in article , Frank Pittel at
wrote on 8/29/04 9:45AM:

KellyH wrote:

snip

: Again, ITA. I feel the shelter I volunteer for is too lax, and it's
: starting to really bother me. Case in point, we have a guy who adopted a
: kitten from us. The kitten came down with a URI two days later. He takes
: her to the vet, vet charges $87 (for what, I don't know, he's bringing us a
: receipt, plus he had a certificate for a first free vet exam). He is all
: kinds of ****ed off that we adopted out a "sick" kitten, we knew she was
: sick (she seemed fine at the time), we should reimburse him for the vet
: visit. Oh, he also says he can't pay his rent now because of this. I say,
: bring the kitten back and we'll give you your money back for the adoption
: fee and the vet visit, just go away and don't adopt another kitten. I have
: never had someone react with such anger about a kitten becoming ill. The
: person in charge has said to let him keep the kitten, but reimburse for the
: vet visit. I fear for how he may react at the next illness. Sorry to go
: on, but this situation is really eating me up.


The shelters aren't completely blameless either. I know they mean well and do
their best. Then again so do most people that have cats. Case in point.
Earlier
this summer I got a kitten that was rescued from a train yard. The conductor
that rescued it couldn't keep it and either I took it or it was going to a
shelter. A few weeks later I decided that he needed a friend so I went to the
local shelter and after filling out a pile of paperwork that included a
certificate from a vet that the kitten I had was healthy. I picked out a
kitten,
paid them the adoption fee and took it home. Part of the agreement I signed
when
I got the kitten was that I would bring it to a vet within a week of getting
it.
I made an appointment with the vet for the next day on the way home. When I
got
the kitten to the vet I was told that he had a URI and that it was contagious.
Of
course I had already introduced him to the other kitten by then. I ended up
having two sick kittens.

I called the shelter to let them know that I had gotten a kitten with a URI
and
was informed that I couldn't prove that it got it there!! All I wanted to do
was
let them know of the problem so they could treat the other kittens they had
there.

Three weeks later the kitten I got from the shelter turned up with ringworm.
Fortunately I caught it early and it didn't spread to far or to the other
kitten.
However as a precaution I had to dip both of them. Once again I called the
shelter to inform them of the potential problem they had and their response
indicated they didn't care.

I didn't want them to refund any vet bills. I didn't want the to refund any
money. I know that having pets means that I'm on the hook for vet bills when
they get sick or injured. All I wanted to do was let them know that I had
gotten
a kitten from them that had contagious conditions and that they needed to
check
the rest of the kittens/cats that they had. Each time they responded with
denial.

I don't think that it was unreasonable for me to expect to get a healthy
kitten
from the shelter. I was told when I first got there that all incoming animals
were isolated until checked by a vet before introducing them to the rest of
the
population. I was assured that the kittens they were adopting were healthy.
The
one I got from them not only wasn't but got my healthy kitten sick!!


To be frank, almost every cat I have ever heard of adopted from a situation
where there are a lot of other cats, be it a shelter or not, has had to get
over a bout of something or other. First off, new environments cause stress
and that sets of URIs. Ringworm is just awful common too. Cats, like humans,
experience depression of immune system under stress and there isn't much you
can do except support whatever happens. I'm sure they will be fine soon.
thank goodness it isn't more serious than this.