Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Working at an animal shelter - the hard part

There were a bunch of kitties missing this week from the shelter. Peanut, who'd been at the shelter a while and was one of my favourite kitties, found a home, and Twinkletoes, another sweet kitty who'd been there a while found a home, and the people who took her came in today looking for a friend for her, and I think will take Josie, another who's been here a while.

My other favourite kitty Silvia who was as sweet as sweet can be and quite shy, but wonderful once she gets to know you was also missing. I assumed she'd been adopted, but I found out from another volunteer that they'd put her down because she apparently bit someone. This is definitely the hardest part of working here. This kitty has been at the shelter since I started there, and I took to her from day one. She was such a cuddly cat, with big beautiful eyes, and when she was in her cage she would hide under her blanket, and you would just see her big green eyes looking at you. If you ignored her, a paw would come out and tap you to remind you she was there.

I find it very hard to believe she bit someone, and given her shy nature, I wonder if it was in self defence. Either way it's incredibly sad. It also makes me wonder if any other kitties were put down that I assumed had just found homes.

2 comments:

Cirque said...

Working at the shelter is very hard sometimes Sarah. I remember having to help euthanase the animals at times and it was heartbreaking.. But....it's kinder for them than dying of starvation or neglect.

If cats get put down for biting people I'm surprised my little Bella made it through the screening process. She's taken chunks out of me heaps of times.

Cirque said...

Sarah - would you mind having a look at this CR thread? I know this person has a different heart condition than you but would any of the research you've done be helpful for him?


http://www.coolrunning.com.au/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=001281;p=1#000017