For those of you who follow me on Twitter, know that a) I am pretty crazy, b) I love animals, and c) I will do anything I can to save an animal. I see an RT (re-tweet) from a friend of mine that a kitten was on her last day at a shelter. To me kittens being put down have never happened- in Chicago the biggest problems were older cats, which I why I had so many. Only in one case have I adopted a kitten, because he came with his mama. Anyways, I call the shelter because it’s in Lancaster (outside of LA) and ask if they could hold the kitten for me until I drove out there from Vegas. I had planned on going to see Dita Von Teese on the 17th, so I figured I could swing by the shelter, pick up the cat, go to the show, then head home.

Upon arriving at the shelter I was pretty disturbed. There was what looked like small trailers filled with animals and lots of noise, the place was dirty to say the least. There were cats roaming around outside, and no one at the front desk seem to care at all about animals.

So this is the order in which I hear stories about the cat:
1. She is 10 months old and on her last day because she was there too long.
2. She’s feral and can not be adopted.
3. She’s not feral, and she’s 5 months old.
4. She’s 3 months old, was never suppose to be put in the feral section, wasn’t fixed or had any shots.
5. She was suppose to be put to sleep on the 10th but went missing from her cage, I called when they found her and they put her on hold for me.

Talk about bad recording keeping and a lucky kitty.

The most ignorant person in the world decided to tell me how the shelter works, while I was waiting for the kitten to get the shots she was suppose to have before I got there. While I am listening to the most fucked up thing on the planet coming out of her mouth, a woman and man walk in holding a very cute dog with some skin problems on his ears. A lady that worked there went over to check the dog, stuck her hand in his face (his tail was tucked away, he was shivering) and he snapped a bit, she declared him over aggressive, with medical problems (did she not see he was scared and being HELD BY SOMEONE) she refused to scan for a micro chip. The couple claimed to have found the dog, I don’t think so.

After hearing things like:

“We give them a week, if no one wants them, we put them down, what else are we suppose to do?”
“If no one shows interest in adopting them, they don’t get reviewed after 5 days”
“If the cat is a mom with kittens and she goes past her days here, we put down her and the whole litter”

I couldn’t handle anymore. I was trying very hard not to cry while she was talking, (or scream at her, which I did in the beginning but I shut up so I could just get the cat) I quickly walked out of the room, past all the trailers with cats in them feeling awful that I couldn’t look in there to save another one, I needed to get out of there as fast as I could. I was crying so much, if I saw one more I could have taken it, but I am sure there were tons. I grabbed the kitty in my cat carrier and ran the hell outta there.

So happy ending for one kitty, her name is Chi. She went to my vet, she is in fact 3 months old, needs some more shots next month, had massive dirt in her ears, when they were cleaned out- she had massive ear mites. She’s a bit under weight, 2 pounds 9 ounces. She’s getting fixed when she’s 5 months old.

From what I took from this, Twitter is a GREAT way to get the word out and save some pets that would otherwise be put down just because “their time ran out” (that is utter bullshit to me) If you are at a shelter and see a sign (or just ask the people working there to check the computer) and know of cats/dogs on their “last day” take a photo with your phone, get the word out!!! Even tweet PETA to RT for you ( @peta ) (even if you don’t agree with PETA, they will help in that case)

When you are adopting a new cat or dog, instead of going straight to the ones you see as the “cute ones” don’t look at any, go to the front desk and ask for a print out of the ones that were there the longest and see them first. You not only will end up getting a great pet, but you might have just saved their life as well.

Here’s some photos of Chi, doing much better at her new home.