Two years ago . . .
Imagine your name is Susie. You’re a beautiful long hair, cream colored kitty with loving owners — until they moved last month and left you behind. (Reason unknown. It makes no difference, really, to Susie.) Fortunately, a neighbor (Mr. Jones) starts putting out food and Susie’s pretty content sleeping under his deck. As winter comes on, Mr. Jones fears Susie will be cold so he takes her to the local shelter, Louisville Metro Animal Services (LMAS), thinking she’d be warm and dry and will find a new home. Susie is now in a cage and VERY scared. She sits in the cage for several days (as there is no room at the adoption facility right then), gets very stressed and then gets sick. Some days later, shelter staff, horrified at their limited options, euthanize her as she is too scared and too sick to go up for adoption and that is their only option for her. Mr. Jones’ good intentions backfire. Susie is dead.
Fast forward to today . . .
Susie’s story and Mr. Jones’ efforts are the same. Mr. Jones brings Susie to the local shelter, LMAS, thinking she’d be warm and dry there and would find a new home. This time, the options are wildly different!
One, she could go up for adoption. We saw how that worked two years ago and that scenario hasn’t changed much — a cage, stress, sick, euthanized. (Shelters and cats often just DON’T do well together, no matter how hard we try). This is not to say that NO cat makes it to the adoption option . . . it is just that many, many do not . . . and it isn’t in the cards for Susie. Fortunately, Susie now has option two as a possibility!
Two, there is now a local Working Cat Program, run by the Kentucky Humane Society, where cats that don’t make it to the adoption floor have the option of being placed on a farm, at a warehouse, or in a garden shop to help keep the mouse population down. It may not be the greatest of options for Susie — she’ll be outside and in a new place with dangers she isn’t aware of — but we think she’d prefer it over the dead option! And if that isn’t lucky enough, check out Susie’s option three!
Three, and this is the best of all! Mr. Jones discusses his love of Susie and how he wants the best for her. Staff at LMAS discuss unlikely adoption, scary rehoming to another outside home, or going back to live with Mr. Jones, spayed as part of Operation City Kitty, with ideas on how to build a warm shelter and local cat food banks to help keep her well fed. Mr. Jones welcomes Susie home two days later, spayed, vaccinated, and they are BOTH so happy she is home!