I need another pet like I need a hole in my head!

Every morning I check the Lake Elsinore Animal Shelter's lost and found website to see if maybe I will recognize a face and be able to help return that pet to their home. In the many years that I have been doing this, I have only recognized one face. What I do see??? A ton of scared faces that deserve much more than to be in an unfamiliar place wondering if anyone is coming for them. The sad truth is that for many of these animals, the shelter is just that... shelter, a much needed place to rest. Many of these dogs and cats have been wandering the streets looking for food and a warm or cool place to rest. Shelters are busting at the seems normally, but right now with the economy in the mess that it is and people losing their homes left and right, dogs and cats are being dropped off all day long. For these people, I am truly sorry that they will lose their family companion and I am even more sorry for the dog/cat that thought it had a forever home to now be in a scary place not understanding what happened. What I DO NOT understand, is the people who lose their homes and abandon their animal in the backyard where they cannot get food or shelter. These people need to be shot! The shelter will take your animal, at least there they will be fed and taken care of. 


Okay, my reason for writing this was not to vent, but to tell you that as much as I love my dogs and cats, I do NOT need any more! We already have 3 dogs (Hunter a 2 yr old Greater Swiss Mountain Dog/labrador mix, Skeeter a 14 yr old rat terrier mix, and Miss Lola Bugs our 6 yr old one eyed pug) along with 2 cats (Angel who is horribly misnamed as she is a devil beast straight from the depths of Hell, and Lil' Punkin who I often times forget lives here because she is so quiet and sweet). 


Well as I said, I was checking the shelter lost and found yesterday morning while finishing my morning coffee when I saw this face... 


 


Now those of you that know me well, know that I like cats but I am definitely more of a dog person. I usually find a dog that I "NEED" about 8 times a day. Very rarely do I say, "oh my gosh, I have to have that cat"!  Now most of you would look at this cat and think, "what a mess". Well I look at it as "oh this poor old guy needs some TLC badly!" Once again, if you know me, you will know that senior animals are my very favorite! I am not really a puppy or kitten kind of gal! Everyone wants a puppy or kitten! But when I look at this 12 year old face, I think, "he needs to spend the last of his days knowing that someone cared about him". I refuse to let this old guy die in the shelter because he is old!!!! 


So I called the shelter to find out a little more about him... Keep in mind, he was in lost and found so this means that he could have escaped and his kind and loving owners are out there worried sick about him! They would have 5-10 days (depending on if he was microchipped or not) to come claim him before he became adoptable for the public. Now this guy does have one thing in his favor and that is that he is a purebred Persian. People pay a lot of money for these fancy cats... So I had some hope that somebody was out there looking for him. Anyway, I call the shelter to ask about his story... The clerk pulls his file and reads, "10-12 year old neutered male Persian cat, not microchipped, came in as a stray, bad shape, lots of puncture wounds on his paws". 


I immediately call Paul and ask, "Can I please go put a hold on a senior cat who is in horrible shape? I can't let him die there! Nobody will want him because he is so old and in awful shape!" I am sure Paul rolled his eyes on the other end of this phone call but to his credit, he said "go ahead". Please remember that Paul is the cat person of this family as Angel was his before we lived together and Lil' Punkin was his brothers that we were supposed to cat sit for a week (that was about 7 or 8 years ago). 


The kids and I drive to Lake Elsinore to go meet this smooshy face. When we were getting close to the shelter Rylee says, "This is the way to the shelter where the dogs that don't have homes live, is it a cat shelter now?" I explain to her that the shelter has more than just dogs, they have cats, rats, snakes and even farm animals like pigs and sheep. She says, "maybe we can give them all a home".  That's my girl!!!!  We get to the shelter and sign in... of course there is the most beautiful brindle boxer girl playing in the yard (boxers are one of my weaknesses along with pugs, saint bernards, mastiffs of any kind, labs, and queensland heelers. The only way it could have been worse would have been if she were a white senior boxer). We introduce ourselves to Miss Leila (the brindle boxer girl) and give her some love before moving on.  We walk in to the "cattery" where it reeks of urine. The clerk asks us if we need any help. I tell her that we came to meet the senior Persian. She about knocks me over and hugs me. She tells me that she loves this sweet boy but needs to "show me something". Okay, I prepare myself for the worst, (she doesn't know that I work in rescue so she has no idea that I see the worst of the worst on a daily basis). Thank goodness, he was okay... Well when I say okay, the poor guy wasn't covered in acid burns, or had half of his face missing from being used as bait in a dog fighting ring... From what it looked like, he had lived outside for a majority of his life. His long trademark Persian hair was one solid mat intertwined with pieces of feces and sticker thorns and his nails were so overgrown that they had curled around and started to grow into the pads on his paws. Despite all of this, he purred as we pet him in his kennel. It constantly amazes me how animals are so resilient and forgiving! I decided that I would take him to my vet and have him shaved and bathed so he could start from scratch. I told the lady we would love to offer him a home. She hugged me again and told me that we had just made her month! When we went to the little office to tell them we would like to put a hold on him (the kids have since named him Prince Elmo) the supervisor came up to me and told me that they would like to cover the grooming (shaving) for us because they were so happy that he was going to a home! I was shocked... but knew Paul would be happy that we weren't going to have to pay to have our new "old cat" shaved! 


So today he was sent off to the groomer and we will get to pick up Prince Elmo (when Kai says it, it sounds like Omar) tomorrow afternoon. 


So yes, another pet! I am not sure how I am going to break the news to Angel and Lil' Punkin... 


Go ahead and laugh at my craziness! =)