Thanks

I guess maybe it's different for cats, but if I found someone returning a dog to a shelter at after 4 months, I'd rip their fucking throat out.

*requeue this NOW! Mary, Win some votes!!!

Re-queueing this video for one more try; last queued Sunday, October 7th, 2007 6:25am PDT - requeue requested by submitter Issykitty.

Discarding this video. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 4 days.

Fer cryin' out loud. Someone *promote this adorable vid.

Promoting this video and sending it back into the queue for one more try; last queued Thursday, October 11th, 2007 2:59am PDT - promote requested by dystopianfuturetoday.

jonny, she didn't adopt the cat and dump it. She's a part of their foster program and did the cat and any future owner a huge favor. Young animals come into shelters all the time and the pound normally won't release them for adoption until they've been spayed or neutered. An animal that spends that first month or two with little human contact won't bond as easily or make as good a pet as one which has been socialized so that's what she does.

What she's doing could easily be heartbreaking, loving an animal to offer it a better chance then giving it up to another owner, it's worth admiring rather than condemning. Dog or cat.

drattus - didn't you just publicly excoriate me for doing what you just did there? I understand very well that she's part of a foster program. I've fostered a few dogs myself, and the ones for which we couldn't find homes stayed with me. I guess my point was that if someone is either unable or unwilling to take that last step if necessary (adoption), they shouldn't be fostering the animals. Her time might be better spent helping in other ways - donations, adoption promotion, volunteering at the shelter (she probably already does). I'm sure her heart is in the right place.

The point about it maybe being different for cats is that I suspect (but don't really know of any hard data) that cats are more likely to be adopted than dogs as they get older. But again, I really don't know.

jonny, you got two downvotes with no comment as to why. So I mentioned it and didn't downvote it, and that's a bad thing?

I honestly think you're a good guy somewhere under it but you judge damned quickly, harshly, and based on your standards as if they are the only legitimate ones. Step back a second and think about it.

If she already has cats she can't keep adopting them forever, there's a limit to how much any person can do. By adopting one more she saves just one. Most people who adopt an animal don't have the skills or the time to work with a difficult one and difficult they are likely to be if not around people between weening and old enough to spay. If it's adopted and returned months older because it's difficult its chances of seeing a needle to end its life is that much greater, it's the young who get adopted fast and the older ones often die.

By doing what she's doing she offers not one animal but many of them a better chance to find permanent homes as well as offering them a home for that time instead of a cage alone in a shelter. If you honestly understood the situation and still think that's worth "I'd rip their fucking throat out" as you put it I don't know what to tell you other than you might want to examine some priorities. You've got a lot of potential to do good things and are often enough on the right track in intent at least, but the good isn't really going to come if you can't see others points of view as well as your own. You've put yourself in their shoes if you can and explain things from a point of view they can understand to convince them, not judge them based on your point of view.

[edit] Removed OT personal bs - apologies Issy.

>> ^drattus:
If she already has cats she can't keep adopting them forever, ...

Like I said, maybe it's different for cats. But I've never known a dog that was maladjusted because it spent the first few months of its life in a shelter. Keeping a dog for 4 months, though, and then returning after a bond has been formed can be very damaging to a dog. It's a good way to induce abandonment issues, thus increasing the likelihood the dog will be returned by the eventual adopter.

As for ripping out throats, as I told Issy that day, the likelihood of my going through with such a thing is even more remote than the chance that I could physically pull it off. It was an expression born of a bad day. That and Vick was all over the news at the time.

Dogs are easier in that way, they like people more to start with. Some cats do and some cats don't, if they have little human contact when young it's harder for them to like us as much as a hand raised kitten would because they are more independent to start with. Even the ones who might adapt would be better off for the time with company rather than alone. Maybe with some it is a matter of they'd adapt or be returned, maybe with others they'd just be happier and more social, depends on the cat to a point, but in both cases they'd be better off for her efforts or at least a decent argument could be made for the point. A good enough one that the note seemed harsh and anger at what she does misplaced.

If the note was just born of a bad day we might as well leave it there, and I'm glad you took the rest to PM.