I take it then that you are going to accept this animal into your home? Our
shelter also currently has 2 other cats that were surrendered with
inappropriate elimination issues and who are fully healthy. Would you like
to arrange transportation for them too? And the 20% figure that I gave for
the behavior modification with Prozac is exactly what the 4 different vets
who work with the Humane Society also gave me. It's also what I've
experienced personally with shelter cats and one of my own personal cats.
Medication did NOT help. Two years of trying everything under the sun did
nothing, and my own cat became more and more anxious and nervous, which is
why I ended up fostering him and keeping him in the first place. I do blame
it on his declaw, which he came to me with and had to be redone it was
botched so badly. For that reason, he could not go out to the barn with the
feral colony that I maintain. $1200 worth of medical tests, with all of
them coming back normal. What would you suggest now?

When someone's made the decision to relinquish an animal, that decision has
been made. You might change the mind of 25% of them with further
information, but usually, they just end up relinquishing the animal later
when someone else is on the intake desk. By the time the ads go out and the
shelter is visited, it's a done deal. That animal either finds a new home,
or is tossed out. It's better that an animal be euthanized by an owner than
to be relinquished to some of the awful kill shelters I've seen, and better
to be euthanized than go to some of the no kill facilities I've seen as
well. If an animal is living in a shelter situation, it's cruel to keep
them there longer than about 6 months. Living life in a 30 inch cat tower
isn't a life. Rescues themselves have a responsibility to not be cruel to
the animals in their charge, and making an animal live their life out in a
shelter is cruel.

Not all animals problems can be fixed and not all animals can be saved.
Since rescue resources are limited, they go further if you admit that there
are those that shouldn't be taken on, and help 5 other cats in their place.
That's also realistic.