Awaiting Bébé : Taking on a Foster Cat

On the 30th of August, my long time cat companion crossed the Rainbow Bridge. He was the last of three brothers that I had gotten from a local breeder; the end of a line, so to speak. After almost twenty years with my 'boys', I'm not all that comfortable with the thought of a strange cat coming into my life. If my breeder was still operating, maybe I'd go and get another boy from the same line - or maybe I wouldn't. As far as I am concerned, getting a pet means taking on a permanent responsibility. I am in it for the life-span of the animal, so I had better be ready financially, physically, and emotionally. Right now I am 'none of the above'.

Unfortunately, there are pet owners who don't take their responsibilities so seriously. As soon as the medical bills start coming in, or a new boyfriend or baby comes along, the pet gets dumped. During peak moving season, our pounds and shelters are filled to maximum capacity with pets who were abandoned when their owners moved into apartments and other dwellings that do not permit pets. Dumping your pet because you chose to rent in a building that doesn't allow you to bring them along is about the shallowest thing a person can do, as far as I am concerned. If the building doesn't allow you to bring your pet with you, then rent somewhere else. It's that simple. Don't blame the landlords for not accepting pets; blame pet-owners for viewing their pets as disposable when moving time comes along.

Bébé was surrendered to the local pound by his owners who cited what seems to be the new blanket reason for abandoning Persian and other high-maintenance cats these days: they claimed that they didn't 'have time' for him anymore. What makes Bébé's abandonment utterly outrageous is the fact that he is ten years old. After ten years in a loving home, where he was obviously well cared-for, he was simply dumped at the local animal control facility. Can you imagine the horror Bébé must have felt when his owners turned their backs on him and walked away? At a time when his life was entering it's final phase, a time when he should have been loved to death, he suddenly found himself all alone in a cage at the pound.

Bébé took the abandonment hard, and quickly became sick. The pound wanted to adopt him out quickly due to his depression, however since he'd fallen ill, he could not be placed in a multi-pet household. So, to make a long story short, I ended up offering to foster him if an organization could be found that would be willing to take him on. I feel that poor Bébé can find a more suitable home than mine given time, for the reasons mentioned above, but I am more than willing to care for him while he waits. A local group stepped up to the plate, and we are now only waiting on the pound to release him. Unfortunately, just as he was about to be released into our care earlier this week, the supervising vet diagnosed an injured cornea, and the pound decided not to release him until there was an improvement in his condition.

So now we are awaiting Bébé's arrival. The rescue organization and I are hoping that he will be released early next week, so that he can complete his recovery in a home-environment.

While we do not know that exact reasons for Bébé's abandonment, I suspect that he might have belonged to someone who passed on, or was incarcerated or hospitalized. Their family then 'inherited' poor Bébé, and may have even tried to care for him for a time. Sadly, it was too much for them, and so they abandoned him. I hope that that was the case, at least. It would mean that Bébé's owner could not control what happened to him. If that was the case, then it also highlights how important it is to have a next-of-kin lined up who is willing to step into your shoes and care for your pet for the rest of his/her life.

I hope that this was not just another case of someone getting a new boyfriend who doesn't like cats, or a new baby arriving that is 'more important' than kitty. How awful and cruel to be abandoned because your owner found something that they believe to be more important than you!

I would like to take this opportunity to stress a few important facts about pet abandonment, and blow up a few myths:

1. Breeders are not the problem. The people who buy from breeders and then abandon their pets when it is no longer convenient to have them, are the problem.

2. High adoption fees 'prove' that a perspective family is serious and committed. If people who have paid 400$ and more for pets that they have purchased through breeders abandon them - and believe me, they do - then the price people pay for a pet isn't indicative of how committed they are to those pets. My sister has a houseful of strays that she took in without paying a cent, and hell will freeze over before she allows any one of them to go without or be abandoned again.

3. "Breeders are evil and are churning out billions of kittens and puppies at a time in order to make wads of cash." Contrary to that popular belief, responsible, registered breeders put a lot of effort and money into their breeding programs, and get very little out of them financially. Serious breeders don't breed in order to put kittens on the market; their programs are directed primarily at producing show-winning cats (or dogs)and establishing a recognizable line. They only sell those puppies and kittens that are not show-quality, or are not going to be used in their breeding programs, and insist that they are spayed or neutered as part of the conditions of sale. They breed their animals once a year on average, and litters tend to be small (sometimes only a single kitten). They also do not breed animals with illnesses or congenital defects (if they know about them). There are non-professional breeders who disregard these ethics, but even these are not the source of the problem when it comes to pet-abandonment. As I have said above: the problem lies with pet owners themselves.

4. People who think it is 'cruel' to spay or neuter their pets, and/or let run free to go about impregnating, or get impregnated by, other people's pets. Female cats and dogs are not 'missing out on something' if they don't have litters, nor are male cats all that concerned about having their testicles cut off. Owners who believe they are, are only projecting their own fears on to their pets. "I've got big balls, and so does my dog!" Yeah, let's save that for the psychiatrist... .

Pet abandonment can be avoided. People need to understand that if they are not ready to view their commitment to their pet as " 'Till death does us part", then they are not ready to get a pet. Sure, things happen. You can lose your job, and end up unable to feed and care for your pet, in which case finding someone else who can is sensible, but the truth is that most abandonments have nothing to do with that. So think before you buy, and don't buy if you're not ready to commit!

Image: Pixabay