Why Bother?

Maybe it’s the sign that you’re born under.  It’s as illogical as that for some people.  For others it could amount to a Community Service.  Some people do not find it hard to pass a person in distress and just keep going; it is even easier for some people to pass a kitten or cat that is obviously distressed and unable to cope and they just keep going.  It’s just not their problem.  There are people who never have companion animals, their lives revolve around other things, other events or other reasons to live.  They did not create the problem and so why should they have to be the ones to clean it up?

I became a rescue worker and a feeder of stray cats.  I saw a lot of sorrow.  I saw cats who were sick and weak and with no way of helping themselves.  There’s plenty of this still going around.  There are a lot of rescuers across the country working alone and as groups that somehow manage to find each other.  These people have a common bond:  A passion bordering on obsession to champion the helpless strays, orphans, abandoned and abused animals that our society has decided to ignore.

We take time out of our busy day and money out of our already depleted bank accounts to help these cats.  Someone asked me why I did this seemingly thankless work that left me with little time for friends and family and less resources for my own luxuries.  At first I said, “I don’t know – I just have to do it.” 

Now I know better.  I did this because I empathize with other people and with animals.  I have the strength of my convictions:  don’t wait for someone else to do it – take action now!  I also find satisfaction in seeing a dirty, unhealthy kitten or cat regain their good health and blossom into a gorgeous feline.  Their spirit keeps pace with their physical health and their personality is usually a bonus to the rescue.  I find satisfaction in knowing that there are other people who care – not only for the animals but for other people as well.

I learn a lot about life and humanity from people who rescue other types of animals - like ferrets, turtles, rabbits – the list is long and the atrocities are endless.  I learn a lot about working with other people and about how to approach the work that I do.  I have learned to ask for help and to see when I’m overwhelmed.  I did not start rescuing abandoned cats and sick strays in order to meet people and to learn about life, but that seems to be part of the package.  I am often called the Cat Lady of Brooklyn – I have met many other Cat Ladies and Gentlemen of Brooklyn.

When I was married and tried to pick up an abandoned and very friendly cat in the snow, my then husband prevented me from doing so.  I realized then that I was not going to be happy in that marriage – it was confirmed later.  The cat was just one silent message.  You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat animals.

Sometimes I feel defeated.  Sometimes I don’t have the funds and I see a kitten that desperately needs to come off the streets.  It is hungry and has a very bad eye infection.  It will not survive the winter and will die slowly of an upper respiratory infection if not taken to a veterinarian.  I have met veterinarians who have helped me through these times.  They give me discounts and allow me to run an account.  I have also gone into Emergency Rooms where a bleeding and badly hurt animal is turned away because Cash or Credit in full in not available.  How does someone go into Emergency Room work and turn away an animal in that condition?

People like me take the animal to the vet, work at rehabilitating it, work to find it a good home and thrill at the sight of yet another flourishing feline.  I’m sure that other rescuers feel this same thrill.  What makes me continue to “waste” my money and time on these animals that just keep multiplying?

Is it fair for an animal to be abandoned after years of companionship because its caretaker died and no one in the family wants to take responsibility for this once pet?  Very often that cat is thrown into the street.  Is it fair for a companion animal to be left in an empty apartment when someone has moved or been evicted?  How do you know how long this animal will suffer before anyone even becomes aware that it has been abandoned?

The number of strays in my area has declined over the past 20 years.  Could it be that the small band of Individual Rescuers who receive no financial help feel this same sense of responsibility?  I see more people getting involved.  What a great impact these silent people are having on this community just by keeping the cats from over producing in the alley ways!

I often wonder how people get the idea that cats can take care of themselves.  These people seem to think that cats prefer the adventure of living in the streets to living in a home.  I hear it in the tired litany of those who say things like:

• Cats can always find food in the garbage
• Cats can take care of themselves – they’re descended from hunters
• Cats can keep warm - look at all the fur they have
• Someone will take them in – they’re cute (or exotic)
• They have a natural tendency to roam

Do people really believe that cats prefer the street life?  Any cat prefers regular meals and a warm home.  Cats love to be held, stroked and spoiled.  I wonder how people get the idea that cats can take care of themselves in an environment as hostile as ours.  Let’s look at the previous points one at a time:

Cats can always find food in the garbage

I guess that if we looked around we would see that cats forage in the garbage and still manage to starve and get sick – how much of that garbage is nourishing food?  Have you seen the not-so-funny ads for garbage recycling/  A really skinny  cat is trying to find food and instead finds magazines in one can, newspapers in another,  cans in yet another and finally  the last can is sealed tight.  This shows very clearly that cats can’t find food easily in the street.  There is nothing edible in the darned garbage!!

Cats can take care of themselves – they’re descended from hunters

Did hunters have to contend with cars?  Cats cannot outrun a car or escape from a group of people intent on hurting them for the joy of being vicious.  Cats do not understand that the large item they are hiding under will start to roll and crush them to death.  They don’t understand that the warm compartment they are hiding in is the engine of a vehicle that will break their bones when the car ignition is turned on.  Cats do not know about crossing at the green.  Domesticated cats that are tossed out to the street still think that people are caretakers and will come up to anyone for a rub behind the ears or for a meal.   They don’t expect to be grabbed for research labs, dog fighting rings or for use as a punching bag by spiteful children and cowardly adults in need of psychotherapy.  Hunters lived in a world different from our technological dangers and psychologically sick people.  Domesticated cats cannot rely on their hunting instinct – it is usually extinct.  Strays, like hunters do fight for territory and this puts them at risk for infections from bites and viruses.  They suffer from infections and viruses contracted through fights.  That’s the reality of their hunting situation.

Cats can keep warm – look at all the fur they have

Cats do get cold and often can’t find warm places to go into when it’s cold.  Buildings are often boarded up.  Sometimes cats attempt to sleep under the hood of a car and manage to get mangled when the driver turns on the ignition.  Be compassionate, tap on your hood before starting your car.  How long can you stay warn in cold weather even when wearing a scarf, coat, hats gloves and boots?  I have found cats frozen to death wearing a cute little doll sweater that some child probably thought was cute.

Someone Will Take Them in – They’re Cute

If people only knew that no one wants to adopt a cat from the streets because:

1. No one wants to spend money on vet bills for a sick cat or kitten
2. People are afraid of what appears to be a sick animal
3. People tend to pass the buck and say, “someone will help them"
4. People often say, “I have asthma (or a dog, or a cat of my own)”
5. People say things like “my cat won’t let me bring another cat into the house” – yet they encourage YOU to take it even though you already have 13 cats in a one bedroom apartment.

Cats have a natural tendency to roam

I couldn’t believe that a person from an animal center said this to me!  This natural tendency is out of place in our society.  It creates problems for cats that roam.  They are exposed to many dangers and once lost become victims to disease dogs and vicious people.  People want them off their property and resort to acts of cruelty to get the cats to leave.  As one rescue worker told me, “you have to see the horrible things that happen to these animal to believe them – people think I make up stories to get sympathy.”

The cat’s natural tendency does not prepare it for dealing with recycling garbage where everything is tightly sealed and there is nothing edible in sight.  A cat’s natural tendency serves them badly in our society, it creates problems for cats who roam.  They are exposed to many dangers and once lost become victims.  They are not able to provide themselves with shelter on a “must have” basis; they are not able to provide food for themselves; they can’t provide themselves with medical care and they are not used to having to fight for territory.

Why do people like me do this kind of work?  I stated one reason previously, here is another:  I have found day old kittens covered with maggots in shoeboxes in the garbage, kittens with awful upper respiratory conditions dying on the sidewalk, scared cats with awful abscesses that will eventually poison them to death, old cats dying of dehydration and yet,  people who walk by and barely glance at them.

One cat was abandoned in a furnished room.  She was hiding because she was afraid.  The landlady was terrified of this “demon”.  Luckily, due to red tape, the ASPA refused to pick up the cat.  When I arrived I talked to this “demon.”  She slowly came out and let me put her into a broken box that I had to use as a pet carrier.  The box was labeled “Kissy.”  It indicated an adoption date of six years.  No one was going to take cats like Kissy, Zoe, Tia (who eventually died in some alley) or the day old Kittens (they died too) into their homes or at least to a vet.  Except the Individual Rescuer writing this story and others like me.

I love the people who come in to adopt because “my cat’s alone a lot of the time and I don’t want him/her to be lonely.”  These moments are too few to really savor.  What I often wonder about is how people who have had a relationship with a companion animal can throw them out for incomprehensible reasons.  How can anyone toss out a companion animal because at 14 years of age the pet becomes an inconvenience?  That’s when the cat needs you the most.  He/she is now a geriatric cat.  Would these people throw out their children if they became an inconvenience?  Would they understand if their children threw them out because they became an inconvenience?  People wouldn’t care about cats usually don’t care about other people either.  I say this a lot:  When people care about animals, these same people show empathy and compassion for other people too.

I do this kind of work because I get tired of seeing kittens whose eyes are running with pus, crying pitifully as people walk past them.  I feel that a young pregnant cat that has been thrown into the street deserves help.  I feel that we, as individuals, have to initiate some kind of action that lets other people know that someone has to move their butt and pick the animal off the street, foster care it and help it to develop trust so that it can become adoptable.

Maybe people need to see and realize that the stray population can and does happen in large numbers mostly because of irresponsible prior owners who do not spay their pets and then toss out these domesticated creatures when they tire of them.  It’s not going to get better those sick and helpless strays aren’t going to lessen in numbers unless people start caring in larger numbers.  I believe that cats that are thrown out by people because they’ve just gotten new furniture deserve better than the terrors of hiding under a car and getting squashed to death when they try to run out in panic.  Maybe these cats with fear in their eyes and their urgent crying need to be picked up and care for because they are becoming too common place. 

We like getting gifts – can’t we give the gift of compassion and help a helpless animal once in awhile?  I pray constantly for responsible caretakers who vaccinate their cats on a regular basis.  There are rabies, distemper and feline leukemia vaccines that cats must have.  These deadly viruses can kill your cat – slowly and painfully.  Responsible caretakers keep their cats indoors because they realize that a feral cat fights for meals, territory and survival,  When they mate and they will infect their cat with any number of killer viruses.  An infected bite will develop into an abscess that will poison a cat.

There are people who would never even think of disposing of their cats because they’ve just gotten new furniture or are tired of cleaning out the litter box.  These are the people that realize that a cat must be neutered at about 5 months of age.  These are people who realize that the animal population is too large to “let kitty have at least one litter” before spaying her (or neutering him).  The CACC puts these animal to death on a daily basis in large numbers.   And how do research labs get so many tame animals to do testing on?! It seems that people who say they sympathize but do nothing about the situation are really nothing more than a bag of wind.  If you say you care, then do something about it.  Don’t think that someone else will help that poor cat.  That poor cat might get run over by a car, die of upper respiratory infection feline leukemia feline aids, hepatitis or an abscess.  Could it be that people like me do this work because we understand that if this kind of injustice can be done to an animal it can also be done to people?

 

Why bother?  Why do people like me do this kind of work that will never be listed as a lucrative career?  We have to start somewhere because the ASPCA refers you to the CACC; the CACC refers you back to the ASPCA and by the end of the day you’ve gotten no results and the dog or cat that you were hoping to help has died at your feet.