Cat Adoption Team sold me an ill cat, had spend a lot at the vet within days of getting the cat Wilmington North Carolina

>If you ever are in the market for a kitten, ask friends who have female cats, check the local papers for freebies, adopt a stray, but don't go to Cat Adoption Team.

For every person born in the U.S., there are 7 - 8 kittens born. Do the math -- *very few* of these new kittens get homes. The others wind up euthanized in already overcrowded shelters, or living a short, difficult life out on the streets, usually to succumb to auto accidents, starvation, poisoning, injury or disease long before their time.

People who have female cats who are NOT spayed are acting irresponsibly, plain and simple! To ask them for kittens or offer to adopt from their litters is just *encouraging* them in that continued irresponsibility. Each time their unneutered or unspayed cat breeds, that's just adding that much more to the pet overpopulation problem; and for each home found for an "oops" litter, that's one fewer adoptive home available for the already existing homeless pets.

While I have never been formally affiliated with a shelter or rescue group, I am aware of the work they do and some of the extreme challenges they face. My husband and I have four cats which we acquired over the space of about two and a half years. All four are fixed and live strictly indoors. Due to our home and life situation, we feel we simply can't take in any more.

Just recently, however, a stray tortoiseshell Manx and her three kittens have taken up residence in my mother-in-law's front yard underneath her porch. The mother is extremely skittish (perhaps semi-feral); and over the next few weeks or months, although we cannot personally provide these precious babies a home, we will now be taking on the responsibility of feeding them, getting their basic medical needs taken care of and finding them homes... All because someone in the neighborhood (we suspect) is engaging in a little "backyard breeding" with loosely-owned animals they acquired from somewhere dubious. -_- Responsible, caring pet owners (or prospective owners) will not encourage that kind of reckless breeding.

You mentioned you can get pets fixed for $20 - $30. Maybe back in 2005, when you first submitted your complaint against CAT; but I'd personally like to know where and how to get it done that inexpensively. As of June 1st of this year, Cape Fear Spay and Neuter is charging $50 for cat spay and $40 for neutering. The $55 "donation" you begrudge the Cat Adoption Team goes for more than just spaying and neutering. You usually cannot get all the medical care that animal rescue groups provide done on your own at any vet's office for the same cost; plus those funds are badly needed for helping yet another abandoned, neglected cat find a loving home.

As for the "free to good home" pets advertised in newspapers, most of the time the people offering these pets do not really care about the animal's welfare; but rather alleviating their own problem that THEY created through their lack of responsible pet ownership (i.e., spaying and neutering). Seldom are the potential adopters screened, and often these pets wind up back on the street abandoned after the novelty of owning a new puppy or kitten wears off; or worse, sold to research laboratories or even used as bait for dogfighting, etc. Why encourage these evil practices? There is no such thing as a "free" pet. If someone balks at a modest adoption fee, then how will they handle the ongoing expenses associated with responsible pet ownership?

It has come to my attention (if the information on their website is current) that Cat Adoption Team does not screen for feline diseases such as FIV or FELV. If this is a concern to anyone, then I'd suggest that they instead patronize another pet rescue group which does (or which otherwise makes some type of warranty or guarantee as to the health of the cats they adopt out). But encouraging irresponsible backyard breeders is just adding to the already overwhelming burden of pet overpopulation.

I work with a rescue and I cant begin to tell you the sacrifices made by those who rescue felines. The hours spent trapping ferral kittens and the weeks spent taming them so they can be placed in forever home.

The trips to the pound to save a batch of older kittens who are doomed to die within 24 hours. Giving them their shots and working endlessly to find good homes.

Of course a kitten can be incubating a virus, just like children get runny nose, sore throats.

The purpose is to SAVE LIVES and not get so upset about a cold that antibiotics can cure

If people would feel like you about not going to adopt from rescues then so many innocent babies would be put to death. Who do you think it is that pulls them from the pound? Saves them from the needle? You found one kitten wandering the streets. You saved him from getting run over or killed by a dog or slowly starving to death. resuce workers do this every day of the year. Not ONE kitten but all they can.

Who do you think it is that calls those phone numers in the newspaper to make sure that the parents of the "kittens for sale" have all been spayed? Who will even pay out of their own pocket if the answer we recieve back is " I cant afford it"

Honey you are so over reacting. Walk a block in the shoes of those in rescue and you will understand. Feed and clean 2 dozen kittens in your home for just one week and you will under stand.

So many people do not take responsibility to spay and neuter pets so that is one good reason why yousee all those " free kitten" ads in the paper. The weight is heavy on the shoulders of so few who try so hard to save a little peice of the world.

Hundreds of thousands of baby kittens and adult cats are saved from the needle each year and place in loving "forever" homes because of these rescue organizations who give up vacations and give up so much to dedicate themselves to helpless animals.

How many lives could be saved if I took in ONE or TWO kittens and left 9 to die?

How many children in daycares get colds compared to the toddler who stays home and isnt expised to the group?

Rescue people get worn out form their work, but the ones I know would help you to take care of the baby no tmatter how worn out they are from their around the clock work.

I think anyone who works endlessly to save lives is someone you should speak well of.I am sorry your baby got sick but he was alive in t he first place because he wasnt give the needle or died of starvation, because he was rescued.

First of all, let me say that I am very happy yout kitten survived. I certainly understand what you went through, being a longtime pet owner of primarily homeless and unwanted animals.

There are few things I would like to offer for you, and for anyone reading this however. Firstly, CAT is a volunteer organization that rescues hundreds of stray and unwanted felines a year. These people care for these animals in their homes, not a funded shelter. They do this because they care about these animals, and are dedicated to fnding them good homes. One very important thing for you and others to understand is that a good number of these pets are from the same streets you found your first cat on..it's a wonderful thing that your first one wasn't ill, but that was good fortune, not a result from not adopting from CATS or any such organization.

Now, understand that some symptoms do not present right away. Depending on how long CAT had your new kitten in their care, they may not have known he was ill. I can tell you that had they known, they wouldn't have put the kitten in the adoption rotation until it was better. That would be self-defeating for them on a few levels.
One question that comes to mind is, after your kitten took ill, did you call CAT and let them know what was going on?

I will share with you my experience with CAT.
Many years ago I worked with another feline rescue group for a short time, and became aquainted with the founding members of CAT. Years went by and I was no longer in the position to continue with that volunteer work. CAT had become very well-known in the area however, and one day I came upon one of their adoption fairs, and took home a 6 mo. old orange tabby. To this day, he has never had a single health problem. Well...a slight case of middle-age pudge..but that's my fault..*blush*

My next experience with them would be when a 4 mo. old stray male came around my neighborhood and got himself beat up by one of the larger strays in the area. I rang CAT and told them that this little guy needed help. I had two adult cats by then, and really couldn't conceive of having another. Finacially, I just couldn't afford it at the time. My hope was that someone there could take him and get him the medical attention he needed. With their limited resources, they told me that they would have a vet look at him, neuter him and give him shots if I would agree to be a "foster parent". I agreed. He was healed, healthy and happy...so I put an advert in the local papers, free to good home, and wouldn't you know...3 years later and he is still sleeping on my desk. Not one bite from the ads..

I also adopted a kitten for my grandmother from CAT, and am happy to report that she is as fat and sassy as can be.

I am very sorry for the experience that you had with your new kitten. But you have to understand that CAT and organizations like them, do the very best they can with the resources they have, and that with the sheer volume of unwanted cats in this area, there are going to be *some* that come in harboring some sort of virus. That's nature's doing, not the fault of the organization who took these kids in off the street and tried to find them homes.