No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Merry Meet Family, Friends and Followers,

I fear I am the bearer of sad tidings once again. As many of you know, we adopted Persephone last weekend. Unfortunately, her stay with us was brief.

I found Persephone at a local PetSmart, which here in New Jersey, is an "everything pets" store. She was actually a rescue from the home of someone that was hoarding animals. This person had many Himalayan cats that were not spayed or neutered and that just kept reproducing. Persephone was from one of those litters. She and her siblings were severely neglected, so naturally, as I do with most living creatures, I came to her rescue. I wonder if there's therapy for this?

On the day I was to pick her up, my coworker accompanied me to PetSmart to fill out the necessary paperwork for the adoption. It was then I noticed Persephone had an eye infection. On further inspection, both her ears were infected as well. The adoption coordinator began handing me eye ointment and ear drops. Then my coworker noticed that the cat's mouth was very inflamed. She recognized this as a possible sign of Bartonella infection a.k.a. Cat Scratch Disease which is transmittable to humans and can be quite serious. When we pointed this out to the coordinator she dismissed it as probably some random infection, but asked us to accompany her to her home so that she could begin an oral antibiotic..immediately!

Now ya gotta know, I just dropped $200 bucks on this cat because of her pedigree, only to find she had multiple infections. I told the coordinator that I wasn't willing to take the cat home while she was ill, but rather that she should call me when the cat was healthy and I would bring her home then. After I had time to think things through, I called her back and told her that, if after the necessary treatment the cat wasn't the picture of health, I would not pursue the adoption.

Well, a couple of weeks went by and the adoption person kept calling me to let me how "wonderfully" Persephone was doing and that I could take her home in a few days. I was skeptical, but when I went to pick her up, she seemed quite well. (the pictures I posted were from a day or two after we brought her home). However, within days she, once again, fell ill. She was vomiting and wouldn't eat. I had already made a post adoption appointment for that week, so I brought her in.

Well, this was one sick kitty. The vet felt she should be hospitalized, but decided he would treat her outpatient with the understanding that if there was no improvement by the following morning, she needed IV hydration, lab work and possibly x-rays. He further suggested that his office call the adoption agency and get an approval to treat the cat, since we had just brought her home and technically her care was still covered under the adoption agreement.

Well, to make a long story short, it ended up costing US another $200 for a cat that had only been ours for 4 days! The adoption agency only agreed to reimburse us 30% because...are ya ready???? We didn't get their permission to have her treated! While arguing with them over the phone in our vet's office, we learned that in addition to all Persephone's other medical issues, she had also tested positive for Cat Scratch Disease. They knew this all along, but encouraged us to take her home anyway.

My husband, to say the very least, is livid pissed!!!! If he didn't love me and respect the fact that as long as I live and breath, I will try to save every living thing on the face of the Planet, I'd probably be looking for a home with one of you as we speak!!!

Persephone is currently in the care of the adoption coordinator. Again, we made it clear that if her health issues were chronic, as suggested by our vet, we wanted to be reimbursed for the adoption. She told us she was unable to authorize it without permission from her "President".

Bullshit! The next morning, while my husband was online doing our banking, I asked him to see if they had cashed our adoption check. I was certain that they had, as I had written it out almost a month before. But...low and behold, they never cashed our check and thanks to the online "stop payment" option, now they never will!

I feel horrible having to give up Persephone. She's a sweet, loving, beautiful little soul. However, if our vet's predictions are correct, she will require continuous and costly medical treatment for the rest of her life and will be in a great deal of pain most of the time. Having so recently lost Autumn, I just can't...

As far as the bill for Persephone's care goes, I feel that at least it was the one thing I was able to give her.

In Darkness, Light!



Me