Saints They Ain’t

 

As I posted yesterday, we were supposed to be cat free by last night but we had some difficulty in dealing with SAINT Animal Rescue. When Evelyn spoke with Jerry at SAINT he told us that he would have to go by Petco which is where we picked up Roxie to see if they had room in their kennel. If they did we could return her to Petco. He said he would do this on Monday and give us a call to let us know what to do. Now I was curious as to why an animal rescue would need to make sure there was room at a pet store instead of just taking the animal back to their shelter but I decided to let it slide.

Well, Monday came and we waited for Jerry’s call and we waited and we waited. Finally about 4:30pm Evelyn called him to see what was going on. He said that there was no room at Petco and that we would need to keep Roxie for a few days until  a slot opened up. WHAT!!?? What kind of animal rescue refuses to take an animal?

Well, Tuesday came and we heard nothing from SAINT so Evelyn decided to call Petco and ask what our options were if SAINT did not pickup Roxie or tell us when we could return her. Jason, the manager at Petco was unaware of SAINT’s return policy requiring open kennel space at Petco. He also told us that Jerry did not come by on Monday to check on the kennel space. Jason then told us that he would call Jerry and then call us back. When Jason called back he said Jerry told him that we were told we could return the cat on Saturday. WHAT!!?? The man never mentioned a time to return Roxie. He only said we would have to wait for room at Petco. It appeared that SAINT had gotten their $100 non-refundable adoption fee and could care less what happened with the animal after that. Jason told us this was not the 1st time he had this complaint about SAINT and then he told us we could bring Roxie in and sign her over to Petco and he would make sure that she was taken care of and adopted back out to a good home.

So off we went to Petco to return Roxie. Now believe me when I tell you that this was no easy task. We had become quite attached to Roxie over the last couple of days but there is a good ending to this story. Less than 30 minutes after we got back home from Petco, the phone rang. It was Jason telling us that one of his employees was enthralled with Roxie and was going to adopt her.

While I will not recommend SAINT Animal Rescue, I can and will recommend my local Petco store (http://www.petco.com/content/locator/Details.aspx?storeId=1408&Nav=2) to all animal lovers. You are guaranteed to get excellent customer service from a staff who truly care about your pets as well as the animals in their care.

 

 

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Blogger Labels: cats,SAINT Animal Rescue,Animal,Petco,animals

Bye Bye Kitties, We’ll Miss You.

It’s a sad day at the Ford house. We will be catless by the end of the day. And your thinking cats… you had cats. Well yes, for the last 14 days. My mother-in-law, Doris, shared 2 cats with her sisters when she was living in New Jersey and we actually had a cat about 15 years or so ago. Doris had asked Evelyn, my wife, and I about the possibility of getting a cat when she moved in, so Evelyn and I had been mulling it over for a couple of months. Finally a couple of weeks ago we decided that a cat would be a good thing. Doris would have some company during the day while we worked and the house was a perfect setup since it was a bi-level with lots of ledges, etc. for the cats to play and hang out. That’s right I said “cats” since we wound up getting two.

It started out innocent enough, we went to the Humane Society on a Saturday to look around. Doris didn’t see any cats that she really connected with. Evelyn on the other hand had found Rocco, a male kitten who was about 2-3 months old. He was very cute and energetic and looked a lot like the cat we had about 15 years ago. We debated about it but decided against adopting him since we were there to get Doris a cat. Well, the weekend drug on and I couldn’t stop thinking about Rocco. Evelyn as well had been thinking about him so on Monday Doris and I went back to the shelter but Rocco was gone.

That should have been the sign that Evelyn and I didn't need a cat and we should just get one for Doris but I was hooked. Doris and I scoped out the shelter, Petsmart and Petco. We found 2 cats, Mimi (the agency called her Angie) and Roxie. Mimi was a 4 mo. old gray and white female and Roxie was a 3 mo old solid black female. They were as cute as could be and very loving. Now don’t get me wrong, we have had cats in the past and thought we were prepared for raising these two. What we hadn’t realized was that we had less patience now that we were older. These 2 cats were a huge tour de force of energy. They slept most of  the day and came alive in the afternoon. Climbing the curtains, chewing on the carpet, scratching everything in sight, eating the fake plants, and crawling into any nook and cranny that they could find. And the smells, I’m not talking about your normal cat box orders here. These cats smelled as bad as my father did after a huge dinner at a Mexican restaurant. It would instantly fill the house and gag you. Also we did not think about what to do with the cats if we went on vacation. The last thing I wanted to do was ask a friend to come over and clean out a litter box.

So after much debate and a long family discussion yesterday, all 3 of us decided we were not cut out to be good parents to the cats so we contacted their respective adoption agencies. Mimi’s adoption agency picked her up this morning and we are still waiting to hear from Roxie’s.

Below are the links to the 2 agencies. Contact them if you are interested in adopting animals and hopefully you will be better prepared than we were. Also I have posted photos of the 2 cuties just so you can see how hard a decision it was. 

Look What the Cat Brought In      http://lookwhatthecatbroughtin.org

SAINT Animal Rescue                    http://www.saintanimalrescue.org  (As of 08/25=09, I can no longer in good faith recommend SAINT Animal Rescue.)

 

 

Blogger Labels: Animal Rescue,animal adoption,Petsmart,Petco,animals,Animal,cats

Library Expansion in Posh NY Hood Goes On - 7/31/2009 - School Library Journal

 

Library Expansion in Posh NY Hood Goes On - 7/31/2009 - School Library Journal

 

Really! I was dumbfounded when I read this article as well as the first one from a year ago. See http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6581006.html as well. Where would the affluent summer resident be if they were banned from the library as children? This really let’s you know how they feel about the permanent residents, the ones who care enough about the community to actually live there and put up with the part-timers. I guess if they only have to be smart enough to clean the affluent’ houses and make sure that their food is served in a timely manner.

Here is a quote from the first article:

As part of the environmental impact statement outlining the effect of expanding the children’s room, the zoning board has requested that the library provide its exact number of cardholders by each community served and the frequency of each cardholder’s use. The library has refused to supply the information, saying it’s irrelevant to the process. The zoning board also asked that the library consider tabling the project and suggested that local children use their school media centers instead of the public library.

What environmental impact? Are they afraid being poor is contagious? A child from a less affluent neighborhood seen in public might scar their community?

The zoning board and local community leaders need to pull their heads out of their asses and realize children need a good education and access to public resources in order to break the cycle of being poor. If they are this worried about poor children then maybe they should open a private library at the country club so the wealthy children aren’t “infected” by the poor children.

 

Screw dumbfounded, I think I’m pissed off!

 

 

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Blogger Labels: Library,Expansion,Posh,School,Journal,children,education

 

New page added

I’ve redesigned the blog a little. I removed the book widgets from the main page and added a 2nd blog called Terry’s Book Page. It’s a pretty basic page with just lists of books I’ve read or own. I might add some reviews in the future. I have been debating whether or not to shut down my website (tgford.webs.com). Visitors really can’t do much on the site without becoming Freewebs members and setting up their own site. It’s mostly just auto-updating feeds from this blog anyway and I don’t do much with it anymore since I have become a Facebook junkie. I have also been maintaining a Shutterfly page of my photos as well as setting up a couple of other Shutterfly pages for family photos. That’s a lot of irons in the fire which might explain why I haven’t posted on this blog much lately. But I will keep everyone posted on new developments as well as the links to the family pages when they are ready to go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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