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I Cleaned Up Your Mess Today...Again
- From Craigslist
You decided that you wanted to move to an apartment
that didn't allow pets (and by the way, landlords are
forbidden to do this in Toronto). I don't know what
lured you. Maybe it was a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
Maybe it was a great view. Maybe you liked the woodwork.
At any rate, it was more important to you than she
was. So you took her down to the shelter, still wearing
her cute little pink leopard collar with a bow, and
you cheerfully wrote on the card that she was very
healthy for her age and friendly and just likes to
sleep in the sun! I guess you knew her pretty well
- you put her birthday down on the card, too, making
me believe you've probably had her for her entire life.
Then you left, secure in your rationalization that
somehow, in the midst of kitten season, your seventeen
year old cat would find a home. The shelter took a
picture of her scared face and big eyes and put it
on the web.
For two weeks, I looked at that picture. I hoped someone
else would see her fear and feel compelled to help
her, but the public wasn't seeing her. She was back
in isolation, getting vitamin B shots and subcutaneous
fluids. The tech wrote "depressed" on her
card. I'm not surprised. I'd be depressed too if I
went from "sleeping in the sun" to a metal
cage with a thin layer of newspaper.
Finally today, I couldn't stand it anymore. I felt
too guilty thinking about her sitting in that cage
at her age. So I went down and I got her, and now she's
curled up on a fleece baby blanket in a cat tree in
my bathroom. When I go in there, she rubs her head
on my hand.
Today, I cleaned up your mess. I felt worse for your
cat than you did. And all over the city, other rescuers
did the same. They rescued your abandoned cats and
dogs and bunnies and exotics. And we all wondered the
same thing as we did it: How could you create this
situation? How is it that you feel no remorse? How
is it that you were you able to walk away from an animal
you shared your home with for a year, ten years, fifteen
years, knowing that they might die because of your
actions?
I'll never meet you to ask you those questions. I just
hope I meet the person who will be good enough to give
your baby that sunny spot to sleep for the rest of
her life (however long that is). She deserves it, and
it's a crying shame you didn't have the decency to
give it to her. This was originally posted in 2006.
I am re-posting because the message hasn't sunk in! |
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The Infinite Cat Project
Presented by Mike Stanfill, Private Hand
Illustration,
Flash Animation,
Web Design
www.privatehand.com
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