Hey. Disposable people, disposable pets. Deal.
Bullshit.
No, make that [size=5] Bullshit.[.size]
I’ve got to agree with this. While on the surface it seems like a cruel thing, it may have been the only viable (or conceivable) option available at the time. Without more information, it’s impossible to know.
But I seriously doubt that the kids sat around and discussed “Gee, dad had a stroke, how can we be cruel to him?”
I volunteer at a local Humane Society as well and while it is true, as some people have pointed out, we don’t have enough information to determine if these people were being assholes or not, it is pretty tough to spend much time at a shelter and keep your faith in humanity intact.
There are some truly heartbreaking stories of people who have no choice but to surrender their pet and you can tell how torn up they are about it, but those stories tend to get overshadowed by the waste of air that brings in her black dog because she just got white furniture and his fur showed too much on it.
There’s a cat in the shelter now how is really fat, like over 20 pounds when she should be 10. Her people surrendered her because she was, and I quote, “taking up too much room in their apartment.” Never mind that they allowed her to become grossly obese, but then they give her away because of it? She a wonderful, friendly, affectionate beastie who would be a great companion for anyway.
Or how about my dog, who was with the same family since she was a puppy, but then they got a new puppy when she was 7. The new puppy bit her all over her body, badly, so… they gave away the dog they raised and kept the biting puppy. My dog is the sweetest canine that ever walked the earth, and boy was she traumatized. She’s also terrified of men, and she lived with 4 of them, so I wonder what her life was like. I’m glad she’s with me now.
Yeah, it’s hard to keep a bright outlook on humanity when you see the cavalier attitude with which some of them care for those who depend on them the most.
People who suffer strokes often have their memories affected in curious and not always apparent ways.
Do we know they didn’t tell him for certain? Is it possible all of this was discussed with him and his consent acquired and he has now entirely forgotten this conversation? If he suffered a stroke I would say such a thing is more than just possible.
Perhaps you expect that they should explain his memory failings to you, in front of him, and run the risk of making a difficult situation worse for him, but ease your mind.
I think I’m in the ‘possibly rushed to judgement’ camp on this one.
Is it possible they didn’t think their fathers recovery from a STROKE would be improved by fretting over what had happened to his cat?, is it possible that when all of this was happening the cat was the last thing that anyone was worrying about.
I mean when my gran had her stroke if she’d have had a pet cat we would have done our very best to find it a good home but it’s not actually that easy to rehome a 17 year old cat (and we have dogs) and every one was rather taken up with worrying about gran, If we had taken it to a shelter we certainly wouldn’t have told her straight away because she would have spent all the time when she needed to concentrate on getting better fretting about the cat (and this guy obviously was told what had happened when he got out of hospital).
Seems to me people are very quick to judge when they only have the sketchiest idea of what happened, and wishing people to hell over this just seems so far beyond reason as to be incredible.
My FIL is 81 and my MIL is 75.
They have two kittens they adopted this year and possibly the world’s dumbest dog.
(He’s very good natured but there just ain’t much gray matter between his ears.)
That said, we’ve made it very clear to them that if anything happens to either or both and they are unable to care for their animals, they’ll always have a good home with us.
I cannot imagine not taking in their crew because I wouldn’t want anything to add to their stress if they were ill.
This just seems so mean to me.
I find it hard to credit some of the thinking of the “apologists” here. I find it hard to believe that a man who has quickly after his release for treatment from a stroke looked up his pet couldn’t accept or remember that he’d been told his family had to take the cat to a shelter. I’ll admit it’s possible, but it seems unlikely if the man is coherent enough to find which shelter the cat is in, visiting it, and paying the adoption fees.
It’s possible it wasn’t the action of some very inconsiderate people. Or that it was the action of some people who were overwhelmed by events. But I think the most likely explaination is that anything else was too much effort on their part. :dubious:
Hey, at least they took the cat to the shelter, instead of dumping on the street. It’s still winter up here, and I doubt the cat would have lasted a full week on its own. Let’s give 'em that much credit, at least.
If I thought a 17 year old cat could survive such a journey, I’d be all over that idea. He probably wouldn’t, though. The kind of stress traveling does to even a healthy housecat is pretty monumental. I have a much better idea. I know a couple of people that live in N.Y. I will put an email to them to see if they want, or know anybody who could give a little sanctuary to a poor old guy who’s been around too long to live out his remaining days being dumped in a metal cage.
Hey, Faruiza…if you or anybody you know in town is interested, I have a family of cats living under my house that we have somehow “adopted.” They were hanging around the hedge when we first spotted them (Mom and three kittens.) I committed the cardinal “sin” of putting out food and water for the poor dears. Now they have moved under the house and are sleek and strong and growing like weeds. I would like to find them all good homes before I have to catch them and take them to Y.A.P.S. The kittens look to be maybe 6 months old. At least one is a male. We’d take them indoors and formally adopt them, but we already have two and they fill the house. Any takers?
I’m willing to bet that pictures would help. 
Yeah, I have two also that are filling up the house with two dogs, and everybody just learned how to get along. I figured a 17 year old couldn’t be enough trouble that I could say no…especially to his story. I would have given him his own room in the office if that’s what it took to make him comfortable. New kittens, though? My husband would kill me. I just know it. But I’ll put the word out!
Yeah – maybe they were all simultaneously stricken with aphasia, and thus have a legitimate excuse for not telling Grandpa and give him a chance to say goodbye. :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Yeah, it’s so much better to let him find out the way he did.
I swear, Dubya doesn’t have as many excuse-makers as these people.
Something that may ease some minds-- this is a no-kill shelter that houses the cats in apartments with big wooden tree-like climbing structures with cushions on them. At least Moses isn’t in a tiny little cage all alone.
I didn’t meet the gentleman who was Moses’ owner, but I think if he had the wherewithal to get to the SPCA and pay the cat’s fees, he’d remember if his children told them they were getting rid of his cat.
God, I wish I could see taking in a 6th cat, but if I start down that road, I’ll have 50 cats and I’ll be one of those women.
Moses sounds like a gem - I spent 10 minutes last night trying to convince ElzaHub to take him in (we’re in NE Ohio, so it sounds like we could’ve met in the middle), but with already having two needy cats and a baby on the way, it’s not something we can do right now 
.
I hope he finds a home soon. Will you keep us updated on him?
E.
Do you think that fretting about his cat would be decreased if the cat was suddenly gone, in a shelter somewhere? Would the man’s health be improved by not being able to say good bye to his companion of SEVENTEEN FUCKING YEARS?!? How would you feel if you had a stroke and your kids got rid of your cat without consulting you, right before they put your ass in a nursing home? When you still are cogent enough to realize that you need to pay his adoption fee so that he won’t languish away and die in there, unadopted?
I was being hyperbolic, but if there is a hell, these people should at least get a taste of it for screwing over the old guy and his old cat. SEVENTEEN YEARS is a long time to live with another being only to have that being shoved off into a place with strangers where no one loves him. My heart is broken for Moses and his man, and I don’t see how yours could not be.
You’re right. Much better to hop on the pillory bandwagon based on a sketchy second-hand account.
Saying that you are reserving judgement because there is not enough information is not the same thing as defending the children’s actions. It is saying that what has been presented here is a biased view with little information about the background of the situation. The OP is a huge appeal to emotion which, if taken at face value, elicits an understandable emotional response for a lot of people. Not taking the OP at face value =/= apologist for the children.
Some questions you might think about are: Who accepted this cat from people who did not own it, and why? Does any blame apportion to them? Did the children misrepresent the situation in any way? Did someone eventually tell Gramps that his cat was gone? If so, when? How did he find out where it was taken?
Finally, why are people showing sorrow for the pet owner’s loss, and not for the children who’s father just had a stroke? Can you not have sympathy for both? Despite what may be a poor judgement call.
The woman who runs the feline portion of the shelter seemed pretty disgusted by the whole thing, and she was the person on the scene for the whole thing. I’m not saying she’s not biased, but I don’t think she’d have negative feelings if she thought the people in question were behaving honorably. I have given here all the info I have, and I have a hard time imagining what would make it OK for these people to give away the old man’s cat before he could say good bye. I’m not accusing them of outright malice, but definitely of insensitivity. I’m not sure how one would even begin to defend them from that.
If you read the thread you’d see that Gramps was in fact told about the cat and came in to say good bye on his own. The shelter accepts cats and does not do background checks on everyone who bring a cat in. What would you have them do, tell these people, “No, we won’t take your father’s cat…” so then Moses could wind up in a much worse situation, like kicked out into the snow, neglected, or even euthanized. Turning Moses away would be worse than taking him, IMO.
They hold intakes for a while before they go into the shelter, also, so when Gramps came in, the cat was not adopted already. This insures that cats brought in as strays who are just lost can get back home, and to prevent people from maliciously bringing in other people’s cats without permission. In that in-between time was when Gramps got wind of the situation and came down to the shelter.
Start your own thread if you want to feel bad for the old man’s kids. This thread is about the old man losing his cat. I have infinitely more sympathy for Gramps and the cat than for the children in this situation, since Gramps and Moses are the ones who have lost someone they love through no fault or volition of their own.
I don’t have a dog in this fight (Well, I kind of do since my Great-Nana wasn’t told about her daughter dying and being buried until after the fact since G-Nana was sick and out of it; you do what you think is best), but surely people with a different point of view from an OP should respond in the same thread, not a new one??