I Am A Sucker…

Effluvia

Yesterday, I took the next step towards becoming a crazy cat person (which if you have seen my facebook page is not a long journey..) and adopted a brother for my beloved kitten Penny. Penny needs somebody to be around for those times when I am not home. Of course, right now she hates everything about Clyde (he just looked like a Clyde to me.. Baxter was the runner up..) He has his own room separated from her, but that doesn’t stop her from giving me a glare everytime I come back out of the office. “You’ve been spending time with HIM, haven’t you?” (should I be worried that I am now voicing my cats?)

Really, what I wanted to talk about was the the shelter experience. That is a job I could not do. I would break down in tears on a daily basis (and adopt 14 cats..) We went to a couple of shelters before ending at the Oakland Police Department’s shelter. Curiously, they had a sale going on. I had no idea shelter’s offered deals, but any cat that had any orange in them was a third the normal price. Not a bad deal for a cat with all it’s shots, fixed and micro-chipped.

The shelter itself was nice enough, and all the cats got super cool hammocks that I totally want to get for my cats. But, it was definitely a depressing place. No veneer of bright cheer or slightly over eager volunteers could fix that. At least they had a little patio that cats could go outside & get some fresh air in. Too often only dogs get to stretch their legs.

I’m a firm believer in rescue animals, but adopting from shelters is just as nice, and often easier. If you are considering getting a pet, think about visiting your local shelters, especially the animal control ones, because those are often the animals that need loving homes the most. I defy you to see a picture of a little kitten in leg casts and not tear up a little. If you are a softy like me, make sure you bring someone to remind you of your limitations, and what you are looking for. It’s important, otherwise you try to save them all.

So, get ready for another flood of cat pictures once Clyde and Penny are actually seeing eye to eye. Maybe we can change the blog to Popecat? I could get us an adorable mascot!

Last 5 posts by Ezra

9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Charles  •  Dec 7, 2009 @4:12 pm

    Ethel approves of Popecat. But she will not be microchipped like a serf.

  2. Danimal  •  Dec 7, 2009 @4:33 pm

    2 cats, and you think yourself a crazy cat person? You’re not even up to “collector” yet, let alone kitty rancher.

    At one point our herd consisted of:
    3 cats
    3 dogs (for a total of 120 brain cells among them)
    3 birds (cockatoo, conure, cockatiel)
    2 ferrets
    1 iguana
    1 chinchilla
    2 kids

    Now that’s a herd!

  3. Patrick  •  Dec 7, 2009 @4:34 pm

    Amateur: three dogs and two cats is crazy. Agreed that a shelter is as good a choice as rescue, and more humane because rescues don’t kill, while most shelters do, sooner or later.

    The key at a shelter is to ask about food and stranger aggression. Even in cats, it matters.

  4. Talisker  •  Dec 7, 2009 @6:43 pm
  5. matt  •  Dec 7, 2009 @7:16 pm

    i hope you dont mind if i post a website thats on topic

    http://www.petfinder.com/index.html

  6. Doug  •  Dec 8, 2009 @8:45 am

    0 cats and other animals
    3 kids, nuf said.

    But, we your blog partners should be worried that you are voicing your cats. Or, maybe when you weird out, it will really be entertaining reading. LOL.

  7. Edge  •  Dec 8, 2009 @10:36 am

    I have to agree with the “amateur” tag…my spouse and I used to “gentle/civilize” feral cats for a shelter – this involved gently training them to live with humans to increase their chances of adoption…the shelter still had to put down the cats that simply couldn’t adapt…over time, we realized that we were keeping the “defective” cats – that is, those who were well-behaved but had physical defects (missing eye, tail, leg, etc)…so we now have 11 of them and had to stop our efforts…

    On the other hand, on a cold night we don’t need a heating blanket…

  8. Mark Kernes  •  Dec 8, 2009 @12:14 pm

    “Clyde” … “Baxter” … a reference to Jeff Goldblum’s character in “Next Stop, Greenwhich Village”?

  9. Ezra  •  Dec 8, 2009 @4:10 pm

    Let’s just say that Clyde was a lot less cute last night at 9PM when I let him explore the house a little, and he decided to piss & crap on my bed. That took some patience (and some late night laundry…) Ah, kids…

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