The Newby

With all the excitement and snow I forgot that I had an announcement!

On Saturday, I went out to check out shelters. I was going to breeze in and breeze out because my heart wasn't completely into it and I understood that kittens are out of season right now. I went as part of my continuing Keep Busy! campaign and the fact that my grief counselor was going home the next day and  Dogger was way behind on her purring coursework

There was a Tex shaped hole in my chest and it hurt.

I was not going back to Garner and their Sheltermahal , which is a pity, because they had a lot of kittens there and the facilities are fabulous,  I have also in the past really liked going in there and visiting with the animals.  I wonder if I should write someone a letter?

To Whom it May Concern:

I came to your lovely facility looking for a kitten. I have been in the past a semi-frequent visitor and I enjoyed playing with the animals. My eleven year old cat recently passed on and I wanted to see if I was ready for a new companion. I just wanted to visit with the kittens that were available and  I was not, as far as I was concerned, going to be adopting an animal on that day. I had thought I could just see the cats to see where I was in the healing process.

 Instead I had to fill out a sheaf of papers and then had to defend my opinions on pet care with a hostile, agenda driven volunteer before I was even allowed to see the kittens. I  might suggest that Wake County and the City of Garner do more frequent customer service training, more closely supervise your volunteers and perhaps step up your screening process and maybe introduce a psych eval component  with your prospective volunteers.

As a  pet adoption candidate, I felt the pre-visit inquisition was presumptive as well as counter-productive. I might have understood such a conversation if I had found my animal companion but even then, I do not see that  snidely accusing  the  pool of  potential adopters of wantonly participating in kitten torture is be the best way of getting animals out of the shelter and into "forever homes" .

I did finally get to see the kittens, but after my run in with the Gran Inquisitor,  I was so wounded and upset I  really  was no longer in the frame of mind to properly visit with the kittens. I was also afraid that if I did find a kitten I did find a connection with, that I would have to spend more time with that girl and her PETA scripted vitriol and I couldn't face more of that abuse. Perhaps if I did not feel so violated by my interview I may have found my kitten companion.

The good news is,  a week later I went to another much less homey and inviting shelter and  was able to give a homeless animal a forever home and no one accused me of vivisection.


Sincerely,


Diana

No one can take Tex's' place in my heart, and the hole he left will never be filled but I did find a new friend who can take up some of the space.

His name is Ace and he is the cutest, sweetest little baby kitten evah. He's so tiny and I have socks that weigh more than he does. I didn't want to get another tuxedo kitty after Tex, but there he was! I tried to visit with a little marmie kitten a few cages over, but she screamed the whole time I was trying to hold her. When I went to his cage he jumped into my arms and purred.  I didn't put him down all weekend.  He's happy all the time and the whole world is his toy box.  Even his little poo is cute.