I hate to do this for the animals, because they deserve better, but this place was hell when we went. My family and I went this past Saturday to check out an 8 or 9 year old cat for adoption. We were looking for an older cat and found a lovely one named Oscar there.
I know this is a kill shelter so we wanted to take him before they considered him un-adoptable and put him down. Unfortunately, some of the volunteers there are so out of it that it's almost impossible to get to the animals. Note* not all the volunteers. The older and adult volunteers seemed very friendly but unfortunately we were surrounded by the 20 something ones that were, and I know this is being judgemental but really, if you go there, avoid anyone fitting this description:
*In their 20's
*Female
* large to VERY large builds
* reminds you of sci fi/anime geeks in high school that talk to themselves.
* There's more than a few that fit this description and from this past Saturday's experience, they all were about the same.
We went into the small cat room that has about 20 cats with their cages. Are few are able to walk around and some are kept in their crates. The room is tiny and the volunteers pack themselves in there and take up as much space as possible... really, there's no need for 3 volunteers in there. Anyway, we found Oscar right away and he seemed nice enough for an old cat. We picked him up and realized he was talker but was very agitated by all the people in the room and the other cats in his face. He started to growl and tried to bite when we were holding him and we got a little iffy but thought it was the environment. One of the older women volunteers, who was very nice, knowledgeable, and friendly, said that we could take him to a play room so he could have some time out of the crowded cat filled room to calm and let us see how he behaves as we do have another cat at home to think about. We said that would be fantastic and she said we'd need to go to the front desk to ask about a room. Oh! And while we were in there, the big girl volunteers, who had no business being in there, try to take the cats away from everyone to talk to and play with herself. It's not play time for you, Dumb ass.
Anyway, the dumb ass takes Oscar away from me and I decide to ask the now packed front desk if we can take him to one of their quieter rooms to see how he is alone. I wait for a while before a younger husky girl asks how she can help me. She makes me fill out a form first with the history of all pets in the past 5 years and hand it back. I wait at the front desk for another 15 minutes before she can tear herself away from one the volunteers dogs that was playing in the office to help. She takes my form and license and says she'll be back. She walks maybe 7 steps away to cube in my full view and tries to play with a dog that could care less about her. After about 10 minutes she gets on the phone and apparently calls the vet of my current cat. 30 minutes later she comes over to me and says that my vet has no record of my cat beyond 2005... bullshit. My vet knows my cat and my family on a first name basis, we know the owner and I know that this idiot was either not listening or asked the wrong question as my cat had to have an extensive and expensive surgery for a genetic condition 1 1/2 yrs ago and we were told, upon the many returns and check ups since then, that because he was an indoor cat, that he was still up to date on all his vaccines and rabies shots. The Animal control idiot said that was not what she heard and that we couldn't adopt today. I said that was fine and we would call my vet about the mix-up prior to filling out adoption papers but that we only wanted to see how our potential cat would react in the calmer separate room... like the older, wiser volunteer suggested. She then told me that we couldn't just come in for play time. As I hold back from punching this bitch in the face she says that though we can't take him out of the cat room, that we can see him in the cat room... no shit! My family has been in there for the past 45 minutes. She then walks me back there and proceeds to be no help and play and talk to other cats. My family and I stand there and watch as a HUGE girl volunteer sits her fat ass on a chair with a cats bed on it while the cat needfully stares up wanting to lay down. The fatty does not move but does start to gossip to the idiot that brought us in the room, along with the other large volunteer that are taking up all the space.
We decide to leave that hell hole, unfortunately without poor Oscar. I feel horrible for those poor animals who are clearly not being properly cared for by all members of the staff. I am thankful for the few adult and older volunteers who cared about the well being of the cats and the purpose of finding a loving home.
I hope that all those poor animals find good homes and that older volunteers wip the idiots into shape, for the good of the animals. read more