I can totally guarantee that I would’ve snapped her up in a heartbeat. Even with behaviour issues that need to be coaxed out of her! I really, really, really would love to have an Elkhound!
Oh give me a freaking break - you’re upset because he returned his cat to a shelter after deciding that it was not going to work out?
Here’s a perspective - sometimes people adopt animals b/c they think they may want one. Sometimes they discover its too much a committment, or their lifestyle changes, or the damn animal won’t respond to training.
THE HUMANE THING TO DO IS TO RETURN IT TO THE FUCKING SHELTER
he didn’t abandon it or dump it in the wild
he didn’t hurt it or kill it
he didn’t keep it (a good thing, in light of the fact that they would never get along).
He simply didn’t want a nuisance animal anymore. Was it a poor decision to get one in the first place? Sure. Did he do something inhumane? No.
Get some perspective, people. Its a fucking cat, and he did the best thing for it and him.
I don’t see a problem with getting rid of a pet that causes problems. I mean, yes, ideally you take on a pet for life, but there are times when the situation warrants finding a new home for the animal or even taking it to the Humane Society.
It isn’t like he took it out to the country and let it out. He did the responsible thing and took it somewhere that it could possibly find a home.
You guys act like he maimed a baby. It’s just a cat. Relax.
I’m actually happy this guy gave the cat away. Shaving your cat and/or throwing things at it (whether it’s balled socks or not) in retaliation for normal cat behavior is very creepy behavior. Or at least childish and immature. That is what I would be ending the relationship over rather than the act of just giving it back to the shelter.
We had to take a cat back to the no-kill shelter where we had gotten her after just 2 weeks. She also wasn’t a good fit. She spent the entire time cowering under our bed, and peed and pooped on the floor, rather than the litter box (she wasn’t a kitten that didn’t know how to use the box, she was a couple of years old). She hissed at us, and bit both me and my daughter.
We’ve gotten two other cats from the same shelter, and they’re wonderful.
We also recently took in a purebred lab from some a friend of a friend of a friend who just “didn’t want her any more,” whatever the hell that means. She’s a gorgeous dog, 3 years old and full of life. She lived with cats before, so she likes our two cats, and is completely housebroken. She’s not spayed, so we’ll have to get that done (she went into heat right after we got her, and should be finishing that up soon - what an ordeal!).
She’s so sweet and loving. I can’t imagine the thought process of someone just not wanting her anymore.
One of my co-workers got a 6 week terrier mix puppy last December as a birthday present for his 2 year old. He was surprised that the pup and the baby didn’t get along (in fact the two year old shrieked when he put him the puppy in the crib), so Asshat put the pup outside with a full grown beagle and Bassett Hound.
For some reason he assumed that big dogs love little puppies- some do, some don’t, but you don’t just toss one into the mix. Instead the pup, all four pounds of him, got the hell beaten out of him and still has scars from it. Asshat “protected” him by putting him in a cardboard box on his house’s porch, outside, in December for two nights.
So the puppy- tiny, away from his mom and litter-mates for the first time, first thrown into a crib with a shreaking kid, then outside with two dogs who attacked him, then left all alone in a box in the cold. His owner was a co-worker who told me “Yeah, I’m just gonna take him to the shelter and leave him. It’s almost Christmas so he’ll get taken.” (Maybe so, if he didn’t have fresh scars and wasn’t scared to death.) “Unless you want him…”
I had no desire for a dog and said as much. My life’s complicated enough with just me in it.
“How bout I bring him by on my way to the shelter? If you don’t like him I’ll just keep takin’ him on.”
Fine, whatever, but I can’t afford a dog moneywise or timewise.
So he brings by this, a trembling little guy on his way to definite trauma and possible death. Sometimes I’m a total idiot.
Ollie weighs 15 pounds now, has the largest ears I’ve ever seen on any creature (as far as proportion goes), and his shyness lasted the better part of the first night. Now he’s an unholy little wired terror, but in a very sweet way.
Last year I got a rat terrier for my mother who, after his first owner died, had been given to an old relative who punished him by pinching him so hard he was bald in some places and who kept him locked in a squirrel cage so small he couldn’t stand up or turn around. I got him from another relative who had “liberated” him from the old person and couldn’t keep him around or the jig would be up, but since my mother lives in another state there’s little chance of it being found out. In any case, he’s now one of the sweetest (and unfortunately the fattest) dogs I’ve ever known.
I get SSOOOOOOOO PISSED at people who aquire animals and treat them like they were Beanie Babies- “just throw him over there and if he’s at all inconvenient we’ll toss him out with the garbage”. Bastards.