I am so extremely sad as I write this news now, yet it has to be written, if it’s for the sake of education and raising awareness.
Rascal was one of Punitha’s rescued cats. His first adopter returned him because she was afraid cats wouldn’t be good for her due-to-be-born baby. His second adopter returned him because apparently, he could not get along with her female cat (after one day only).
http://animalcare.my/2011/03/poor-poor-rascal.html
We finally rejoiced a few days ago that Rascal had been adopted by a third adopter.
Minutes ago, Punitha called to convey extremely bad news.
It is possible that Rascal may have passed away.
According to Punitha, she called Rascal’s adopter to inform him that she would be collecting Rascal for his vaccination (at no charge on the adopter) and the adopter said Rascal had gone missing.
Punitha went to the adopters apartment and put up 200 flyers in an effort to look for Rascal.
Someone called Punitha and said he had heard a loud thud the morning before and apparently, the cleaners had picked up a dead cat that morning.
The apartment authorities had also torn down all of the notices that Punitha had put up saying that it is not an appropriate thing to do as the apartment does not allow pets. They also refused to let Punitha speak to the cleaners. I wish they could at least allow Punitha to have a closure to this sad episode.
And the worst part is, there is no remorse from the adopter at all, Punitha said. That is the saddest part. It seems this adopter is now asking around to adopt new kittens.
We understand that accidents do happen, no matter how careful we are, but to show absolutely no remorse?
Punitha will be writing a full account about this soon at petfinder.my and will send the link to me, which I shall update on the blog as a separate posting.
I am so, so sad….
I think we need to comfort Punitha because she had no idea that this would happen. I know how hard it is to find adopters for our rescues. I always worry till no end whenever I got any of my rescues adopted and I pray so hard that I have made the right decision and my instincts are right (that the adopter would be a good one).
I have rejected potential adopters too when I felt something wasn’t right.
But how “right” can we be? How good are we at judging potential adopters?
I’m so distraught over this now, I’m not even sure if we can learn any lesson from it. I’m so distraught I cannot even bear to put Rascal’s photo up. Click on the link above if you’d like to see what a handsome and docile cat he is/was.
If indeed the cat was Rascal, we can only pray that he is in a better existence now.
Hopefully the cat wasn’t Rascal. Hopefully he is hiding somewhere….
Comments
6 responses to “Poor Rascal (very sad news this time)”
There is a possibility that the dead cat wasnt Rascal.
Rascal could have escaped from the adopter's home and is hiding somewhere now.
Nitha has had some incredibly bad luck with adopters who seemed like responsible pet-lovers and then behaved atrociously. I'm thinking of the woman who adopted one of her DSH cats only to turn around and try to sell the cat on Mudah.com as a pedigree). Nitha showed amazing tenacity in recovering that cat; the woman claimed she had no idea that she'd done anything objectionable.
We just cannot read minds. I think Nitha screens potential adopters as well as humanly possible, but still there are adopters who turn out this way. I try to see the best in people, so I would like to think the people were not remorseless but were too embarrassed to show any emotion. Nitha — just do what you've done before! Publicise the names of the adopters so others don't give cats to them in future. And yes,may poor Rascal at last have some peace. 🙁
I am quite sure poor Rascal was the dead cat. New environment, not used to apartments and dangerous heights, terrified cat tried to escape and fell to its death. This is a common way for cats adopted by apartment owners to die. A friend shared that her normally goody cat somehow squeezed out the high bathroom window, jumped on to the air con unit and fell 15 floors to its death. Curiousity killed that cat.
I never like to give any cat to flat dwellers. Even landed property owners, vet like hell, never in a such a hurry to give away any animal.
Don't celebrate simply because the animal is adopted and taken off your hands. Nobody does any actual tracking but out of 6,000 adoptions how many are dead or half-dead back on the streets?
Read the whole article:
What Happens to Free Kittens?
http://therealowner.com/cats/what-h…o-free-kittens/
Yes, people do horrid things to free cats and kittens, especially kittens.
And yes, don't be fooled by appearances because according to the article from a reliable website, they will most certainly show up with all intentions of fooling you to thinking they are a good respectable owner. They might even bring their children.
Extracted from the article (but please do read the whole article):
People who get free kittens from strangers often do so because they know the people will not do checks to see if the new owner is going to be good, or not. Some of these people then take kittens into apartments where they are not allowed pets. Frequently they are caught and the kittens must be surrendered or the tenant faces eviction.
Free kittens are a non-financial commitment, if one goes missing, and is taken to the city pound, the owner must pay a fine to recover it. Or, they can simply go get another free kitten and leave the first one to its fate.
In most areas it is completely legal for somebody to accept free kittens, and kill them, or sell them to a research lab. Since the kittens are now owned by the second person, that person is their legal owner and if they want to kill them, as long as it is done humanely, they can. Yup, in some cases people kill kittens and use them as snake food, much in the way they would kill guinea pigs for the same purpose. To be fair most snake owners no longer feed live food, its too risky to the snake. As mentioned, it is not uncommon for free kittens,or any free pet, to be sold to research facilities where they exist.
People do horrid things to free kittens. People use them to bait illegal fighting dogs to learn to kill. This is entirely illegal but does happen. Nobody is going to come to your house and tell you they are going to do this with the kitten, they will most certainly show up with all intentions of fooling you to thinking they are a good respectable owner. They might even bring their children.
Many studies have indicated that most serial killers started out torturing and killing free kittens and other “Free to Good Home” pets. According to one site, ALL serial killers started out on pets.
poor cute rascal. hope he is safely hiding somewhere
Oh my god, I cant believe it. And I pray to god that nothing bad had happened to Rascal. I really admire the handsome chap.