Sometimes I am So Disappointed in People, Part 2 (But My Faith in the World is Improving Because of So Many Nice Replies to Part 1 of This Story!).

This past week, I wrote the story of Charley, now renamed Chaplin, who was dumped off at Capital to be euthanized and had obviously been abused by one of our adopters. I mentioned at the end of that story that last week had been pretty terrible as we had another Charley returned to us the following Saturday (one week after Chaplin) by another adopter with the initials J.K.

Before I go into this new story of my disappointment in an adopter, I just want to thank everyone who responded to Chaplin’s story with encouraging comments and a ton of love. The heartaches of rescue work are lessened when I know that others care what happens to our kitties, too. 

And now my second disappointment with an adopter and a sweet boy named Charley.

On May 2, I had an email from an adopter, J.K. who had just adopted Charley, a loving, gorgeous tabby boy on February 17 of this year. Her email said: “I adopted a cat named Charlie from Black and Orange in mid-February of this year. I am writing to touch base with someone to make arrangements because, unfortunately, I am not able to keep Charlie anymore. I will be happy to go into more detail over the phone, but basically it is a combination of my not being able to keep paying for medical issues as well as his chronic urinating outside of the box. I have been working with my vet for this issues since I adopted Charlie, and I feel I have exhausted my options and am not able to do any more for him. I am also concerned about putting any more additional stress on him, or onto my other cat I have had for six years who has been adjusting to things since I brought Charlie home.

“Please send me an e-mail so I can arrange for someone to pick Charlie up.”

Notice that J.K. said she had been working on the issue of the inappropriate litter pan use since she adopted Charley. You will find out in a moment that this was not the case.

I immediately wrote J.K. back. Charley had a sibling who had had a urinary tract infection and I worried that perhaps he had one as well that had been overlooked. I apologized to J.K., offered to have her take Charley to our vet to be checked (and we would pay), and gave her suggestions so she could ultimately keep Charley. 

She did not want him.

In her follow-up email J.K. said: “Yes, Charlie has been found to have some kind of lower urinary tract infection issues. I have taken him to the vet multiple times and paid for many different types of tests. He is currently on the last few days of an antibiotic. No crystals were found in his urine though, according to the vet. Charlie has had significant diarrhea since I adopted him, (we had sent her home with a bag of special food just for the diarrhea, but she changed his food) but the vet doesn’t seem to think that is related to the urination since he is gaining weight still and deficates in the box, even though he doesn’t urinate in it. At this point, my vet has said the options for trying to deal with the urination are either anti-anxiety medications or re-training him. I have had to draw the line on the money I am going to keep spending on Charlie, so I just can’t afford to try any more medicine. My current living situation is a rental, and my carpet is now a mess. I can’t even justify getting my carpet cleaned until Charlie is not in the house anymore. As far as retraining goes, I am gone at work for a large part of the day. The only uncarpeted area in my apartment with a door is my bathroom , and I feel this is too small a space to lock him in for such a large part of the day. As far as my other cat, she currently does not have any issues. I am concerned, though, about the effect all of this is having on her. I can’t have a second cat start urinating all over my carpet because of her seeing Charlie do it.

“I am very sorry I didn’t contact you sooner, as I was unaware of the 30 day expiration on the return (I had told J.K. that within the first 30 days we take a cat back immediately if there are problems, but after 30 days, we ask the adopter to work with us until we can find a foster). I wish I had known Charlie and his sibling had all of these issues before I adopted him. At this point, I have decided it is in his best interest as well as for myself and my other cat that I don’t keep him. All of this has been much too stressful the last two and a half months, and has taken a toll on me emotionally and financially. This is my busiest time of year at work, and looking back, I obviously wasn’t prepared to adopt a second cat into my home.”

After this email, I made arrangements with Dr. Kim West, our friend and vet, to foster Charley as I thought he had major medical conditions that would need her expertise. I let J.K. know that Dr. West would be out of town, but as soon as she was home, we would get Charley from her. 

On Saturday, Bobbie and I met J.K. at PetSmart and picked up Charley. I had asked her to bring back his folder with his medical records and to also bring her vet’s records showing what they had done. 

I was not expecting to find what I found in the vet records.

J.K. had Charley declawed. 

Charley was adopted on February 17 and at that time, J.K. signed our adoption contract stating that she would not have him declawed. Kristin, who was his foster, spoke to her in depth about declawing. We also provide paperwork about the problems with declawing in all our adoption folders. 

On March 5, J.K. took Charley for a declaw consult. At no point did she contact us to tell us she was having problems with him scratching and ask for solutions. On March 10, barely two weeks after adopting Charley, she had him declawed. 

According to the vet’s records, there had been no problems with Charley urinating outside of the litter pan until he was declawed. After the declaw surgery, he would not use the litter pan, at all, because his paws hurt too much. He did start defecating in the pan after a few weeks, but continued to pee right beside the litter pan. 

The vet stated that the change in Charley’s behavior was due to the declaw surgery.

At no point in any of our correspondences did J.K. mention the declaw.

Here is where I need to educate the uneducated. And forgive me, since many of you are in rescue, if I am preaching to the choir. Declawing is not a simple surgery. It is very painful and very inhumane. Declawing actually involves cutting a cat’s toes off at the first joint. If a human were declawed, it would be like cutting our fingers off at the knuckles. Many cats have issues after the surgery with walking and using the litter pan, because their feet hurt. Due to the pain, they often associate the litter pan with the discomfort in their paws and refuse to use the pan. This was the case with Charley. 

You can read more about declawing at www.declawing.com

What makes me angriest about this whole episode is that J.K. led me to believe that we gave her a flawed, unhealthy cat. She never took any responsibility for her actions or admitted that she had caused Charley’s issues herself. Instead, she made me think this was our fault and that we were obligated to take back this “problem cat.”

When we asked Dr. Jensen to check Charley out, she didn’t do any tests to see if he had a urinary tract infection or other health problems. She believed, just as the other vet had, that Charley’s problem was due to the declaw surgery. She said she sees problems arise often after declawing, but people still continue to have the surgery performed out of convenience. Rather than teaching the cat not to scratch in certain areas or keeping the nails trimmed, impatient owners have the cat declawed.  In many countries, other than the United States, declawing is outlawed, because it is so inhumane. 

Charley was very stressed with J.K.–not only because of the declaw, but we think he may have been having problems with her other cat. This was not a good home and he needed out of there. He is now with Dr. West and guess what–NO MORE LITTER PAN PROBLEMS. The very first night with her, he used the litter pan like a champ–even with regular litter in it (Dr. Jensen told us we might have to re-teach Charley to use a litter pan without litter in it or with a puppy pad). 

Sometimes, just getting a cat to a safe, loving environment takes care of everything.