We said good bye to the kittentoday. After our last unsuccessful attempt to get her to the humane society, I finally gave her enough reason food to get her inside the pet carrier this afternoon. For the past few days we’ve been getting anxious about her health as the weather officially marches into grilling summer heat. We saw her lying lifelessly in the yard a couple of times, gathered only enough strength to dash out of our sight to her hiding place when we approach. How does a kitten to survive like this without food? We rarely see her mother anymore. Even when we do, they act like two strangers meeting for the very first time.
Surprised I was able to catch her in the pet carrier, Grace immediately readied her self for a short trip to the humane society. The kitten begged for her release in the backseat as we took a short drive to humane society’s closest office. We believe in our heart that she’d eventually be adopted by a loving family.
When we arrived at the humane society, the strangest thing happened — the kitten was rejected because of where we found her. Apparently there’s been some politicking going on. The city of San Jose decided to setup its own animal shelter, and in doing so, it severed its contract with the Humane Society Silicon Valley, a non-profit organization that serves the Santa Clara County. Even though we live only less than two miles down the block from the Humane Society, the politics of the situation got in the way of doing what’s good for the society. I couldn’t help but think how this is such a microcosm of our society today.
We turned around and drove 10 miles to San Jose Animal Care Center. As we filled out paperwork for dropping the poor thing off, the social worker was trying to get the kitten out of our pet carrier and into their own cage. For the first time, the kitten hissed and fought with a vengence. I guess I would have too if I didn’t know what the hell was going on.
So we have accomplished our goal. Now the kitten is in the hands of professionals. But we felt naked, almost an indescribable emptiness inside, feeling we had betrayed the little thing by handing her fate over to a stranger at an unfamiliar place, and we did so without her permission. Already, we have started to miss her, mourning the loss of a tiny orange tabby in our yard, greeting us everytime we went out or came home. Though we consciously knew we weren’t going to adopt her, our acquaintance for the past three weeks made us feel as if she’s been part of our life surrealistically longer.
Grace wants to go back and check on her in a couple of days just to make sure that she’s adapting to the new environment well. After the kitten’s initial exhibit of anger, the social worker commented that she’d have to see if the kitten passes her temperament test in a few days to make sure that she’s fit for adoption. We hope she passes. Other wise, we’d just subjected her to a dose of leathal injection. And THAT is going to sit well with our conscience for the rest of ourlives.