A 16-month quest to bring home two cats only ended with chicanery. Turns out I'm not alone in encountering barriers
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‘After their father died, Ani's sister, who works at a high-level job with the federal government, moved in with her mother to provide her companionship.
‘“This turned out to be the correct life choice, as when my mom had a stroke, my sister was right there and called 911 immediately, which allowed my mother to make an almost complete recovery," Ani shared in an email. Although she rarely uses a cane when she is at home,
Ani's mother uses a
rolling walker in public just to be safe.
‘Some time after their mother's elderly cats died, the family was ready to adopt again. Her mother filled out the Virginia shelter's online application for a supposedly bonded pair: a 1 1/2-year-old gray tabby and 2 1/2-year-old calico. According to Ani, a representative looked at the application and said,
"OK, great. Come meet them and bring a carrier."
‘That was
before the manager laid eyes on Ani and her family. "I should have realized from the moment we arrived that the lady in charge took one look at my mother and the rollator coming across their gravel lot to the door and deemed her unfit," Ani said.
‘Additionally,
Ani's sister has
autism spectrum disorder with
flat affect. "Suddenly, the cats we were there to see were 'too shy for all this,'" Ani recalled. The manager and another staffer ushered her mother and sister into an anteroom that wasn't large enough for the three of them and peppered Ani with questions about her mother's mental stability.
‘The manager also declared that her sister "clearly wasn't interested," in spite of Ani's insistence to the contrary. Eventually, she told Ani and her family the shelter did not have any cats that were right for their situation, and promised to call them if that changed.
‘Once we got into the car, my mom asked, “They're not going to call, are they?” Me: “No, Ma, I don't think they will,” Ani recalled. The whole way home, she was like, “Well, I'm going to die soon, anyway, so I guess we shouldn't adopt.”
‘When we communicated in late September, I asked Ani for links to the rescue's adoption page to verify whether the cats her family wanted had been claimed. At the time of this story's publication,
both are still at the shelter waiting to be adopted . . . although the
calico is currently advertised as bonded with a
different gray tabby.’
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And the two cats are still at the shelter ? ! ?
These people are acting as the keeper of the cats. It’s perfectionism. And as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to view perfectionism as actually a pretty big stumbling block.
Okay, Ani’s sister is on the spectrum and comes across as “flat.” Now, the sister really should have prepped the shelter person for this. A 2-minute conversation and it’s suddenly not so mysterious.