Tag: ARL

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Sandy Cats

Here is a video from IFAW, featuring Bill from the Animal Rescue League of Boston:

Rescue technicians Bill and Mark are back in Boston now, in part due to the well-organized animal relief efforts.

I’ve seen a number of news articles about animal disaster relief and it’s shocking how many people in the comments sections say that the owners don’t deserve their animals back after they abandoned them. During an emergency, it can be extremely difficult to take pets along. Some authorities won’t let you take them; many shelters won’t admit you with cats or dogs (this has started to change since Hurricane Katrina, but still persists). Continue reading “Sandy Cats”

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Whiskers, the “Old” Cat

Whiskers at Shelter“How do you not want to take them all home?”

It’s a common question I get while working in the adoption center. And truth of the matter is, I just don’t.

Maybe it’s because I know that they’re all going to get adopted eventually, most of them going to homes far better than my own. It’s not sad for me, seeing all the caged cats in adoption. For me, it’s a place of transition. Once a cat is in adoption, they’ve gone through the worst of it—abandonment by a previous owner, or a heartbreaking farewell, or life on the streets, or abuse, or whatever led them to be in a shelter. Things can only get better from here. So I don’t feel the need to take every animal home, because they’re already on their way home.

Sure, there are always favorites—cats that you try extra hard to get adopted (currently, mine is Princess;  update: Princess has finally been adopted!)—and it’s always extra satisfying when they finally make it out the door.

But then there are the select few, the ones that really take your breath away, the ones that you’d take home with you in a heartbeat, if only you could take them home. It’s different than the cats that I would happily adopt, if I didn’t already have two cats. (Between Smirnoff’s hatred of all cats other than Bacardi and my own allergies, as well as being a poor graduate student, two is all I can manage.) Those are cats you miss when they’re gone, but in a happy way. No, what I’m talking about is something else: the cats whose lives really touch you, who you’ll never ever forget for as long as you work at the shelter. Cats that you try really hard in your head to figure out a way to take them home and make it work, even though it’s impossible. There have only been two of these cats for me over the past two years, and they both hold special places in my heart. Continue reading “Whiskers, the “Old” Cat”