Well, I recently had to re-home my two cats. One of which I'd had for over 5 years since he was around 2 years old, the other I adopted as a kitten 2 years ago.
Now I am not a social person, have no family near by, basically spend every single day home completely alone. That means that my animals have all adjusted to being around me, and me alone for all these years.
Cats of course are almost always a bit skittish to begin with when it comes to strangers and need an obviously much longer time to adjust when entering a new home than most other animals. And so begins my rant.
I adopted out the younger of the 2 cats last Saturday night. By Monday morning I had an email from the new parents saying she was still skittish and didn't want to be held a lot...... barely over 2 days and they are expecting this cat to be cuddling right up in their lap.
I adopted out the older cat late last Sunday night. Last night I get an email saying nearly the same thing and telling me that he is a cat that really should be in a home with only one person and no other animals and that she wants to return him!
First of all, during the few month period that I didn't have another cat in the house he went crazy. It wasn't until I adopted the other cat that he finally calmed back down. And on top of that I've also had 2 dogs along with the cats and he has never had a problem with them and actually made it a point to cuddle with the dogs.
The first couple just emailed stating the issue with the cat not being calm yet, but that was it. This woman actually emailed saying she wants to give him back to me. 4 days she has had him and she wants to just send him back.
Now normally this wouldn't be that big of an issue, I would just take him back and put him back up for adoption.
Problem is, not even 2 weeks prior to her adopting him from me she took in a stray and told me all about it. When I asked her if she had any vet records showing that this stray she has been housing my cat with is actually healthy and could not have spread anything to him she said no she didn't think taking them to the vet was necessary.
Sorry, but there is no way at this point that I am taking that cat back, no matter how much I loved him, now that he has been housed with an animal with absolutely no proof of medical history and was out on the streets barely a week prior to their introduction to each other.
I do not bring absolutely any animals I've adopted into my house without first taking them straight to the vet for an exam.
I told her I am out of town for the next week so I can deal with this and the million other things that are eating at me right now. But at this point I'm basically going to give her a couple options, I've re-listed him for adoption as she "suggested" and told her she will have to handle adopting him out to someone if they contact me. Or if by week's end he still has not been adopted out I'm going to tell her she can either take him to a shelter, start a listing to adopt him out herself, or pay to have a full vet exam done prior to returning him to me.
So that is my rant. Questions, comments, opinions?
I just personally think it is ridiculous for so many people that claim to have had tons of cats before to not realize that it takes more than a couple days for a cat to adjust to an entirely new life. I mean seriously.