I was unsure if I should cry or be furiated when I read the OP.
That is sick. I’m so glad she got a good yelling at, kudos to the yeller!
Did the woman have some sort of mental condition? Or just ignorant?
Does she not see the idiocy of her actions?
I hope Mista Kitty will be okay.
Oh! And reprise Nice touch!
Although this case is worse than most, it’s sadly all too common. I worked as a vet assistant for a few years until we moved, and we saw stuff that would just make your hair stand on end on a pretty regular basis. Horrible, heartbreaking, stomach-churning stuff that started as a minor problem and had been neglected. And it was always the same fucking story: It just started yesterday. Sure, your dog’s lost 15 pounds, but he just started losing his appetite yesterday. Of course.
And no, often enough these people DON’T see the idiocy of their actions. It’s usually a mixture of ignorance and apathy rather than actual malice, but that doesn’t excuse it.
That’s great news, gandhi. Glad to hear that the other animals are no longer in her “care.”
I don’t understand why she’d have four animals in relatively good condition and then this cat…maybe she just didn’t realize how bad the cat was.
My kitty hid under the bed for two days, and I couldn’t figure out why. Everytime I tried to drag him out, he’d bite me and cry. So I brought him food and water and such, but after two days, I finally lifted up the bed and wrapped him in a towel to look at him…one of his hind paws had a bad cut on it and was all swollen. I took him to the vet and the vet told me that it was quite common for cats to hide away when they’re in pain. I felt terrible for poor Kitty, that he was in pain for two days, but I didn’t know! I thought I was being cruel to Kitty by forcing him from under the bed when he didn’t want to come out.
He’s fine now, except he’s a bit overweight, but I still feel terrible about it.
I don’t understand why she’d have four animals in relatively good condition and then this cat…maybe she just didn’t realize how bad the cat was.
My kitty hid under the bed for two days, and I couldn’t figure out why. Everytime I tried to drag him out, he’d bite me and cry. So I brought him food and water and such, but after two days, I finally lifted up the bed and wrapped him in a towel to look at him…one of his hind paws had a bad cut on it and was all swollen. I took him to the vet and the vet told me that it was quite common for cats to hide away when they’re in pain. I felt terrible for poor Kitty, that he was in pain for two days, but I didn’t know! I thought I was being cruel to Kitty by forcing him from under the bed when he didn’t want to come out.
He’s fine now, except he’s a bit overweight, but I still feel terrible about it.
Looks like Mrs. Bitch is Rebel’s mother.
I hope kitty is doing better.
Wow.
Just, fucking, wow.
The fact that the ailing kitty tried to nuzzle its idiot owner is the worst. That awful human barely qualifies for inclusion with the species. I almost cried right there.
I just can’t understand this kind of neglect. Our cat was sick with a gastrointestinal problem a month or so ago, and you couldn’t keep us away from the vet. We visited three times in two days before deciding to check him in to the vet’s animal hospital. We knew it was probably just a flu bug (complete with el-stinkaroonie diarrhea), but he wasn’t eating or drinking and we didn’t want to take the risk.
Two days later, he still wasn’t eating for the vet, but we came in with some baby-food turkey paste, and he slurped it right down. The vet tech was looking over our shoulder: “Boy, he sure is a one-family cat, isn’t he?”
We took him home the next day, and he’s fine now. We were afraid he would punish us (he has a tendency to be squirrelly after we come back from an overnight trip), but somehow, he knew that we were taking care of him and that we were happy to have him back. Ever since then, he’s started sleeping on the bed right next to my wife’s shoulder instead of way down by our feet like he used to do.
I just cannot fathom this degree of neglect. Assuming she gets nailed to the wall for animal abuse, is there any facility for checking up on her to verify she hasn’t acquired any more animals to mistreat? Can a letter be sent to area veterinarians to put her on a watch list? Sort of like, don’t take this person’s check, but specifically, this person isn’t supposed to have animals.
Because you know, first thing she’s going to do is go get some more.
Jesus, this is depressing.
Perhaps she was intimidated by the Vets office and wanted to convey that that this wasn’t a major job so that the vet wouldn’t be concerned about the degree of work and put her off.
Were the buses running to her home in the evening? They don’t in my area
Just a little obvious exageration, but a tight fit in a carriers is not uncommon, though it bothers me to see it.
Could it be that Mrs. SB is on limited income and had to wait for her next cheque?
Seriously, was euthanasia not an option?
I hope the doctor felt better.
That will teach her to look after strays and take them to the vet when needed.
I do not take issue with your horror at the situation, but that the woman does seek vetrinary help, and does look after her pets otherwise just doesn’t add up. There has got to be some mitigating circumstances in this case.
That statement makes me want to barf! That woman should serve jail time. People like her have no brains whatsoever. These are living things here and they don’t deserve to be treated like that! See how you’d like half your face hanging off! I simply cannot stand or understand people who abuse animals. Anybody who does shows what kind of character they have, and it isn’t good.:mad:
grienspace, most vets are more than willing to work with someone on money and time constraints for the welfare of the animal. According to the OP, this woman paid for the surgery and 10 days hospitalization up front, so I seriously doubt money was an issue. She’d had her animals into that clinic in the past, so the argument that she’s intimidated by the vet’s office doesn’t really wash, either.
To add to her shameful neglect of this poor animal, she then LIED about the staff refusing to get her in sooner. This is not some poor, misunderstood person trying to do the best they can. This is selfish, horrible bitch willfully letting an animal under her care suffer.
Well, it’s an ill wind that blows nobody good, and the one redeeming quality about this event is that it give me an opportunity to say “I agree totally and wholeheartedly with His4Ever!!” 
However, although it’s modified by the note in gandhi’s later post that she has previously postponed getting adequate care, I do see a point to what grienspace had to say – this animal was a stray, and she did have the option of totally ignoring it and letting it crawl off somewhere to die.
The bottom line question here is “Is it better to give inadequate and too-long-delayed care than no care at all?” Granted that she ought to have brought it in right away – Barb and I cannot afford a vet right now, but we’d jump if we encountered a cat in similar shape, telling the vet that it’s a stray, we cannot afford to pay for its care at present, but could not bear to leave it to suffer – and leave him to figure out what to do about the financial end of things. (I suspect most animal-care organizations have funding for treatment of strays in similar circumstances; does anybody know?)
“Put her off” what? Her feed? Conveying to the vet that it is a serious situation needing immediate attention – i.e., “an emergency” – does not result in the vet worrying about “the degree of work” and “putting off” the job – it results in getting immediate attention because the situation is, y’know, an emergency. What are the vets like in your world?:
NURSE: There’s a guy with a dog out here that’s been hit by a car. It’s in severe respiratory distress and has multiple broken bones.
VET: Well, shit. That’s going to be a lot of work. Dang. Well, just have him sit out there for a half hour or so. Tell him we’re really busy. Maybe he’ll just go away.
When you bring something into your home, it becomes your responsibility. From what I gather in the op, she didn’t see the cat injured, take it home and then neglect it. Rather, she had taken it in, then it got hurt, and she neglected it. If you can’t handle the responsibility of something, don’t take it. She could have taken it to a shelter or dropped it off at a vet’s. Sadly, it may have meant the animal would be put down, but considering the suffering she allowed it, would that have been so much worse? At least at a shelter, it would have had a chance at adoption by someone who cared.
I’m not sure about in the US, but here both the Animal Welfare League and the RSPCA will provide veterinary care for animals whose owners cannot afford the cost (you pay them off a little at a time as you can afford it) or strays (not only will they treat the stray, they’ll also find a new home for it).
Few private vets will make such arrangements these days unless it’s for a long-term customer - but there are still many other options.
The fact that the customer referred to the cat as an indoor/outdoor former stray suggests that she hadn’t just found it.
For once, you and I agree on something.
Poor baby kitty. sniff sniff
Excellent, better than the doctors. When my German Shephard was poisoned late in the evening, The vet got to the clinic before I did and saved him. That episode cost almost $1000.00
I’m just very disturbed by this woman. If she cared enough to bring the cat in she does have empathy. I can understand teenagers getting a laugh from burning a cat because I’ll simply conclude they’re psychopaths. But I suspect that this woman is socially immature. What sane secure person is going to pay in advance for services to someone who’s just yelled at them to the extent reported ? Obviously easily intimidated. Who knows, perhaps the vet requires pets to be in a carrier when entering the clinic. If you or I don’t have one we go anyways, but there are people who will feel compelled to wait until they have a carrier.
Just being the devil’s advocate folks. Lets find out if the cheque bounces.
I dunno, GRIEN. She’s “socially immature.” She’s “obviously easily intimidated.” She didn’t bring the cat in earlier because she didn’t have a carrier. (Had to make that one up out of whole cloth, didn’t you?)
It seems to me you shouldn’t have to work that hard to excuse the behavior or a woman who almost killed a cat. I mean, I can see being a devil’s advocate, but what are you advocating for?
What am I advocating for? Perhaps a little wait and see before we all condemn her all to hell.
how did the cat get cut in the first place?
I think Mrs. Stupid Bitch should be shot in the head with a ball of her own shit. You don
t do taht to living things.
I want to concur with everyone else regarding my reaction of absolute horror and revulsion. This woman shouldn’t ever be allowed to own a pet. EVER.
And if you would do me a favor, ghandi? Please convey my deepest admiration to the veterinarian that verbally ripped Mrs. Stupid Bitch a new orifice. Not everyone would have bawled someone out in public like that, and in this case, a little public humiliation of this woman was completely justified.