The Wild and Absolutely True Adventures of Meg: Kitten Season

Saturday, July 09, 2011

Kitten Season

I spent my Saturday surrounded by kittens.

This is not a bad way to spend a Saturday.

Today was my day to help out with Adoption Day, and when I arrived, it was already chaos. One of our foster moms, Rovi, was already on hand, and had dropped her two boys in their condo for the day. They were merrily wrestling and jumping from great heights to kitten-bomb each other. Rovi and I chatted for a minute as a couple of young teenage boys walked through, loudly saying, "CATS!" Then I noticed another lady standing nearby with a carrier. I hadn't seen her before but thought she might be another foster mom, there to drop off her charge for Adoption Day.

No.

She launched into the usual sob story. She's been feeding the stray and feral cats in her neighborhood, and she had this one "spay-ded," and she just can't take care of them all, and the city and county won't help her, and she needs us to take this sweet little cat, and she really is a sweet little cat, etc. etc. I put on my sympathetic face and said, "We are unable to take any more cats right now. We've had to turn a lot of people away." I gave her the usual spiel. It's been a bad kitten season. Last year was bad, too. We have a ton of cats and kittens and our foster homes are all overfull.

Yes, but she has done so much and had all these cats "spay-ded," and it's too much for her, and--

I offered her a list of other area agencies that might be able to help, and suggested she call around to see if anyone else could take the cat for her.

Oh, but she's spent so much time on the phone, and, oh, the cat needs cuddling so she takes it out of the carrier and cuddles the poor frightened thing and before I know it, she's sitting in one of our chairs complaining of her bad back and how she just can't take care of this cat anymore, she has too many at home.

Clearly, nothing I am saying is reaching this woman.

Rovi happened to be on the phone with Marian, our adoption coordinator, who was on her way to PetCo at that moment. Through some subtle sign language and point-blank "HELP ME" signals at Rovi, we got Marian speaking to Mrs. Me Me MEEEEE.

My relief was short-lived. The noisy teenage boys had moved on (thank goodness, as I was feeling overwhelmed and short on patience), but Mrs. MMM was talking a mile a minute at poor Marian--who is quite good at handling these people.

Finally, she hung up and handed Rovi her phone back. A moment later, Marian arrived, and Mrs. MMM started in about not having any options, and how can we not help her, and what is she going to do?!! She doesn't want this cat KILLED by the county animal control. And she's just lost her husband and had back surgery and she needs so much help because she has done SO MUCH by having half a dozen cats "spay-ded" and we are supposed to be here to help her and only her and that is that. We have to take this cat.

Well, that was the gist of it, anyway.

Marian, bless her, was not in the mood to take the bullshit. Shaking, choked up and near tears, she said, "I take twenty phone calls a day from people looking to surrender a cat to us, and it breaks my heart to tell them no...but I have no choice. I have no place for all these cats. We. Are. Full." She started walking back out to get some things from her car, and as she left she stopped and turned around.

"Please, please don't lay a guilt trip on my volunteers over this."

Well, that was that. Mrs. MMM couldn't believe she'd been spoken to like this. Her husband has died and she's got a bad back and she's done so much for these cats and she just needs a little help. Rovi and I tried to placate her and remind her--again--that we all want what is best for the cats, but we are overwhelmed with unwanted cats and we simply cannot save them all. And yes, this little cat is sweet, and she sure is pretty, but there are so many pretty, sweet, homeless cats and we are full...

The store manager, a strong ally of AFC, noticed that there was a bit of a commotion and came over to talk to the lady. I scuttled off to help another foster mom get her kittens set up in their cage for the day while said foster mom clucked sympathetically and let me know with knowing looks that we were dealing with a crazy person.

Marian came back in and pretty much ignored the sputtering and accusations coming from Mrs. MMM. Finally, in one last-ditch attempt to gain our sympathy, Mrs. MMM cried out, "Well, I guess I have no choice but to take her to Animal Control, where they'll kill her!"

Marian had had enough. "Fine. I will take her and put her in a cage in Grooming, because I have nowhere else to put her. No foster homes. Everyone is full. I'll just leave her in Grooming." She grabbed the cat off of Mrs. MMM's lap and marched away to Grooming. Mrs. MMM promptly burst into tears and wailing that she couldn't even say goodbye.

By now, the manager was managing to get Mrs. MMM away from our adoption area so we could set up, clean cages, and get more foster kittens into their cages for the day. When Marian returned, she apologized for losing her cool. Rovi and I held no grudge. Mrs. MMM was obviously trying to emotionally blackmail us all, and even once she got what she wanted--that is, for us to take the cat--she wailed and cried and accused us all of not wanting to help her. I certainly felt sorry for her that she's had so many troubles, but I wanted to scream at her that a lot of us have our own troubles--Marian and I are out of work. People have health issues, and yet we soldier on and do what we can--no one asked her to bite off more than she could chew.

Things settled down, mostly, after that. We had some busy times of day where I thought I might never get a chance to hear myself think, but after the initial crush of people crowding in squealing, "KITTENS!!" things got quiet and I had a chance to enjoy them for myself.

And boy, did I enjoy them.

The little family above were our smallest babies--they're all littermates, and all different hues. Polly the calico is the dominant kitten, but Trixie the Tuxie had me at "hello."

A couple more short videos I took:

Too much cuteness.

I also took some still shots, which I will post below...and sign off here, because I'm quite exhausted. Kittens are messy (we had to give one of the longer-haired babies a "bum bath" after she had a poo because, well, kittens are messy).