Don't feel guilty. If the kitten is deemed healthy you can always bring her
back home. If she has FIV you don't need to expose the cat you have now to
take. You did your best. Don't beat yourself up for what might have been.

said you should go *in person* to talk to the manager and not just call on
the phone.  Did you follow through on this?  In-person is always much better
than an impersonal telephone call, especially when you are trying to deal
with something this important.

MaryL

<snipped>.  Long story short, I decided to

<snipped>  After leaving kitty at the shelter, I called on the

<snipped>

<snipped>

MaryL's advice is very good here. I volunteer at a medium sized
shelter and this situation happens several times every year. The role
of a good shelter is to look out for the interests of the animals.
Because there are so many people and animals, each with it's own
somewhat unique story, they must have rules to follow. Many of those
rules are in place to protect the animals, not everyone is as loving
as you are.

Some of the rules are there to allow the employees to do their job
effectively. Without some guidance, their already difficult job would
be totally impossible. The ones in my city require you to sign a
contract when you bring in an animal and when you adopt an animal.
This is because the process must be legally binding and not as subject
to changes when someone just wants to do their own thing.

If they let an animal out when it is sick or when there is a
probability of injury to a person or the animal, there is a legal
liability to the shelter. It is also irresponsible to do, for
everyone's sake. The shelter is also legally required to hold the
animal for a period of time specified by the legal entity where the
animal was found. To give it up before that period has expired would
open the shelter to lawsuits and/or criminal prosecution. Seven to
fourteen days is common.

You gave up the animal when you brought him/her in. You signed a
contract stating that. The animal was then the total responsibility of
the shelter and you have no legal rights to that animal. Although you
have no legal rights, the shelter director does have the discression
to give the animal to you if it is well. That would violate the
contract and it cannot be done lightly.

IF you want to understand what has happened, look at it from the
shelter's point of view...You willingly gave up the animal after
almost no effort to integrate it into your home. I'm not trying to
criticize because you did do the right thing in giving it up if you
couldn't properly care for it, but you need to take responsibility for
making a mistake here.

Properly introducing cats can commonly take up to two weeks, sometimes
even a lot more time. Bringing a stray in to a home with other animals
risks infecting the "resident" animals with dozens of diseases and
parasites. New animals should be quarentined until approved by a vet.
I made that mistake the first time I brought home a cat from the
newspaper. That "free" cat cost me $500US in vet bills for various
problems it spread to my other cats. We all are beginners at some time
in our experiences.

Sorry for the volume of this post, but I hope it will help you, and
others, start to understand the shelter's point of view and
responsibilities. All shelters make life and death decisions virtually
every day, even the "no kill" ones. Shelters are also lisenced
businesses, even if they are non-profit and are there stricktly for
the animal's sake. Adopting an animal to the wrong home can doom the
animal to a terrible life (or worse) and I have never found a shelter
worker who could accept that.

This advice is despicable.  Most people who work at animal shelters work
very hard to find good homes for the animals under their care.  They would
*far* rather adopt them out than euthanize them.  There are good reasons why
people have to fill out application forms and conform to rules for adoption.
For example, the OP had also written to this newsgroup two weeks ago (under
the thread "Jealous Cat").  She rescued the little kitty after she saw it
dumped from a car.  That was commendable of her.  She took the kitten home
but said the kitten bit her several times ("little nips," as she described
it) and she apparently left the cats to get together on their own devices
without taking the time to do it slowly and carefully.  Many people have
made that mistake, and several of us wrote to her to describe some steps she
could take if she does get ther kitten back.  She was also concerned because
her resident cat is declawed (done before she adopted the cat) and the
kitten isn't.  She expressed concerns about having a clawed and declawed cat
together.  We also reassured her about that.

All of this might be something that she could overcome.  However, she was
also obviously angry at the shelter and spoke of getting an attorney if she
couldn't get "her" cat back (a cat that actually wasn't hers -- she kept it
for a few days and then relinquished all rights to it when she turned it in
to the shelter).  Several of us recommended that she go in person, speak to
the manager of the shelter, and explain the mistakes she had made and how
she would correct them.

I don't know if she ever did any of this -- she has not made any reference
to it.  She did say in the earlier thread that she would try to use some of
our suggestions, but I am not at all sure that she followed up on the
suggestions to see the manager in person.  If she did not follow that simple
bit of advice, how carefully do think she will follow advice for spend
several weeks, if necessary, to slowly introduce the two cats?

Shelter personnel are in a better position than we are to evaluate the
situation.  Do you really want to be responsible if the OP follows your
advice and then later decides (once again) that she can't care for the
kitten?  Or what if she decides that she is going to get it declawed because
her resident cat is declawed and she has expressed concerns about having a
clawed and declawed cat together?  I am perfectly willing to help someone
who is honest in his or her attempts to adopt and who is willing to take
some *extra steps* in following advice freely given, but it is not clear
from these messages that the OP followed even the simplest advice concerning
approaches to make in talking to the manager.  If I am being overly harsh
and the OP has more attempts than I realize from her messages, then I
apologize to her -- but *your* advice is *outrageous.*

MaryL

That's deceitful, dishonest and absolutely disgusting. Shelters don't refuse
adoption for the hell of it. They *want* to adopt cats. If a person is turned
down, there's a good reason for it.

Sherry