch with her too.

I want to stress that after talking to the director, I feel better about the cats. They don't seem to be in immediate danger. I'm not naive enough to think I can take more time in getting the cats moved. Rita and I will make appointments next week to see the managers of Petsmart and the no-kill shelter. I will start trying to contact no-kill shelters in other parts of the state and out-of-state after that.

I know the director has not handled this well. But to be fair, she has taken good care of many, many animals for many years. It's a shame she has these controlling issues and has not asked members to be more involved with the animals. I'll keep you posted about how things go.

Are you on facebook?....
SpecialNeeds InNeed CrossPosting can get the word out...

On another note, I went to this website. I couldn't figure out how you get on there to post your story. I must have clicked something I didn't mean to and now I'm getting their items (a lot of them) on my Facebook wall. Could someone either let me know how to post on their site or tell me how I can stop their stuff on my FB page? If I can't figure out how to post there, I don't need to see everyone else's posts.

Thanks to you all. I appreciate your help.

Sue (And Kids!)

[Traci]

I'm not a Facebook fan, so Tambrey will have to help you with those.

I'm glad to hear you were able to talk to the director, at least that's progress. I just want to say however, that if her health is that dire, she could become so stressed as to not be capable of making proper decisions, so it is still in the ultimate best interests to get the ball rolling and get the cats placed. Please do talk more with the dog people, ask directly for help.

I also want to reiterate - the shy cats: They may be shy because the HS is all they've known, so change of environment may surprise you, especially if they were in a foster care setting, allowed to mingle with each other (supervised of course) - cats are surprisingly resilient, and although the circumstances could be stressful, with a lot of love and attention and making things as smooth and stress-free as possible for them is a plus.

The feral kitty: Again, change of environment, allowing her out of her cage for exercise, playtime, stimulation, exploration of her environment, socialization, ideal for a foster care setting - this kitty may do extremely well in a one or two cat household only. Someone needs to give her extra attention so she can feel confident! She may not be as feral as you think, she may just require a different kind of environment, or care. Find her likes and dislikes, respect her boundaries, but also do all you can to get her socialized, comfortable with humans and contact. It will be worth the effort and she can be a wonderful companion for someone.

It may be ideal if you can expand your queries further into your state or neighboring states. I know our local shelter (now privatized), does indeed look beyond the state's boundaries when necessary. It helps for any rescue org, local HS etc, to maintain contacts and friendships etc so that when situations like this arise, there are many people in the loop to help. Perhaps your vet can help you with that, since she knows the director so well, and probably has clients who also know other people.

[k9Karen]

Karen, I didn't mean to imply that our Humane Society's "dog people" are "enemies" or bad people. When our director made the announcement at our meeting about the cats being destroyed, no one said a word. It was sad to me that no one seemed to care. The only gathering of the members has been for the fundraiser meeting today, and I couldn't attend due to taking my hubby to the doctor.Sue (And Kids!)

I didn't think you implied that. I just want you to be positive and ask for their help. I'm almost certain they will be more than willing to help you find a good place for the kitties if you can't find them homes right away.

I'm glad to hear your hubbie is doing well. I think we have a similar law here in Florida, so it's not at all unusual to not allow driving for a while after a seizure - "big brother" wants to be sure everyone has time to be fully evaluated and won't have a seizure while driving. And, while I know it's a major inconvenience, I'm sure you want to be sure of that as well.

[k9Karen]

Sue, can you post the website info for everywhere your cats are listed? While I don't have a huge number of FaceBook friends, my FB friends are from all over the USA plus one in the UK and one in Australia. I'm more than willing to put the info out to my FB friends and ask them to share it. And OMG - I just looked and I actually have 101 FB friends (some are here on CH as well). If even a quarter or half of them share - your info could go out to over 1000 people in a very, very short time. I had no idea I even knew that many people!

[Sue and Kids]

Hi, everyone. Thanks for the replies. I'll just add a little more info here.

Sue, can you post the website info for everywhere your cats are listed? While I don't have a huge number of FaceBook friends, my FB friends are from all over the USA plus one in the UK and one in Australia. I'm more than willing to put the info out to my FB friends and ask them to share it. And OMG - I just looked and I actually have 101 FB friends (some are here on CH as well). If even a quarter or half of them share - your info could go out to over 1000 people in a very, very short time. I had no idea I even knew that many people!

Wow! I'm impressed you know that many people. I am not a very active member of Facebook (as indicated by my lack of expertise there). I put a post about the kitties in the Timeline on my personal Facebook page. Most of my stuff is marked for "Friends" only but I made that one "public". Here's a link to my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/sue.gilliland1 The link for the Petfinder page the cats are listed in and a link to the YouTube video are included in that post. It would be great if you could "share" with your FB friends. Thank you!

I'm glad to hear you were able to talk to the director, at least that's progress. I just want to say however, that if her health is that dire, she could become so stressed as to not be capable of making proper decisions, so it is still in the ultimate best interests to get the ball rolling and get the cats placed. Please do talk more with the dog people, ask directly for help.

We will definitely be working on that next week. Wish us luck. If we don't have any success with the shelter or Petsmart, I'll be looking up other no-kill shelters in my state and surrounding states. There will be another fundraiser meeting next Friday. I'll try to find an opportunity to talk to the other members then.

I also want to reiterate - the shy cats: They may be shy because the HS is all they've known, so change of environment may surprise you, especially if they were in a foster care setting, allowed to mingle with each other (supervised of course) - cats are surprisingly resilient, and although the circumstances could be stressful, with a lot of love and attention and making things as smooth and stress-free as possible for them is a plus.

I agree all but the one cat would probably do well in a home setting. Our kitties have both rooms to roam about freely in. No one is in a cage. It's surprising how well these cats get along together. Some are special buddies. I'd love to have them placed together. But all of them interact with each other and are very sociable. What the kitties haven't had is a lot of interaction with people. They are great with me when I'm volunteering there - very sweet and friendly. Some are frightened when a stranger comes in the rooms.

The feral kitty: Again, change of environment, allowing her out of her cage for exercise, playtime, stimulation, exploration of her environment, socialization, ideal for a foster care setting - this kitty may do extremely well in a one or two cat household only. Someone needs to give her extra attention so she can feel confident! She may not be as feral as you think, she may just require a different kind of environment, or care. Find her likes and dislikes, respect her boundaries, but also do all you can to get her socialized, comfortable with humans and contact. It will be worth the effort and she can be a wonderful companion for someone.

This cat is our oldest resident - about 10 years old. She is out with all the other cats, but has never been friendly to them. She's a small-boned cat and I think the bigger kitties are intimidating to her. She hisses at them all the time (acting defensive), even though they are not aggressive to her. She might surprise us if she was in a one or two-cat household. She get up close to me and demands food but won't let me touch her.

Thanks for the kind wishes about my hubby, Karen. I understand the rationale behind not letting him drive. But we may be driving each other nuts by the end of 6 months.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Sue (And Kids!)

[Traci]

Your feral kitty needs one-on-one, playtime sessions, and being introduced to one cat at a time. One idea could be play with her in one of the rooms, no other cats, then let in one of the most mild-mannered cats, keep playing, and let her adjust to that one cat for that one session. Do it again the next day (or whatever schedule you have), then introduce a different cat, and so on, until she shows signs of being comfortable around more than one cat. Also provide for her a hiding space during communal activity, like a cat tree with a cubby, or something she can hide in but still be able to see out of and watch the activity of the other cats. Maybe she's already doing this, but it sounds like introductions with just one or two cats in her space at a time would be ideal to socialize her and help her feel less intimidated. Ideally, for a new home, a one cat home or two-cat home might be ideal providing that she and the other cat are a good match (maybe another older cat for example).

The cats are probably shy of other people because you and your fellow cat caretaker are most likely all they've ever known, or because it is from only you they have received love, care, special attention etc. This doesn't mean they won't be receptive to other people, that's what adoption "meet and greets" are for, to see how they react or match to other humans. Sometimes, it takes more than one meet and greet, and honestly, if a person is interested in a cat, they should be willing to visit the cat more than once. I realize time and space etc are limited in this particular situation, but there will be a time and place for things to work out, such as a so-called meet and greet, time spent with interested adopters, etc. It's the same in animal shelter environments as well - each kitty is unique and no animal shelter or HS environment is the truest method to know the cat's personality, likes, dislikes, etc, beyond what staff has already observed and informing the adopter. It's the home-like environment that the cats will always need to feel confident, safe, secure, loved and cared for by their special human/family, etc. That's always the goal, to get the cats out of the shelter environment and into a home environment so they can truly be a cat and thrive, enjoy happiness and good health etc

[k9Karen]

Sue, I posted your Petfinder and youtube links on my FB page. I'm PM'ing you with my FB page in case you want to see if anyone takes an interest.

[Sue and Kids]

Thank you, Karen. I have PM'd you back.

Sue (And Kids!)

[Tambrey]

Sue...just checking in and seeing this....I sent a friend request on FB to you...I will see what I can do to keep sharing and getting the word out!