Pets Are Forever

My Sophie Germain

Choosing to adopt a pet is a decision that will affect you throughout the animal's life (and probably your own). Once you've adopted a pet, their life is in your hands. That means you will take care of your pet, ensure it has a place to live, that it has food and water, that it goes to vet appointments, that it is neutered or spade, and that it has your attention and care.  You are their life companions.

In the last two weeks, I had several people on Facebook who were looking to rehome their pets before August 1 because they were moving and there was no availability in any of the no-kill shelters. They said that if they didn't find anyplace by the first of the month, their pet would be taken to a standard shelter, and since the standard shelters were full, their pet would be put down.

Let me make this clear:  throwing away a living creature is not an option. The only way it is acceptable to move into a no pets allowed location after you have adopted a pet is if you will literally be homeless if you don't do so. 

I do understand that circumstances might change. I adopted a dog while living with three cats, and after three months the cats were still so scared they would climb into the cupboards and piss in them because they were too afraid to go find their litter box. We didn't just dump Eddie at a shelter, we spent a few months finding a new home for him. 

So what happens when you got a new job and move to an expensive city where you can't find a decent apartment that allows pets? You move into a rat hole. 

My last place had a hole in the wall to the outdoors. They wouldn't fix the upstairs neighbor's toilet, so toilet water leaked on my head or back when I used my own toilet. I went several days a month without hot water. Drunks peed on my front door. My neighbors smoked so much I couldn't breath properly (at a recent doctor's appointment, she noted that it was the first time she'd ever seen me where I wasn't coughing up a storm from my situational asthma). I bitched about it non-stop. 

However, it was a price I could afford that allowed pets. If you need to move to a crappy apartment because you can't afford something nice that accepts pets, I would be happy to listen to your rants until you can afford to move on.

If you do decide to renege on your lifetime obligation, you make sure your pet has a place to go before you arrange to move into a place that won't accept pets. If that isn't possible, you stay at a hotel with your pet until the arrangements are made for your pet's new home. Throwing away animals is despicable. The folks that caused this rant are some of the same folks who were screaming about a dentist killing a lion; yet there they were ready to kill their cats and dogs.  I assume you would do this because you decided to date somebody who was allergic to your cat.  I'll be honest - my cat and I are a package deal because when I left the shelter with her, I promised her I would take care of her. In fact, I signed documentation at animal control stating I would do so.

I sometimes get annoyed because having cats and trying to get a decent apartment around here is almost impossible, but my cat is my responsibility. She is only 10 years old. I will be making all home decisions with her in mind for another decade. She gets hair on my clothes, has a new habit of scratching my furniture, and for no reason I can discover now only craps outside her litter box. However, I made a choice to adopt her in 2005, and she is mine for life. I'm lucky. My sister's cat has been peeing all over her house for years smile emoticon

If you can't financially handle a pet and pet food and licensing fees and vet trips and everything else, you don't get a pet. If finances become bad, stop buying new clothes and live on rice. I'm not kidding. You made a choice to be responsible for your pet, so you do whatever it takes to make sure that pet is cared for.

Oh. And the same applies to humans. You decide to get one of those and the same rules apply.

Jan 2028 Update: Talk about being a privileged idiot when I wrote this.  Damn. 

Besides, you need know when you'll need a backgammon partner.

Kitty

Sophie cat lives with me now. She is not happy that my computer is making music, but she is beginning to forgive me for the eight hour drive to a place that smells of three cats she has never met.

Sophie: named after Sophie Germain, the mathematician.

Kitties!

I miss having cats around. I left them in NY when I moved back to Arizona. I don't miss the scent of a kitty box wafting up in the morning that says, "Ahhhh, guess what hasn't been done in a few days!"

Here is my Sophie-girl playing her kitten games in 2006:

She's still up for a rousing game of backgammon when the board comes out even though she's about six years old.  For some reason, I can't seem to get the photos of her and Carolan off my iPhone and onto my blog right now. I will get them up here later, though. When my technology is working, you will be amazed at my beautiful kitties!

I keep telling myself that I will volunteer at a local shelter, but I don't do it because I might get an unexpected phone call from a client that would interfere with my volunteer hours. It has happened several times already that I have been on my way out the door and a client has asked me to please take care of something. I think it's part of working for myself - I promised them that I was available at any time except the middle of the night (which I sometimes end up doing anyway since I have international clients), so I need to be available when they ask.

 So I dream of kittens and drive the cats crazy when I visit friends.I can imagine visiting Italy one day and stopping at places like The Cat Sanctuary for a kitty fix while I wander the ruins.

Of course, I have been reading Paws and Effect  for years. I do so love Dahlia, Thomas, and Siouxsie's stories (the cats who write the blog). They also have a Facebook page. Today I discovered Catsperella  and think that her Cat Cupcake Tuesdays might just lead me to insanity with my dreams of delicious and gorgeous cupcakes!

There are cat fixes out there for folks like me, but it's still not the same as having my Sophie-Girl curled up beside me while I work. I even miss Carolan who is so mean and chases her away so that I have to beg her to come back then defend my lap from Carolan for as long as she wants to stay! I will pet him or I will pet her, but I will not abide with him forcing her off my lap when he had no interest in being there until she got the courage to join me! He might be ten pounds heavier than her, but that does not give him the right to force her to stay away from me. It's bad enough that he won't let her nap with me anymore (well, wouldn't let her nap with me anymore).

RIP, Bailey, my knitting kitty.