I have about had it with the irresponsible and ignorant people who think that it is ok to leave cats behind to take care of themselves. I am talking first hand about two of such animals one that I have recently adopted. My previous neighboors had three dogs and three cats. Two cats which they left behind for our neighboorhood to contend with. These two cats are both female. I am now responsible for one of the unspayed females who is going to the vet to GET SPAYED and have her vaccinations. The other female got adopted by my next door neighboors she is very pregnant and i am not sure if these people are going to do the right thing and have her spayed and vaccinated as well.

I have had to put up with these animals not just the one I have, but the many unfixed animals both male and female coming into heat and becoming a annoyance and spreading potential disease to all of the cats.
That i have taken into my own hands to print out flyers and to distribute them throughout my neighboor hood on why it is important to have your animals spayed and neutered and vaccinated.

I wish that i could take these people and show them what happens to these animals . I doubt that it would do much good. But just maybe someone will see my flyers and think about it. Then maybe the problem in my neighboor hood would be reduced . I guess that I can only hope

PLEASE SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PETS !

I wish you luck...even if one person thinks about it...it is worth it. In my newspaper today are stories about the local SPCA being overwhelmed with animals. It showed a picture of 2 cats abandoned and told a story about a neighbor calling in about an abandoned dog who was tied to a tree without food or water. This is all in response to foreclosures. I told my husband there is no excuse. Even with foreclosures you do not leave instantly. The people apparently say they are moving to an apartment that does not allow pets so they just leave theirs. This is animal cruelty. I lived in apartments many times in my lifetimes and while I had to look a little harder..I always found apartments that would allow pets.

Even our move here with 3 cats, there are 2 apartment complexes around the corner, one we rented when we first came and the other is across the street from the first one and I had to decide which one to rent. I had to pay a deposit for the cats but that was it. So I can't accept the stories that people leaving their homes can never find apartments that will take their pets. And, I have really never heard of an apartment that wouldn't let you have fish! That's the height of no conscience and laziness...

The paper says when a home is forclosed, it can be a week before a realtor looks at the property and an animal can die then. They even found abandoned fish left to die, besides dogs and cats. Why do these people get animals in the first place? Is it a fun fad? Or is a toy for the children? One of the cities here has passed a law that all animals 4 months of age or older must be spayed or neutered. Hopefully, in time, that will help but for now these foreclosures result in real horror stories for pets. Yet there is no law that penalizes abandoning animals. Like judges used to say on TV in small claims court..when an animal gets attacked by another... the law considers them in the same category as a book., i.e., a possession only...nothing to do with being alive.

Years ago the feral cat that had kittens in our backyard, we trapped and she was spayed. She remained wild but at least had no more babies. And basically we were left with what to do with the kittens. We did keep 3 of them..we just lost the last one Little Guy in September after over 16 years. We hadn't planned to have them but a wild unspayed female deposited them in our safe backyard. Yet when we called places to help take them...we always ran into "Why don't YOU keep them...we can't help you." At least our local SPCA is no kill and will take animals that people can't keep but right now they said they have about 400 cats at least and that's before the foreclosures started. About the same amount of dogs too. But they will be taken care of until adopted. It seems like an impossible task..there are so many.

But to just abandon them without contacting the local SPCA, etc. ....well to paraphase a saying... if there is karma, people who mistreat cats may come back as mice.

Good Luck...I understand the absolute anger and frustration you are feeling and bless you for trying to help these babies.

Maybe the foreclosed people will not have to wait for the next life. Maybe the ones who abandoned the pets will themselves get to live as strays, under some overpass somewhere.
And any sympathy I would have otherwise had for them would evaporate. Why, there are even homeless people who go around with pets that they care for!
I have seen them! So there is no excuse at all for it.

Firstly, I take great pleasure in saying "GOOD FOR YOU, NYZKI!", for doing something so proactive and using your frustration and anger in a constructive way!! And it was SO good of you to take in the one cat! (if only the ignorant ones would acknowledge those good works...) I agree - it's totally maddening and a thankless 'job'.

If you know the animal protection laws in your location and whether abandonment is considered a crime (it usually is in most places in the US and Canada), and if you know your old neighbour's last name, you could still try reporting the abandonment, since you actually [i[have[/i] their cat as proof.....not that it's any guarantee they'd even be charged, if they could even be found because often the authorities don't care, either, or don't have the manpower to track people down. However, there's usually a paper trail when people move. So it might be worth a shot.....which is what those people deserve, if you get my drift! The same garbage happens all the time around where I live. Heck, even our city doesn't care about the animals - they only want to 'cleanse the streets'....pretty much like in China, but w/o ending up eating them. "Out of sight, out of mind" seems to be the motto around here. I would hope, though, that your anger doesn't extend to the neglected, unfixed ones....it's not their fault that they do what they have to to survive, and what comes naturally, when they're not fixed.

Some color pictures taken from the 'net from abandonment stories could be used in your flyers to drive home the point. There are TONS of them out there. However, it usually takes the equivalent of a hammer to the head to budge people who just don't want to act responsibly to start really giving a tinker's damn.

Having said that, I was more than surprised when one of our neighbours actually got her cat spayed (!!) after I'd kept plugging away at all the reasons WHY she ought to....plus, her cat repeatedly came a long way just to be at OUR place instead and I'd 'bug' them to come and pick her up each time. And later on, I must have actually scared her into keeping her cat (who'd become a super girlfriend of mine!) indoors for the balance of the winter (although what I'd actually suggested this woman do was give her cat outdoor, SUPERVISED time, not just lock her up forevermore, since she'd been allowed to run around at large ever since they'd gotten her & NEVER gets played with at home, poor girl!) She kept thinking I wanted to STEAL her cat.....just because I love animals.....the idiot. This happened when I'd quite innocently suggested she consider giving me a little bit of her cat's food to keep on hand for when her cat got out and came over to our place, honestly, just because I was worried strange food might upset her tummy should I have to feed her again! (we often weren't called for HOURS or even until the next day, to see if we had her in our care) So, she's been indoors ever since, except for once this week....and I'm still just hoping she's still alive, as she never hoofed down to our place for some reason. Even this situation isn't ideal for this cat, but it's better than her ending up injured or dead somewhere, due to neglectful care.

I'd be harping at those other neighbours to not DARE give any of that litter away either w/o PAYMENT (so the animals' lives are seen to be of value) OR w/o having them all fixed first. Tell them some real-life horror stories, so they won't want to be seen as being contributors to such fates and then keep asking them "When are they going to be fixed?" And IF they're averse to paying for the operations themselves, find out if there are any organizations who might subsidize the fees, IF they really are low-income enough to qualify.

So my point is, never give up entirely as you might be surprised when someone actually listens!

Don't be angry and frustrated with the animals, this is NOT their fault. They are the children of mother earth.

Its the damn f$#%&% humans. Don't ever blame these animals for anything. That got me mad at how you are blaming the animals for being left in the neighborhood and besides you are poisoning your animals by having them vaccinated

FINAL WARNING HESISTA, your angry attitude will no longer be tolerated here. please contain your language and please do not point fingers. if you want to take issues to private messaging, i have no control over that. the person who receives the private message, however, can easily block you and report back to me. i don't like banning people, i can count on one hand people i have banned over the past 15 years. please do not become the next one.

please also do not re-open old post threads. this one is from 2008, from an outsider perspective it appears you are simply looking to give me a reason to ban you. final warning.