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Just helped my next-door neighbor pack up her over-agressive un-neutered male cat up for a one-way trip to the animal shelter. (Giving him up in the hopes he'll be adopted.) I'd heard about her general situation last week, about how she felt awful but couldn't handle him anymore due to his agressiveness, but today I heard a knocking on my door and there she was, looking miserable and nervous with rubber gloves on, hoping for a little help with getting him in this box she had - it was clear she expected to be mauled.
She'd gotten him from friends who'd raised him from a kitten but who'd moved to a place which didn't allow pets. She'd had a great experience cat-sitting another friend's cat, and so took a chance on this guy, a lovely red tiger....
...but this totally didn't work out the way she had hoped. Daily, unprovoked attacks, she claimed...even after 2 months of giving it a go.
I agreed that this was more fair to both of them, and would give him a chance to get an owner who could handle him, that it had probably been too much of a change, going from a larger familiar home where he'd been all his life, to a new owner and a dinky apartment. My neighbor described the short visit his former owners made at one point that only riled him up more; apparently reminding him of what he'd lost.
(I restrained myself from exclaiming, "He's not fixed?! And you wonder why he was so agressive?!'), but noted that they'd probably fix him first thing at the shelter, and that'd undoubtedly settle him down alot, give him much better odds at being adopted than he'd had before. She said the shelter folk had said pretty much the same thing. Also, he is a registered cat; has papers, etc. I told her there were rescue groups for dog breeds; probably were for cats as well. Another good point in his favor was she didn't recall seeing him spray anywhere.
I saw the cardboard box she was going to use, as she found it near impossible to get him into the smaller plastic cat carrier. The one I use with Janie is much larger, so I lent it to her, we put his towel and a couple of cat toys in it, and when he went to sniff at it, I pushed him inside, to his dismay. Like many a cat, he hates carriers, no matter how big they are, and promptly started to cry.
Between his erstwhile owner, who said she'd been crying off and on all morning, and the anxious cat, there was plenty of distress to go around.
I hate distress. I'd like to fix it all. If I only could.
I said some soothing things, we carried the cat out to her car, which she had right outside, and I reassured her once more that she was doing the right thing.
Then I went back inside and cried.
She'd gotten him from friends who'd raised him from a kitten but who'd moved to a place which didn't allow pets. She'd had a great experience cat-sitting another friend's cat, and so took a chance on this guy, a lovely red tiger....
...but this totally didn't work out the way she had hoped. Daily, unprovoked attacks, she claimed...even after 2 months of giving it a go.
I agreed that this was more fair to both of them, and would give him a chance to get an owner who could handle him, that it had probably been too much of a change, going from a larger familiar home where he'd been all his life, to a new owner and a dinky apartment. My neighbor described the short visit his former owners made at one point that only riled him up more; apparently reminding him of what he'd lost.
(I restrained myself from exclaiming, "He's not fixed?! And you wonder why he was so agressive?!'), but noted that they'd probably fix him first thing at the shelter, and that'd undoubtedly settle him down alot, give him much better odds at being adopted than he'd had before. She said the shelter folk had said pretty much the same thing. Also, he is a registered cat; has papers, etc. I told her there were rescue groups for dog breeds; probably were for cats as well. Another good point in his favor was she didn't recall seeing him spray anywhere.
I saw the cardboard box she was going to use, as she found it near impossible to get him into the smaller plastic cat carrier. The one I use with Janie is much larger, so I lent it to her, we put his towel and a couple of cat toys in it, and when he went to sniff at it, I pushed him inside, to his dismay. Like many a cat, he hates carriers, no matter how big they are, and promptly started to cry.
Between his erstwhile owner, who said she'd been crying off and on all morning, and the anxious cat, there was plenty of distress to go around.
I hate distress. I'd like to fix it all. If I only could.
I said some soothing things, we carried the cat out to her car, which she had right outside, and I reassured her once more that she was doing the right thing.
Then I went back inside and cried.