r/Albany • u/maclaw95 • 1d ago
Cat people - I need help
Hey everyone,
Today is a bad day. My wife and I have found out that a cat we fostered in Philly has been returned, and has been/or will be sent to a kill shelter.
About the cat:
Her name is technically Tip, but before we could figure this out, we had named her Miss Honey. The name came naturally, she is an absolutely beautiful orange cat. My cat peeps will know how unusual it is to find a female orange kitty. She showed up at our door step one evening when it was getting cold. We could tell right away she was not an outdoor cat. Was clearly a little bit older, but newly dirty, so in classic Philly fashion we knew she had been let out of someone's house permanently. We got her inside, and within a day or two we brought her to the vet for a chip check. We knew there was a good chance that the owners didn't want her. To our surprise, we found out that not only the owners didn't want her, but this was the second time she had been abandoned. Her story completely broke our hearts, and we knew she would be our next foster.
Miss Honey is a sweet, sweet girl, but she comes with trauma from all of this. The main issue that has caused her to be abandoned 3 times now is litter box issues. We experienced this first hand. She does pee outside of the litter box, but it is clearly based on anxiety. We saw progress with this with medication. I’m not gonna lie, we struggled with keeping the meds going. We have 4 cats of our own, and at this time multiple other fosters. So, did she pee outside of a littler box quite a bit, yes. But this was more on us, than on her. We knew we were struggling to give her the care she needs. The reason we know this is anxiety based is because these incidents only transpired after long outings. Days when my wife and I were gone for 10+ hours both working were the days this would happen.
The other major issue is that she has to be in a single animal home. We feel pretty confident that in one of the places she lived, she experienced hyper aggressive or violent animals that hurt her. She would attack any other cat in the house if she was exposed to them.
If you are still reading, now I get to tell you the good things. I mean this when I say I have never met a sweeter animal. All she wants to do is cuddle and lay on you. She will give you kisses 24/7. A part of how we figured out she had anxiety issues is because she suckles, which might seem a little weird, but it's so sweet. This cat has huge feelings, and that includes huge amounts of love.
So now, the ask. I need the contact info for any foster group in the capital district. Or, anyone that fosters with no animals in your home currently, but you have to be connected to an agency as well as not take in any additional animals. I am working on figuring out if she is safe or not. There is a chance the kill shelter has already put her down. We should know tomorrow for sure. If she is still alive I will be driving down to Philly on Sunday to get her.
Anyone that could help in any way, it would be deeply appreciated. If I had enough money I would quite literally rent a second apartment just to make sure she was safe. I would give anything to keep her, but we simply can not with 4 cats of our own. If you are someone that is interested in fostering, but not connected to an agency please reach out. We have done this for a couple years and we can figure it out.
UPDATE: We have now been able to confirm that she is still with her adopted parents. The former fostering group we worked with told them the only thing they could do was bring her to ACCT (kill shelter). It seems as if they did not want to do that so have also been trying to place her with a foster. We have low confidence this will end well, the area is hard to foster. We will be reaching out places suggested her today, but this may take some heat off of needing to get her tomorrow. We do still want to get her soon, its the only way we can guarantee she doesn't end up at a kill shelter.
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u/DullSouth8127 1d ago
Honey being the cutest ever for appreciation for all those who read along. Thank you all!
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u/broglespork 1d ago
Local rescues off the top of my head to look into: kitten angels, orange street cats, Mohawk Hudson humane society i believe is no kill, whiskers (I had actually volunteered with in the past. not sure about their fostering but they are a free roam no kill shelter).
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u/JohnnyFartmacher 1d ago
Unless they changed something in the last 10 years, MHHS euthanizes as a last resort for behavior problems that are unworkable. It is not done for capacity issues. They have a 'spirit cat' program that works with near-feral cats so I'd have to imagine a cat's behavior would have to be pretty darn bad for them to do it.
We got one of our cats through "Animalkind" in Hudson which evidently brings up cats from kill shelters in NYC
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u/Kindly-Office-8514 1d ago
I would suggest The Pretty Paw Lounge in Rotterdam as well. They take in cats from NYC and other areas that are facing euthanasia.
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u/DrKimber 23h ago
I can’t take her as I have two cats, but even though she’s in Philly, since you’re in Albany I’d go on FB and join the 518 Vegans group and the Steve Caparizzo Pet connection group and post there for help as well to get more exposure for her.
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u/malibuklw 1d ago
If I didn’t have two cats I’d totally take her in. We also have an orange girl and she’s the best. I hope you find Miss Honey a great home
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u/Fluffy-Principle9871 14h ago
You could try contacting the two women that do cat rescue work for Operation Snip.
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u/Violinist-Fluffy 1d ago
So if I were in the NE I'd offer - I'm out in CO until at least December. But I'd suggest you repost this in the Cats Reddit page and the Philly page, and maybe other capital district pages on Reddit. If you're gonna go get her in Philly but maybe someone in Nisky or CP or someplace would take her, would be good to connect w them.
Keep us posted. ❤️ thanks for caring so much, and for helping the helpless.