Someone won the lottery today. It was a one in six million chance but she
won and now she will long and happy life where she won't have to worry about
food, a warm place to sleep, or medical care again. She has gone from
homeless destitution to never wanting for anything as long as she lives. She
is beyond lucky.
We are settled into our new home now and we find that we have room for a new
addition. We decided that, given our active lifestyle, a cat would fit in
nicely. Having volunteered in an animal shelter, there was no argument that
our new addition would be rescued. Instead of going to the usual place (
www.waysidewaifs.com ), I decided to go to the Kansas City Municipal Animal
Shelter. They are overcrowded and having to put down animals at an alarming
rate. They are begging for people to come and adopt animals.
Any animal shelter is a sad place to visit. This one is especially dank and
depressing. None of the fancy buildings and nice decor of wayside, this is
merely a cinderblock building with a metal roof and concrete floors meant to
house as many animals as efficiently as possible It is a prison, death row,
for a host of beautiful animals. These innocent creatures have been
victimized by supposedly "superior" humans who were too irresponsible to
spay their pets, who assumed that a young animal somehow knows not to chew
shoes or poop on the rug and could not take the time to teach them, or who
just got tired of them or decided that they really did not match the decor.
Now they live in a cold metal cage, confused and wondering what they have
done wrong and what is to become of them. Each tick of the clock lessens
their chance of having the happy life they are entitled to and brings them
closer to the needle which will bring them eternal sleep.
It is Saturday and there are a lot of people at the shelter. Many of them
have come looking for their lost pet but you like to think most are there to
adopt a pet. You have to walk past the dogs to get to the cats and all of
the excitement of new people walking through has generated a cacophony of
barking which makes your ears ache. There was one particularly cute young
dog; a Lab of about three months of age named "Buddy." A friendly, happy
dog- if I had any way of making it work I would have adopted him on the spot
but, since I could not, a put a little spell on him to make sure someone
would.
We found the area set aside for cats and entered. Most of the residents were
kittens- thanks to irresponsible people who do not neuter their pets- but
there were a couple of adults, one female who was nursing a litter, and one
poor guy who was simply pissed at the world and lay in his cage with is ears
folded back looking menacingly at anyone who spoke to him. I knew what I was
looking for. I wanted a kitten, short haired (an absolute requirement), and
I wanted it to be coal black like the stereotypical Witch's cat. They had
two black kittens. The first had long hair so, too bad (but not really as he
was already in the process of being adopted). The second was in a cage with
two other kittens, presumable littermates judging by their common age (about
eight weeks) and size.
Homing in on the kitten I wanted to adopt, I reached through the bars to
stroke and play with him. Suddenly one of his cage mates, a beautiful cr?me
colored Siamese with gray points and a big splotch of gray right in the
middle of her face, pushed her way forward, shoved him out of the way, and
began batting at my hands. "You don't want him, you want me!" she seemed to
say. After that performance, she was right. I did want her. I have always
preferred animals with strong personalities and intelligence and, with two
ferrets as roommates, any cat living in my house would certainly need them.
I also saw a little gray Manx cat and, for a while, the choice was between
him and the Siamese but he was still too young for adoption so the choice
was made for me. I asked the Animal Control officer if I could hold the
little Siamese and, when I picked her up, she snuggled up against me and beg
an purring. Evidently I met her stringent criteria as well.
So we went to the office to pay the fee and fill out the paperwork. The lady
who helped me recognized which kitten it was and was very glad she had found
a home. I know from my own experiences working in a shelter that, although
you want each and every animal to find a home, you do have your favorites
and it is an especially good feeling when one of them gets adopted. We don't
have her yet. She won't be home until Tuesday- after she has been spayed and
given some of her shots. I cannot wait to go get her.
As we left, Buddy had still not been adopted. He, like the gray Manx and the
pissed off old cat, would just have to hang in and hope his chance to make
someone happy would come around before the kennels get too crowded and the
cold and uncaring calendar decides it is his turn to make room.
When a cat enters a shelter, there is a one in six million chance that it
will be adopted. This slaughter of beautiful and friendly animals- the
ultimate innocents- must stop. There is absolutely no reason for your pet to
be intact. If it is not spayed or neutered, get it done now. Get off the
computer, call the vet, and get it arranged. If you can possibly find the
room in your home and your heart, go to your local animal shelter and give
some deserving animal a chance to enrich your life and save their own.
You can be its winning lottery ticket.