Do I Judge Thee?

So a woman calls to inquire about surrendering her cat. Long story short, the indoor/outdoor cat with no cat door or litter box peed in a potted plant, therefore is no longer welcome in the home. After taking about 8 minutes to explain why she can no longer keep the cat, she asks me if I judge her harshly. I very cheerfully tell her that yes, I think she's a moron.  Her cat is far brighter than she is. After all, he reasoned that if he is supposed to do his business outside in plants and dirt, but the outside is not available to him in his time of need, then this nice pot of plants and dirt is a more viable alternative than the rug or pile of laundry.  (Ok, so I *politely* told her she was a moron, and didn't actually use the word "moron."  I do have *some* customer service skills!)

Jack Skellington.  Came into the shelter as a stray, thin and in poor condition.  He was a resident of my Hello Kitty room for a time.  Things were looking up here at the time of this picture when he decided to start eating, but ultimately he didn't make it.

Raggedy Andy came to us with a pretty nasty face wound.  I was so focused on the open drainage on the side of his face that I didn't even notice his jaw was broken at first.  Sweet cat, super thin.  So we ran him into the vet to have a feeding tube inserted.  When they insert the tube, they snap a quick x-ray to make sure it's placed correctly. What they found on the films surprised them!  Poor Andy had been shot in the head, and had numerous bullet fragments still in there.  So they cleaned out the ones they could get to, and reset his jaw.  Well, without wiring the jaw shut, the reset didn't hold, so he still had a crooked face.  Oh well...

This is Andy all set up in my Hello Kitty room with his feeding tube.  He was a delightful patient and guest, although he never lost his appetite, so he always wanted to eat the food out of the syringe instead of getting it squirted in his tube.  But we had to keep his mouth relatively clean to let it heal.  He was with me for a couple weeks, until he was able to eat sufficiently on his own and the tube could be removed.

After he returned to the shelter for adoption, he was quite a celebrity, and a volunteer favorite.  He was a TERRIBLY messy eater, since that poor jaw never quite worked the way it should.  He also never grew out of the name Raggedy, because he wasn't able to groom himself either.  So, he was a messy, greasy, but oh-so-affectionate kitty who eventually found a tolerant person to adopt him.

Sigh

We are a fully functioning animal shelter. Contrary to popular belief, we are not an animal theme park who's sole purpose is to provide entertainment and community service hours to students and sorority girls. If you ask why a dog is leaving, and I reply "it's been claimed by an owner," you should not be surprised. Or disappointed because it was cute and you wanted to play with it. Some areas of the shelter are purely functional, and of no interest to visitors or volunteers. There are no cats needing attention in the laundry room closet, nor will it provide you with access to other areas of the shelter that you cannot see an immediate and obvious path to. We also share a parking lot with a public dog park. If there was a dog out there that is now gone, it's because it went home with it's owner. I promise you it is not behind the "quarantine" sign.