Most people know that when surrendering a cat to a shelter, it is of primary importance to get the cat inside the shelter.
If you can answer some questions, maybe fill out some paperwork, so much the better — but at least get the cat within the four walls of the building.
Our bonehead in Maine, being an idiot out to prove her widespread incompetence, didn’t comprehend, care about, or possibly even know this. She not only left a cat in front of the Franklin County Animal Shelter on a freezing day before the facility opened, she left two cats — the other was a 5-month-old kitten.
Also, mom and kitten were stuffed into a suitcase (in separate compartments).
Fortunately, the cats were in the suitcase in front of the animal shelter for only five to 10 minutes, thanks to the sharp eyes of someone who is the exact opposite of a bonehead. This woman witnessed the whole thing; namely, how a woman in a “beanie-type hat and glasses” drove up to the shelter, pulled out a suitcase, plopped it on the porch, and drove off.
Then, our Good Samaritan saw the suitcase start to move. Because there were cats inside.
So she did what our bonehead should have done: She knocked on the door of the shelter, and the cats were ushered inside to safety.
“They’re doing great here. They are a little shy,” Kelsey Cler, website and volunteer coordinator for the shelter, told the Portland Press Herald.
One thing that could explain our bonehead’s actions is the shelter’s surrender fee of $30 per cat. But the shelter is quick to point out that the fee goes toward keeping the place running, and the number is not set in stone.
As the shelter explains on its Facebook page:
We are a private, nonprofit shelter that gets only a small portion of our budget (18 percent) from contracted towns. The rest must be made up through grants, fundraising, adoption fees, and yes, surrender fees. We spend a lot of money to care for the animals and get them ready for adoption, and we have to be able to sustain our operations. However, we are not insensitive to people’s financial troubles and will work with people as we can.
Cler reiterated that to the Portland Herald: “We understand that people get in a financial situation and cannot afford to care for their pets. We will work with people. We definitely don’t encourage leaving them outside.”
This isn’t the first time pets have been left outside the Franklin County Animal Shelter, sadly. A dog was once discovered chained to the porch, and kittens in a box were dumped during a blizzard.
“This was not fair to these cats to be zipped in and left in the cold,” said Cler about our bonehead’s cats. Fortunately, she doesn’t have them anymore.
Photo via the Franklin County Animal Shelter.
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