6/28/08 The New Arrivals

The first thing Tony said when he woke up on Saturday was "Let's go get a dog".
This was unusual because 1) we've never really talked about getting a dog, and 2) we're just not really dog people. I mean, we like dogs and all, but not enough to actually own one ourselves. Cats yes, dogs no. But Tony had seen a news report the night before about the animal shelter two counties over closing, and they had to find homes for all of their animals before Monday, otherwise they'd be euthanized. And since saving an animal from an unnecessary death is high on our list of priorities, Tony wanted to go get a dog. So today, we are saving a dog's life from the shelter that is closing.

I'm all about saving defenseless animals too, but impulse-purchasing a dog seemed to be a bit rash. Besides, Tony wanted a big dog, and I wanted a little dog. And an inside dog needs walking, and an outside dog causes all the other neighborhood dogs to bark. And what would we do with the dog during the day? And who would watch the dogs when we went on weekend trips? And and and. We are just not setup for dog ownership at this time.

"What about another cat?" I asked. "People are less likely to adopt cats anyway. We can save a cat". (Do you hear all this rationalizing going on?) We're cat people anyway. We know cat care. So today, we are saving a dog's cat's life from the shelter that is closing.

Except that I didn't want to drive two hours to the animal shelter if there were already a million people lining up to adopt these pets. Because publicity is the shelter's best friend, and I was sure that if we were willing to jump into action, 50 other families were too. So we called several times, and it was always busy. And we figured that they really didn't need us...shelters that didn't get any publicity are the ones that need us. So today, we are saving a dog's cat's life from the shelter that is closing a shelter that is not closing.

So we went to our local shelter, who was not closing, but also didn't have any publicity, to get a cat, rather than a dog. We told ourselves that we were just going to check and see if anyone needed a good home, which is silly, because ALL those animals need good homes, and no one with a heart walks into a shelter without knowing that they are going to walk with something.

We found our somethings. Two somethings actually. Siamese kittens, 8 weeks old, in need of a good home. Now kittens are always popular so they probably would have found a good home with someone, and even if they weren't kittens, the volunteer told us that lots of people come in looking for Siamese. Plus, this was a no kill shelter, so they weren't in any danger. But that did not stop us from getting them anyway. Those kittens NEEDED us. Both of them. Because even though we only went in for one cat, they were brothers, and who can separate brothers?

Annnnnd, we rationalized, if Mason and Dixon need some time getting used to the new arrival, at least with two, they can keep each other company. So Today, we saved adopted a two dog's cat's kittens from the shelter that is closing a shelter that is not closing before any other people who also love Siamese kittens could get there first.

We are such humanitarians. (Siameseatarians?) Either way, now we have 4 Siamese cats, the older of the pair not terribly thrilled about the arrival of the younger of the pair. Let the hissing a growling and tail puffery commence.


Which, in my opinion, is still better than a dog.


Note: You'll be happy to know that the shelter that was closing was absolutely bombarded with people wanting to adopt the animals, so they were all able to find good homes, and none had to be put down. All's well that ends well.