Posted on 11/25/2022 11:18:13 AM PST by bassmaner
Last year, my aunt-in-law passed away after a long battle with cancer. She had 4 relatively old (13-15 y/o) cats at the time, and unfortunately she did not have a will. She was renting at the time from friends who are now being forced to sell the house, and she had no other living family. The cats are all relatively healthy: they're all spayed/neutered, they're not declawed, and are very well socialized indoor cats. Since the house is nearby, my wife and I have been taking care of the cats: feeding, changing litter, etc (we can't bring them to our house due to allergies and dogs: our dogs are extremely territorial and would not adjust to having feline housemates).
Starting last spring, we have attempted to find homes for the kitties, with the absolute requirement that they be allowed to live out their lives and not be euthanized.
Unfortunately, we have hit a brick wall with this: every single so-called 'rescue' or 'no-kill shelter' has been unable or unwilling to help. In every case, we get the 'it's kitten season' or 'we just don't have space' excuse. This is putting us in an untenable position: we don't want to end up taking them to the local SPCA, where they would waste no time putting them to sleep despite their relatively good health and sweet disposition.
While my cat was just a kitten, I went thru all that BS and paid out $170. Never again.
It's getting to to be a profitable endeavor for these so called pet rescue groups........
Let them roam, but feed and water them and make them a shelter on the back porch. They will be fine.
Right.
Maybe a local feed store or vet would let you place a flyer in their business.
Barn cats are always in demand somewhere. Some people let theirs roam 24/7 but others close them in the barn at night to keep them safe from predators like owls and coyotes.
Our barn cats seem to be happy. :-)
Oops!
See post 44.
“if we can get her into a crate.”
When we caught our ferals for TNR, we used a Drop Trap sometimes, and sometimes a Live Animal Trap. They both worked.
I now have 6 cats left. The 7th had cancer at only 7 years old and I used my fuel oil money to have her euthanized. It was awful. She was an exceptionally sweet baby. I've stopped asking for help.
You should have given some thought to your uninformed advice before posting.
With that being said, You posted it so now deal with the appropriate criticism.......
Word of mouth/email/etc. within your family’s and friend’s networks might be best. If you were up for it you could try posting it on something like Next Door, presuming you could reasonably vet folks.
We had a shed with a cat door and in the winter, I ran an extension cord with a heat lamp for the couple cats we had and my black labrador. I made a kennel with straw for the dog and it was common to go out in the winter to see the cats bedded down with my lab.
Wrll...if there is NO OTHER OPTION...then better than near instant death at humane society or SPLC...what happened to cats in the early 1900s? PS..we have 2 rescued ferals
Shelters are asking for at least $100 to surrender an animal. In hard economic times, pets can pay a very high price.
The world is imploding...and homeless cats are unfortunately going to be affected.
I also said “build a shelter near your home” so can continue care...yes...its a risk, but sheesh, when there are no other options...
I think some of them might come out ahead. On the other hand, when you consider vet bills, high cost of quality pet food nowadays, etc., it can cost a pretty penny to foster a pet and get it in good enough health to adopt out, complete with up-to-date shots. So some are probably not profitable, while others might well be profit makers. Some of the regular animal shelters charge a lot for kittens and puppies, but include a vet gift certificate for free spay/neuter and any shots they still need, so the cost really isn’t that high.
Some of the breed-specific rescues charge outrageous fees (around $600+) and run around grabbing every dog of that breed they can find out of regular shelters so they can resell them, and don’t appear to spend much money at all on them. I really wonder about those. A few charge around $250, but spend a lot on vet teeth cleaning (expensive!) grooming, etc., too, and probably operate at a loss or barely break even.
The animal shelter in my town always has gobs of Pit Bulls and Pit Bull mixes, a couple of elderly chihuahuas, no other type dogs, not even mutts that are not part Pit Bull. Hmm. I sometimes wonder whether the other dogs are adopted out so fast they don’t get advertised or whether these rescues are grabbing the others or what. Hmm. Surely it can’t be there are no other type dogs needing homes.
Oh my, I am so sorry thoughtless irresponsible people are doing this to you and to the poor kitties. And for the rescues to treat you so badly on top of it! That is horrible!
There are idiots who think house cats can do fine “in the wild” or that “these people will be happy to get another barn cat”. No, house cats do not do fine after getting dumped. They starve, get attacked by other cats, coyotes, birds of prey, they freeze, get sick, etc. And those with barns already have the barn cats they want, and those cats do not take kindly to newcomers.
All they do is dump their problem on someone else — in this case, you.
Maybe there are Freeper in your area who would like to adopt the cats you still have? It would not hurt to ask. Lots of cat lovers here. I pray you find a good solution very soon.
My youngest babies are 7 and very afraid of strangers. Adoption is unlikely. I just do the best that I can and hope God provides what I can't. :-)
Bless you for your kind heart, and best wishes to you and your kitties. And may the coyotes stay far from your doors.
My home is in the mountain west, and when our most beloved big cat succumbed to cancer, we were astonished to find such a great network of amimal placement establishments, near, far, big, large, hooved, very large, (believe it or not)... and it might take you some time, and sometimes a bit of money, but you can find a home. Keep calling for a while. No one expects you to sell the farm to buy the cat.
Good luck!
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