Thursday, April 01, 2010

For the Love of Moe

When I woke up this morning, I really thought today would be an ordinary rescue day. I'm not sure if there is such a thing as "ordinary", but it sure felt that way. With only ONE cat to rescue, things couldn't get too complicated, right?

Wrong.

After being stood up last Saturday by an adopter interested in Moe , I felt pretty confident when I spoke with yet another adopter that this would be Moe's big opportunity for a forever home. Stephanie sounded lovely and was so excited to meet Moe. We were to meet at noon today.

I arrived at the shelter at 11:45 to make sure Moe looked his best. I even took a silly picture of me and Moe just to commemorate the rescue and adoption:

So when 12:30 rolled around I decided to call Stephanie. She was sorry she was late, but would be there at 1:00. I sighed, but waited around for her. By 1:30 I was a raving lunatic!! How could I possibly be stood up TWICE for the same cat?? There was no way I would leave Moe again. I had arranged for a Plan B for Moe and was prepared to drive him more than an hour away to a wonderful foster family who seemed very happy to have him. :)

I wasn't too surprised to receive 6 missed calls from Stephanie. I didn't want to answer her calls. I was angry at her rudeness and I felt that Moe deserved better. I was well into Toronto when I called Stephanie back. I'm embarrassed to say that I wasn't that pleasant.

She burst into tears and her husband took the phone. The husband admitted that lack of communication was his fault and he was terribly embarrassed for all the trouble he's caused. He promised that he would LOVE Moe forever if I would give his family another chance.

I'm obviously paraphrasing here - there was a LONG conversation about rudeness, responsibility and what it means to be a volunteer. The man graciously took the tongue lashing from me and even offered to buy me dinner for my trouble. :) Without hesitation, he said he would drive the 90 minutes into the city to pick up Moe. He didn't want to cause any further problems for me.

I melted. As I type this, the family is probably en route into the city to meet Moe. I'm so very grateful to Cindy and her husband Matt for being so flexible and allowing this couple into their home tonight. It's an awkward situation at best. My fingers are crossed that all will go as planned.

I left the house this morning at 10:30 and am home after rush hour holiday traffic at 5 pm.. I spent $35.00 in gasoline for this rescue....but it looks like we'll have a happy ending.

God help these people if they don't show up.

7 comments:

HomeToMany said...

Yay for you speaking your mind Beth. Jeez, believe it or not you have a life and don't get paid to wait around for people - maybe if others would volunteer for something they would get it too! So frustrating. I hope to GOD these people show up for Moe...if not, give me their phone number I wouldn't mind offering them a word or two.

I hope you have been getting my emails re:Stomatitis, I am not sure if they are going through or not. I know that you are very busy, doing important things, like SAVING LIVES, so please only respond when you have time. Have a wonderful weekend and as usual, I will be praying for all the cats at the shelter. :-)

Sarah

Lacy said...

Hi, I am kinda a lurker to ur blog...and I cant imagine the pain and hurt u have when things dont go right..I wonder if u can help me, i have a virtal foster cat in Facebook, he's is tooo cute...i just wonder if u would b interested in helping this kitty...if u are, please leave a comment on my blog..and mayb i can introduce u to Zorro...

Peace,
Claudette

House of the Discarded said...

Lacy: Would be happy to speak with you about Zorro. Feel free to email me :)

Sarah: I think I'm getting your emails! Aren't you getting my responses??? I've been worried about Luke and thinking about you both.

-B

Crystal said...

Beth I am sooooo sorry for your frustrating day. I hope this note helps you smile...We are absolutely in love with all of our babies. They are gorgeous and sweet! The little orange baby (now Mason) pucked and pooped the entire hour and half car ride home...the grey and white guy (now Tanner) was happy to sit in my lap and cuddle far far away from his stinky brother:) Izzy is doing amazing, she is even more specail than I imagined. When you pick her up she wraps her tiny little paws so tight around our necks and purrs...she is beautiful and precious. Tonite they all have full tummy's; cozy beds, clean litter and so much love.
Thank you Beth, Kathleen and of course Kim and the rescue for bringing these sweet souls into our family!

House of the Discarded said...

Crystal: YES! That makes me SOOO happy. Can hardly wait to see the pictures. THank you for saving this little gang, Crystal

-Beth

Anonymous said...

Update us on Moe....glad to hear the family took responsibility, but they must have some idea that these cats don't deserve lazy communication on death row. Hopefully they will spend the rest of Moe's life making it up to him, I think I can speak for all when I say that we are all very protective of Moe now and want to see him sail off into his happy horizon. Beth, great work as always, and what a cutie Moe is with that little ear! I better see some updates of him being loved to pieces!!!

Everycat said...

People can be so lax when dealing volunteers, somehow I think they don't understand that volunteers have other lives to save and their own lives to live. I really hope that this works out for dear Moe and these adopters keep those promises.

If I was you, I'd take them up on the offer of the dinner ;)