I plan to write a letter, definitely. The lady at the counter acted really oddly while we were waiting for another girl to come and take the kitty in back. I was making small talk, telling her how I had caught him and that he had been around the neighborhood for a while, and how pretty he was, that somebody would surely adopt him, etc. She said almost nothing other than to take my name and phone number. She didn't say a thing about their S.N.I.P program of spaying/neutering and then releasing ferals back where they came from, which I did not know they had. I would have done that in a heartbeat! I would have loved to see him around the neighborhood if he was neutered; he wouldn't be peeing on my house then and might be less interested in arguing with my kitties. They brag all about that on their website, how successful that program is in our county. She didn't tell me anything about their policies on ferals or what could be expected to happen to that poor kitty. I would think a compassionate shelter worker would tell me exactly what I would be subjecting the cat to, so I could make an informed decision.
I still don't think that cat was truly feral. He looked very healthy (other than the fleas), no battle scars or runny eyes, and he wasn't totally terrified of people - he would stop, sit down, and look at me when I called to him from a distance. If I were to walk toward him, then he would trot off. I think he was being regularly fed by someone around here because he always came over from the same driveway across the street (but not from that house, I asked the neighbor over there). A few days before we caught him, he came into the next door neighbor's backyard and just made himself at home about 10 feet from the fence. He layed on his side all comfy, took a little bath - it made me laugh because it seemed like he was taunting my kitties with the fact that he wasn't fenced in and was a free range kitty.
If they have a program where they can neuter ferals, they must be able to somehow approach them, touch them, and then anesthetize them, so I find it hard to believe he was so unmanageable he had to die.
The legend says that Mohammed adored cats. When one of them was sleeping on his sleeve and he had to go out, Mohammed supposedly cut off the sleeve so as not to disturb his pet.
A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast - Proverbs 12:10
How we behave toward cats here below determines our status in heaven. - Robert A. Heinlein
What greater gift than the love of a cat? ~ Charles Dickens
There is, incidently, no way of talking about cats that enables one to come off as a sane person. - Dan Greenberg
If purring could be encapsulated, it'd be the most powerful anti-depressant on the market. ~Alexis F. Hope
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