Our Cat Hudson is presently being held captive by Orkney Islands Cats Protection. Sounds extreme and bizarre but read below for the full story. Apologies for it being so long but its rather complicated, please take the time to read it.
My wife Rosie suffers from chronic M.E and in the past few months has become increasingly worse. She is at presently mostly bedbound (well stuck on the sofa as we are unable to get her upstairs to bed), she spends 99% of the time being stuck on the sofa and on rare occasions will leave the house in a wheelchair although this is no easy trip and can often lead to a relapse of her condition.
I am the full carer for my wife, I have been off work for a while now due to severe depression and anxiety issues. I have severe problems leaving the house or even making a phone call. I get stressed very easily and will often get myself into a state. When I first became to ill to attend work my wife was doing a lot better health wise so this was no problem, however during my time of sickness she became more unwell and I had no choice but to step up and care for her. This has been no easy job as with my depression I have severe lack of motavation, I admit I am not doing the best job in the world but I am just trying to do what I have to and doing what I can.
We had 8 Cats who were fully vacinated, micro-chipped and up to date on worming and flea treatments. They were all looked after with the highest of care, we provided good quality food (Royal Canin Feline Biscuits which they love and adore) and no expense was spared.
With all these cats and our dog we could see a time in the future where we would struggle to give all those cats the attention they need. We made the very hard decision before this happened to rehome some of them. We advertised privately in January but with not much success. It was so difficult to choose which cats to home as we love them all, this lead to us changing our minds several times of which ones to let go. Obviously loosing any was difficult but we tried to make the best decision possible.
In the end we decided to home some cats with our local cats protection, they contacted us after seeing our private add several weeks after it was put up. We debated this for several weeks as we were unsure of what action to take. In the end we made the decision to let them help us, what happened to be the wrong one in the end and something we regret.
Last weekend (14th & 15th of Feb) we decided as we had no luck with our private add that this was the best action to take. After contacting our local branch we changed our minds several times of which cats to let go, at the time we tried to make the best decission of whom to go and we were under so much stress and upset. Loosing any cat was going to be difficult and this situation was so difficult for us to make.
On Monday (16th Feb) morning at 11am they came around to collect the cats we had selected to be re-homed. It was such a difficult and heartbreaking morning. We knew this was going to be hard and we really thought we'd made the right decission on which cats to go. Several hours later we realised we'd made one massive mistake, one Cat in particular was so hard to loose and not having him around was causing us much distress. We did not realise how much he meant to us and what a big part he played in our lives.
Hudson, the Cat in question is such a sweet and laid back cat. He used to spend most of his time relaxing in a comfortable spot. He spent a lot of his time by my wifes side, he comforted her through the pain and gave her so much comfort and joy. I can't believe we did it, him of all cats and it must of been due to the stress and situation that we made such a stupid mistake.
By the evening (Monday 16th Feb) we were so distraught that I phoned the lady I knew to be the co-ordinator of the local cats protection branch. I rang her and apologised for the late phone call and asked her if she was still doing this job to which she replied yes. I then asked her if she was aware of our situation which homing the cats of which she was. I asked her if there was any chance we could get Hudson back and her instant reply was " Of course, no problem". There was no debate, no wait and as I said an instant answer. We were overjoyed and thanked over and over again. She took Hudson straight of the local website and told us to contact the foster lady we had been dealing with for his return.
You may be wondering why we choose to go to the co-ordinator and not the lady we had been dealing with for re-homing our Cats. The reason was is we knew this would most likely not be her decision to make and that she would need to go higher up. As we had the contact details for the lady in charge we contacted her directly, thinking she of all the people we knew at the branch had the most likely chance of giving permission for this.
So just to repeat myself for a moment here, we rang the co-ordinator who said YES. Yes we could have Hudson back and to arrange collection of him. We emailed the foster lady we had been dealing with that night, we told her the permission had been granted for Hudson's return and when could we have him back.
On Tuesday morning we recieved an email from the foster lady, she said we could have him back however she could not return him today due to ill health. She did ask in the email if we would re-concider and to let him be homed with another of the cats we gave to them. We of course understood and accepted that he could not return that day, hoping we'd get him back the next day (Wednesday) and made it very clear we would not reconcider and wanted him home.
Later in the afternoon we got another email from the foster lady saying we could not have him back, I emailed back at first as it was an automatic response. I then started to worry and get myself in a state, which lead to me to ring the co-ordinator who then told me it was out of her hands and to ring the helpline. Well I knew I wouldn't get through to someone direct and I had the foster lady's phone number so I called her directly. The phone call did not go well and she was refusing to give him back which caused us both to be very distraught.
You can not imagine what it was like to get the answer YES we could have him back to then be told later the next day that we could not have him back. This caused us so much distress, we just couln't believe they had gone back on what they said. We thought the co-ordinator had the top authoroty and which is why we went to her in the first place of which she said YES. This permission should of stood and we are just amazed and disgusting that this is happening.
To find out you could correct the biggest mistake of your life brought unimaginable joy, to then have our feelings played with the way they have is just unacceptable. My poor wife is severely ill and this is the last thing she needed, not to mention the last thing I needed.
I just want to make it very clear, the reason we gave up the cats into there care was not only because we trusted them but we felt due to the situation it was the best move to make. I want to state that we never handed them over because we could not care for them or mistreated them in anyway but because my wife was ill and we wanted to be prepared. We wanted to do the right thing and is that so bad?
To summerise, we made a huge mistake under massive strain. Two people at Orkney Islands Cats Protection said YES to having Hudson back. Only to later go back on there word and cause us undue stress and heartache.
My wife Rosie suffers from chronic M.E and in the past few months has become increasingly worse. She is at presently mostly bedbound (well stuck on the sofa as we are unable to get her upstairs to bed), she spends 99% of the time being stuck on the sofa and on rare occasions will leave the house in a wheelchair although this is no easy trip and can often lead to a relapse of her condition.
I am the full carer for my wife, I have been off work for a while now due to severe depression and anxiety issues. I have severe problems leaving the house or even making a phone call. I get stressed very easily and will often get myself into a state. When I first became to ill to attend work my wife was doing a lot better health wise so this was no problem, however during my time of sickness she became more unwell and I had no choice but to step up and care for her. This has been no easy job as with my depression I have severe lack of motavation, I admit I am not doing the best job in the world but I am just trying to do what I have to and doing what I can.
We had 8 Cats who were fully vacinated, micro-chipped and up to date on worming and flea treatments. They were all looked after with the highest of care, we provided good quality food (Royal Canin Feline Biscuits which they love and adore) and no expense was spared.
With all these cats and our dog we could see a time in the future where we would struggle to give all those cats the attention they need. We made the very hard decision before this happened to rehome some of them. We advertised privately in January but with not much success. It was so difficult to choose which cats to home as we love them all, this lead to us changing our minds several times of which ones to let go. Obviously loosing any was difficult but we tried to make the best decision possible.
In the end we decided to home some cats with our local cats protection, they contacted us after seeing our private add several weeks after it was put up. We debated this for several weeks as we were unsure of what action to take. In the end we made the decision to let them help us, what happened to be the wrong one in the end and something we regret.
Last weekend (14th & 15th of Feb) we decided as we had no luck with our private add that this was the best action to take. After contacting our local branch we changed our minds several times of which cats to let go, at the time we tried to make the best decission of whom to go and we were under so much stress and upset. Loosing any cat was going to be difficult and this situation was so difficult for us to make.
On Monday (16th Feb) morning at 11am they came around to collect the cats we had selected to be re-homed. It was such a difficult and heartbreaking morning. We knew this was going to be hard and we really thought we'd made the right decission on which cats to go. Several hours later we realised we'd made one massive mistake, one Cat in particular was so hard to loose and not having him around was causing us much distress. We did not realise how much he meant to us and what a big part he played in our lives.
Hudson, the Cat in question is such a sweet and laid back cat. He used to spend most of his time relaxing in a comfortable spot. He spent a lot of his time by my wifes side, he comforted her through the pain and gave her so much comfort and joy. I can't believe we did it, him of all cats and it must of been due to the stress and situation that we made such a stupid mistake.
By the evening (Monday 16th Feb) we were so distraught that I phoned the lady I knew to be the co-ordinator of the local cats protection branch. I rang her and apologised for the late phone call and asked her if she was still doing this job to which she replied yes. I then asked her if she was aware of our situation which homing the cats of which she was. I asked her if there was any chance we could get Hudson back and her instant reply was " Of course, no problem". There was no debate, no wait and as I said an instant answer. We were overjoyed and thanked over and over again. She took Hudson straight of the local website and told us to contact the foster lady we had been dealing with for his return.
You may be wondering why we choose to go to the co-ordinator and not the lady we had been dealing with for re-homing our Cats. The reason was is we knew this would most likely not be her decision to make and that she would need to go higher up. As we had the contact details for the lady in charge we contacted her directly, thinking she of all the people we knew at the branch had the most likely chance of giving permission for this.
So just to repeat myself for a moment here, we rang the co-ordinator who said YES. Yes we could have Hudson back and to arrange collection of him. We emailed the foster lady we had been dealing with that night, we told her the permission had been granted for Hudson's return and when could we have him back.
On Tuesday morning we recieved an email from the foster lady, she said we could have him back however she could not return him today due to ill health. She did ask in the email if we would re-concider and to let him be homed with another of the cats we gave to them. We of course understood and accepted that he could not return that day, hoping we'd get him back the next day (Wednesday) and made it very clear we would not reconcider and wanted him home.
Later in the afternoon we got another email from the foster lady saying we could not have him back, I emailed back at first as it was an automatic response. I then started to worry and get myself in a state, which lead to me to ring the co-ordinator who then told me it was out of her hands and to ring the helpline. Well I knew I wouldn't get through to someone direct and I had the foster lady's phone number so I called her directly. The phone call did not go well and she was refusing to give him back which caused us both to be very distraught.
You can not imagine what it was like to get the answer YES we could have him back to then be told later the next day that we could not have him back. This caused us so much distress, we just couln't believe they had gone back on what they said. We thought the co-ordinator had the top authoroty and which is why we went to her in the first place of which she said YES. This permission should of stood and we are just amazed and disgusting that this is happening.
To find out you could correct the biggest mistake of your life brought unimaginable joy, to then have our feelings played with the way they have is just unacceptable. My poor wife is severely ill and this is the last thing she needed, not to mention the last thing I needed.
I just want to make it very clear, the reason we gave up the cats into there care was not only because we trusted them but we felt due to the situation it was the best move to make. I want to state that we never handed them over because we could not care for them or mistreated them in anyway but because my wife was ill and we wanted to be prepared. We wanted to do the right thing and is that so bad?
To summerise, we made a huge mistake under massive strain. Two people at Orkney Islands Cats Protection said YES to having Hudson back. Only to later go back on there word and cause us undue stress and heartache.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.