"Don't Dream its Over" (Reply)

Jmuhjacat Writes: Feeling extremely angry after (re-)reading about the "Raid" incident, I once again find myself shaking my head in incomprehensible disbelief at the abject and moronic stupidity of people. What has happened, that the educational system of the self-professed richest and "best" nation on earth no longer teaches these very basic-basic things?

Reply: I'd like to say the people playing "doctor" by spraying and dousing their cats with RAID represented some kind of aberration.

But, if you read another rescuer's comments, you know they were not.

I remember one man who almost poisoned his cat with (I believe) Tylenol. The cat survived, but not without intensive care at the vet.

I've personally dealt with hundreds of animals over the years, who, dumped at the pound or on streets after years of neglect or maltreatment required surgeries and other costly treatments in efforts to try and reverse the damages. Some of the more recent cases have been highlighted in this blog over the past couple of years. But, they represent mere tip of the iceberg.

For example, shortly after the ASPCA closed its old (Animal Control) shelter building on East 92nd Street and opened a new hospital and smaller "no kill" shelter up the block, people routinely abandoned animals in front of the OLD building that was no longer functioning. I rescued several animals from this location, including a young Husky who was tied up and left with a hole in her back leg. The vet suspected a beebee gun injury.

But, another time, someone left a cardboard box in the parking lot of the old ASPCA building location in the middle of the night. Suspecting a cat abandonment, I went to check out the box and inside was a very old -- and dying Siamese cat.

The cat had a huge cancerous tumor on the side of the neck, was moaning in pain and was down to nothing but skin and bones.

The next morning, I brought the dying Siamese cat to the ASPCA hospital and had to wait more than two hours to have the suffering animal euthanized. I can still recall the horror of having to sit with this dying cat for that length of time. She cried this painful, pitiful, mournful sound the entire time. A sound I had never heard before and hope to never hear again.

I wondered, when finally getting to the vet if she believed me when telling her I found the cat abandoned in front of the "A's" old building. She probably thought I was lying about that as so many people lie when dropping off neglected and dying animals at shelters and vet offices.

When doing cat adoptions out of Petco from 1996 to 2000, the situation with people abandoning cats became so intense that I began to have a recurring nightmare:

I walk into Petco and everywhere I look there are cats. Cats in cardboard boxes, cats in carriers, cats in cages stacked up to the ceilings.

"Oh my God, what am I going to do with all these cats?"

I don't know any of the cats. They have all been abandoned at the store by people. It is my job to figure out what to do with them.

I don't want to send them to the pound. But, I have no places or homes for them.

I need to do something, but WHAT?.....

Usually, at this point I would wake up.

But, I would wake up thinking that there are hundreds of cats awaiting me at Petco and I have no idea what to do with them!

Only when conscious for about five minutes would I finally realize that the whole thing was just a nightmare! There were only 12 or 13 cats at Petco!

Over the years, there have been different variations of the nightmare. Suddenly being confronted with too many strays, injured or dying animals on the streets, or even too many animals in my home!

There is always this huge sigh of relief when I finally realize it was all a dream!

These days, the nightmares are mostly gone -- or maybe, I just don't remember them upon awakening.

I like to think I don't dream anymore. -- PCA

**********

Written by mandy787 Blog about this entry

This entry has 1 comments: (Add your own)

#1 Comment from jmuhjacat
5/11/08 4:44 PM | Permalink

Oh, the nightmare is real, all right -- and we both know it. But there is an answer. SPAY/NEUTER and UNIVERSAL HUMANE EDUCATION.

We know that, too, and we each of us do what we can toward making it a reality for those we can help.

Tales & Tails of New York Public Journal
Back to Journal	Archives \| Alerts x Entry Alerts Comment Alerts \| Feeds

Tales & Tails of New York

"Don't Dream its Over" (Reply)