Could we please teach people to take care of their cats!!!

[CTReptileRescue]

Ok this is a total vent...
I have the downstairs neighbors (loud ones) cat in my lap, yes I'm in my house at my desk but it keeps running in for attention so my husband is letting her in while I work...
this is the deal. We all know cats won't mix well in my house (unless it's a really fast cat,.lol) and the more I talk with these neighbors the more I realise they SHOULD NOT own any cats, or pets for that matter. They have this cat and two more. The two others are adult unalterd males and you guessed it right the kitten / cat in my lap is an unspayed female. The more I pet her the more things I find physically wrong with her. IE Severe resperatory infection, and may already be pregnant. Oh and she smells awfull.
I did talk a bit about how important it is to spay / nuteur, and they seem to get it but just mention they can not afford it (I understand we are very poor too, isn't everyone..lol)
This is so frustrating of course when I first asked about their cats they explained that they "saved" this homeless kitten.
Ok let me vent on this issue while I'm on a role:
If you rescue a cat or anything for that matter BRING it to a vet (I understand certain circumstances) but at least get it's vac's and get it altered. Because if you feed it then you own it and if you own it "fix" it so it won't make more to feed.
Sorry I am just soooo frustrated this is a really sweet cat very pettite and loving, what do I do?
(besides feed my neighbors to the worlds largest retic)..
Thanks for letting me gripe (again)
Rusty and the sweet kitten / cat.

[Ironhead]

Dont know what to tell you, but I understand.
If you lived here in my little town you would have no problem getting the cat spayed/neutered. There is a lady down the road from me that will pay for this procedure because she dosent like all the free roaming cats in the town. This is an open invitation to all people in this town that have cat's. Now if I would have known this before I payed for it on my own.

[BallKingdom]

Place a call to animal welfare.

[Andariel]

Yeah... Petshelters will nueter/spay a cat for like $15 everywhere I've lived, and I'm fairly certain its the same in your area. And I second what BallKingdom said... maybe a visit from ASPCA, or the humane society might knock some wires back inplace in your neighbors heads and make them wake up and help the animals.

-Chris

[_-_-_]

that is really not cool. i think u should call ASPCA. lol if my neighbors did that i would take there cat....and take it to the vet myslef we have a neighbor hood cat that everyone on the street takes care of him it is pretty cool i think he is about 15 years old or so.

[CTReptileRescue]

Hi all,
Thanks for the suggestions, I have talked with the neighbors and they are not willing to place the cat with us, I have given them all of the resources our state (CT) provides, including the "Team" van which is a mobile spay clinic very very cheap. They stated they would take her in by the weekend. I am not only concerned with her well being with not being spayed but I also pointed out to them that she has a severe respiratory infection that needs to be treated with antibiotics. They were supprised to hear of how sick their cat was, but was impressed when I showed them how you can accually feel the fluid build up in the klung cavity (yes it's that bad).
The deal with calling the ASPCA is we don't have one..lol'
We have town animal control officers and a humane society. The H.S. only provides a shelter for the animals and does not have a law enforcement team. Our ACO's (remember we work with them) are unable to do anything as it is not illegal to not fix your cat (even thou I am sure many of us would agree that it should be).
So I can only hope that they folow through with treatment of the cat. I really hope.
And through this whole experience my husband accually said we could keep the cat!!(they would have to sighn it over to us) So there is a little leway with my hubby on the question of cat ownership!
Thanks again for letting me vent
Rusty

[CTReptileRescue]

Well last night we got a knock on the door.
Sadly the same cat in the above comments was hit by a car. (it's always outside!) the woman who struck her thankfully brought her up to their door, they immediatly brought the cat upstairs to us, I called our local herp vet (also good with dogs and cats) as they have an emergency clinic. I talked with the vets today and the cat is doing well, no major breaks (thankfully) just some road burn and will be going home today. I know this situation definately scared my neighbors and they will hopefully be taking better care of their cats now
We'll see.
I am just glad she made it
Rusty

[Marla]

Poor kitty! I hope they will take care of their cats. It's a shame to see pets (or any animals) treated poorly or neglected.

This weekend, we were driving down a busy 5-lane road when a cocker spaniel ran out in front of us. We avoided hitting it, as did the next two cars, pulled over, and asked the only people outside that we could see if it belonged to them. Their answer was no, so we checked the dog's collar for tags, but he had none. This was a freshly-groomed unaltered juvenile (~<1 yr) with a collar and clearly belonged to someone, but we had no way to figure out who (there's >500 houses within young dog 10 minute escape distance).

So we took it to the emergency vet to see if they'd take it, but they couldn't because it wasn't injured. We still needed to go to the farmer's market, so we dropped it off at a friend's house on the way, picked it up on the way back (after seeing Dominique Wilkins going into the mkt as we were leaving), and turned it over to animal control. I was afraid that the dog might be destroyed because it's so soon after the holidays (and everyone who was going to get a pet might have gotten it already) and because the people it belonged to might not know to check with animal control (a lot of recent immigrants in the area). After talking to one of the officers, I felt better, because apparently cocker rescue is at the shelter at least once a week, sometimes more often, so I am sure they will take this adorable but untrained little guy.