"The Woes of a Ruff Economy" (Or, Any Kind of Publicity!)

Last week I heard from a young reporter writing a story for "AM New York," a local (free) daily newspaper in New York City that is typically picked up by people during the morning rush.

Rebecca Wolfson's apparent assignment was to write a piece about how economic hard times was affecting people and their pets.

I spoke to Rebecca for some time particularly about the rise in "Eviction" cases that resulted in both more animals coming into city shelters, as well as a significant rise in phone calls coming to me, regarding these kinds of cases. Additionally, many people were being forced to "move" because of substantial raises in rent and inabilities to afford the increases. -- "Moving" is probably the number one reason for animal give-ups in shelters. It always seems the new places people move to, "don't allow pets."

While always happy and willing to talk to reporters about subjects I know well, I don't seek publicity or necessarily want to be directly quoted. There are a number of reasons for that, the main one being that any kind of "publicity" that one is involved in animal rescue results in inevitable calls from the public to dump animals. A published address of a shelter or rescue will result in people leaving animals in front of the facility's door -- just as we experienced when doing cat adoptions out of stores.

I referred Rebecca to the AC&C and advised that there were several key people working at the shelter that she needed to speak with.

She apparently did that.

The final (front page) article that came out this past Thursday, subtitled, "Money Woes Lead to Ruff Times" ("Strapped Owners Seek Pet Help") is well written, accurate, but in some ways misleading in its featured anecdotal story focusing on a young man who temporarily gave up his cat to the shelter when he couldn't afford vet bills for the animal due to job loss. In that particular case, the shelter's "Safety Net" program was able to secure a 6-month foster and medical care for the cat, until the owner was able to find a new job, more affordable apartment and take back his cat.

Nice story, but very atypical.

While the article did stress that most rescue and "Safety Net" programs are being stretched to the max and overwhelmed with the sheer volume of calls and needs, most readers tend to remember the positive, anecdotal stories with the happy endings.

Therefore, when our organization was mentioned as one of "Animal Care" and fostering, complete with our phone number, I knew to expect an avalanche of calls, following the article's publication.

Not, mind you, an avalanche of calls from people wanting to help or OFFER foster, but rather, a slew of calls from those needing foster or to give up animals (mostly, the latter).

And yes, for several days following the article's publication, I have had at least a couple of dozen of such calls, the worst of which was some woman calling to say her three, 5-year-old cats "no longer want to live in my home."

"Do you think they'd prefer to be dead?" I asked her.

It's frustrating to receive a barrage of calls like these when we have no place to put the animals.

One elderly woman who is going into an assisted living situation due to medical problems, I was forced to advise having her 14-year-old cat euthanized at the vet: "Even if you could find a no-kill shelter to take the cat, Ma'am, the chances are the cat would not do well suddenly being in a cage surrounded by strangers and other animals. Senior cats like these usually pine away for their owners and eventually will themselves to die. The kindest thing you could do for your cat now is make sure she leaves this world peacefully and humanely with you there to comfort her."

Not the kind of "solution" I like advising to people, but the only one that is truly humane in terms of hard realities and near impossible circumstances.

Yesterday, I was at the shelter to see a dog with the man who fostered Juliet before she was adopted. "Manny" was ready to foster another dog. However, we learned that the dog I had a rescue memo on was not good with other animals and Manny has a dog and two cats at home.

We decided it would be better for Manny to take Shana, the Lab mix currently boarding at my vet. (Unfortunately, my vet closes early on Saturdays and so it was not possible to pick up Shana yesterday within our time limits.)

But, while at the shelter with Manny and another friend of mine, Kathy who brought her car for transportation, we noticed a nice looking, clean cut, well dressed young man walking in with two cats in carriers.

One cat was a pretty, pale orange tabby, the other one, an equally pretty, dilute Calico.

Wondering what this guy's "problem" was with the two cats, I stopped to talk with him.

It seems "Michael" was not in fact the "owner" of the two cats, but an employee trying to help his boss out.

The two cats, "Princess" and "Lucy" had been "restaurant cats" for the past several years. But the restaurant owner's lease ran out and he could not afford to stay in business due to the huge rental increase a new lease would require. The restaurant was forced to close.

Both cats had been spayed, fully vetted and looked clean, healthy and younger than their stated "8 years" each.

"The owner is totally heartbroken!" Michael told me. "So much so, he couldn't bring the cats here personally. He left the cats in the restaurant until the very last day. He kept hoping someone could take them. They are great cats. Very social and they love people. Joe would keep them in his office during the day and allow them loose in the restaurant at night. All the employees loved and played with them. Princess retrieves balls and loves to play. Lucy loves to he held and sit on people's laps."

"Why couldn't the owner or one of the employees take them home with them?" I asked.

"Either they have cats or dogs already or are in 'no pet' buildings," Michael replied, sincerely. "I would take them, but travel constantly between here and Miami. I will in fact, be in Miami over the next 4 days. The owner isso distraught over losing his restaurant and the cats, he developed Shingles and is quite sick now."

It was another of those awful, unfortunate stories of circumstance and financial or medical stress that we are hearing constantly these days.

I agreed to take the cats, provided I could speak directly with the owner of the animals.

Michael got "Joe" on the phone and the older man confirmed everything Michael told me to the letter.

"Can you take the cats, please?" the desperate man pleaded. "I can't bear the thought of them being euthanized! They are truly wonderful cats in every way! I can get you their medical records. Heart of Chelsea vets took care of them. They eat Fancy Feast wet food only. -- Salmon flavor."

I promised the former restaurant owner we would do what we could.

Michael later promised to get and mail me the cats' medical records and gave a donation to our organization.

Kathy dropped me home with the two cats. As soon as Kathy walked through my door, Nemo, (my current little foster dog) ran up to her, barking wildly and attempting to bite her legs.

Oh, no! I thought. Not a good sign for trying to adopt Nemo out of my apartment! It seems he's the perfect 12 lb "guard dog."

Kathy didn't stay long under the circumstances.

I put the new cats in my small office room and set up food and a litter box.

But, both cats were so terrified of my two dogs, neither one came out of their carriers -- even an hour later.

I decided to call Elizabeth.

Elizabeth is one of my very few cat fosters. She normally fosters one cat at a time, as she adopted a cat from me, "Loverboy," several months ago. Her last cat foster, Fluffy was adopted a couple of weeks back, but I had wanted to leave a little time between fosters, in case of any problems or return.

I called Elizabeth to ask if she could foster Princess or Lucy.

Fortunately for me, Elizabeth was kind enough to offer foster for both cats!

Less than ten minutes later, I was at Elizabeth's home with both Princess and Lucy in carriers.

To minimize stress on the cats, we put Lucy and Princess in Elizabeth's bathroom.

Both cats came out of the carriers and Lucy (the Calico) immediately started eating some Fancy Feast. Princess (pictured above) settled herself in the bathroom sink.

"So much for brushing my teeth later!" Elizabeth laughed.

It was a good moment. Both cats seemed somewhat relaxed for just having lost their "home" of the last several years. It was nice too, that they could be together.

Meanwhile, there were more telephone messages when I got home from more people needing to give up more animals for one reason or another.

"Uncle's in a wheelchair and cannot take care of his 12-year-old dachshund anymore."

"We're moving and can't take our cats."

On and on.

Thank God the article was in a daily, rather than a weekly paper.

Thank God, it didn't give an address.

But, most of all, Dear God, please spare us from any kind of Publicity!

******

Written by mandy787 Blog about this entry

This entry has 1 comments: (Add your own)

#1 Comment from jmuhjacat
5/18/08 4:14 PM | Permalink

How well I know. The same is true for anyone who becomes, by whatever means, an "authority" on cats (or dogs, or ???'s) -- you get calls and emails from people who at least have the caring to try to ask the questions, but you can get overwhelmed when you know that there aren't places for everyone and there aren't answers for every question. A dear friend who's already adopted several ex-homeless cats and a couple of dogs called me awhile back, frantic to find a safety net for kittens and their mom just discovered in her yard. Hours of research and twenty-something emails (to say nothing of concern and stress) later, and I think I've had a total of two answers, both of which I passed on to her (along with a printed list of all the local possibilities) and I pray the outcome has been good.

What a lovely, lovely cat! I pray these sisters get a loving, forever home TOGETHER as they so deserve.

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"The Woes of a Ruff Economy" (Or, Any Kind of Publicity!)