I promised you yesterday that I would tell you about how I adopted Lily just so you get the idea of how it works.
John, Ellie, Erin and I headed down to the Animal Protective League on Saturday afternoon. There were so many extra cats to adopt, their portable cages lined the hallway by the front desk. We wandered from cage to cage to cage examining the cats while Ellie exclaimed "Kitty!" every time. Pretty well all the cats looked content and relaxed - it must have been snooze time.
We wanted a female cat (we thought a female would get on better with Barnes, our neurtered senior citizen), older than one year (less likely to scratch the girls when playing with them), and short-haired (Barnes's lovely long fur is not much fun for him in the summer).
We eventually got to the back room which is lined with cages but couldn't help but wonder how on earth we were going to choose a cat. I was thinking it would have been handier if we could have done a search on the cat database with our requirements and printed out a list of their locations so we could have checked every single one but I think that technology is pretty much out of the reach of any rescue shelter.
To cut a long story short, we finally found Lily (aka Carrie, her APL name) and we all agreed she was the cat for us ("KITTY!"). We got her out of her cage to pet and cuddle her just to be sure and she was a purring machine.
Back at the front desk, I filled out the paperwork including an adoption contract, stating among other things that:
- Lily might have infectious diseases from being at the APL,
- a recommendation to take her to the vet within 2 weeks of adoption (they have a list of local vets that do that first visit for free),
- I agree to keep her as a primarily indoor cat (yes she'll go outside if she wants but absolutely will be indoors most of the time, just like Barnes), and
- I'm responsible for any of Lily's vet bills
And then I got a few supplies from their pet store (a bag of the food she's on, a litter box, and a catnip toy), paid for her, and took her home. Very simple.
The adoption cost $75, which is very reasonable given that you get a beautiful and friendly companion who has been:
- spayed: all the cats and dogs are spayed or neutered when they arrive at the APL
- vaccinated: she had a FVRCP vaccination, which is a combo shot for Feline Viral Rhinotrocheitis/ Calicivirus/ Panleukopenia/ Chlamydia and since she was a stray and not in bad shape, I suspect she had a number of shots already - to be tested by our vet
- had a flea treatment
- and been tested for feline leukemia virus, which will always be negative if they are being adopted out
So there you have it - now you see how easy it is to make a big difference in a small cat's life.
