Eight Lives love the cats who come into rescue here. We love it even more when they don’t. Cats like Bracken who we wrote about in August, who had a microchip check on the way here and was returned to a family who had lost him years ago. Spooky (not his real name) is another happy Halloween story.
We were contacted at Halloween by a distraught young woman who needed an urgent rescue place for her 8 year old cat. She’d had him since he was a kitten, and clearly cared about him. Sadly a chain of events had led to her having to move into rented accommodation where she was only allowed one pet, and now she was in a nightmare Sophie’s Choice situation between Spooky and the dog. The well known large cat charity from which she had adopted Spooky had advised that it was best to have him put to sleep – despite him being healthy.
Having gone out to meet her, with a cat carrier in the car just in case (to be fair, there’s almost always a cat carrier in the car “just in case” even if we’re only going to Tesco to do the shopping) we decided it was worth giving it one last chance to get the landlord’s agreement to keep Spooky. We were delighted to get a text this afternoon saying that the landlord had agreed to having two pets in the property, despite having initially said no.
We’re sharing this partly just because its good news, but also to offer some hope to others that its worth asking the landlord, and asking again, and offering an additional bond, and asking again. Also because it feels important to try to raise awareness of the wider issues here. The recession is forcing more and more people into rented accommodation, and thereby tearing human/hairy families apart. Loved animals are finding themselves in rescue, leaving both human and hairy in distress ………. and rescues overloaded. Something needs to change. Perhaps this is a start: http://www.letswithpets.org.uk/home/home
8 Lives: Sheffield 8 Cat Rescue 