I have to hope their will be some sort of justice, or else the sadness for animals and anger toward cruel, careless, ignorant, and irresponsible people will really eat me alive.
It hurts my heart how terrible some people are. The downstairs neighbors moved out last week (were evicted for non-payment of rent, actually) and just left their cat and kitten outside in 90+F temps to fend for themselves.
I actually think I became a little desensitized while a veterinary worker, because we saw this kind of thing constantly. Don’t get me wrong, you still don’t like it, don’t want to see it, and it makes you sad and angry. But like viewing increasingly violent movies frequently, it begins to affect you just a little less over time. It has to or you’ll break–anyone with a conscience would. But you do what you can do, and you have to look at the bigger picture.
A lot of people don’t know any better. Or they’re selfish, irresponsible, or see animals as an object/property and treat them accordingly. Some people knowingly do the wrong thing. Some people are even so ornery as to hold your heart hostage as a way to get discounts–it’s disgusting. You start to see and hear it all. And if you let it get to you, it will really make you depressed or angry at all of humanity. Also, you have to remember–I can’t save them all. Because believe me, you want to. But that can spiral into a bad situation too–so you do what you can with what you have to be able to sleep at night.
Also, when working at a vet hospital you feel like your work counteracts a lot of that negative stuff. There’s a lot that sucks, 
but you educated a client, you connected an abandoned pet to a wonderful new owner, you helped alleviate one (probably many) animal’s pain–you feel somewhat empowered by that. When you’re not involved with a vet hospital, you’re fairly powerless to help. Now that I’ve been away from it, even briefly (5 months) it really breaks my heart to think about those poor buddies. I don’t see it and hear it all day long anymore, so the pain feels a lot worse to me right now–and there’s a lot less I can do. I mean, I’m preoccupied feeling sad for them.
The thing is, I saw and petted the kitties outside almost every day when I came and went to work, but thought they lived around here. Some people intentionally let their cats outdoors–even in an 
apartment/city situation. I figured some dumb neighbor was letting the cats out. I hoped the cats were obnoxiously scratching to go outside and finally the owner relented. You have to tell yourself things to ease your mind. So I worried about cars, dogs, and mean people, but thought they seemed like they belonged here so obviously had a home. Just the same, I wanted to confirm it, so after a week of reminders, Cool finally asked our landlord if she knew their story. And she said they’d been abandoned. It made me feel truly awful. I feel terrible and guilty especially since I had been a little apathetic while meanwhile the cats were cooking in the weather, starving, and lonely.
Tomorrow I’m going to borrow crates from work so they can be transported to the shelter. Of course I’m worried about their fate: Will they be euthanized? Will they get adopted? Together? Again, I just have to tell myself that things will work out beautifully. Because what else can I do? Other then treat my own 2 buddies with love and take responsible care of them.
As soon as I heard I went right outside with some dry kibble and a can of Fancy Feast. The older cat was a little more 
standoffish, liked the canned (only within the tiny can), but turned up it’s nose to the diet food–chubby knew that story. The kitten ate like it was starving, which maybe it was, but it could just eat like a piggy too. Once it polished off the canned food, it went right to gobbling dry. It ate so readily that I changed my mind about leaving the Cool Whip contained out for them for fear the kitten would eat the entire contents in the next 2 min, then have the big-D on rescue day.
So here’s to doing something!
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Catty Remarks