Well, now I'm annoyed

[ravan]

I tried to adopt a cat from one of those "rescue" organizations. I even filled out their stupid form with more info than I usually give people. This is the crap that ensued.

The form: (I've *** the stuff that I filled in, but have redacted for here)
>> ----- Personal Data -----
>> Name: ********** ***************
>> Occupation: System Administrator
>> Address: ********************
>> City: San Jose State: CA Zip: 95***
>> Daytime Phone: 408-***-****
>> Work Phone:
>> Evening Phone:
>> Best time to call:
>> Email:*****@*********.***
>> ----- Personal Reference -----
>> Reference Name: *************
>> Reference Phone: 408-***-****
>> Best time to call the reference:
>> Relationship to reference: co_worker
>> ----- Personal Reference -----
>> Housing: rent
>> How long have you lived in your current home?:
>> Prior Address: ************
>> Prior City: ************ (somehow got typed incorrectly) Prior State: CA Prior Zip: 95***
>> If rent or house-sit, do you have landlord's permission to keep a
>> cat? yes
>> Landlord's Name: *************
>> Landlord's Phone#:
>> How long at this residence? 6m
>> How many adults and children are in this home? 4
>> Children's ages: no kids
>> Does anyone in your home have allergies? no
>> What are the allergies?
>> ----- Current/Previous Pets -----
>> Do you own other cats? yes
>> If yes, are they spayed or neutered? yes
>> Are they indoors only? yes
>> Are they up-to-date on rabies/distemper vaccines? yes
>> How do you feel about declawing? opposed
>> How many other cats have you owned in the last five years? 2
>> If you no longer have the previous cats, what happened to them?
>> Do you have other pets? no
>> Type of Pets?
>> How many?
>> How do they react to cats?
>> Reason for wanting a cat? The more the merrier
>> ----- Veterinary Information -----
>> Do you have a regular veterinarian? no
>> Veterinarian's name:
>> Clinic Name:
>> Phone:
>> If you do not have a regular veterinarian, please explain why? we
>> just moved and need to find a local vet
>> ----- About the Cat You Wish to Adopt -----
>> Name of MC/Mix you are currently interested in: Snow White
>> MCA Representative/Case Manager:
>> Have you owned a Maine Coon before? no
>> Why do you want to adopt a Maine Coon? I like them
>> Desired age: <6
>> Desired sex: no preference
>> Willing to adopt: none
>> Where will the cat spend the day? house
>> Where will the cat spend the night? house
>> Number of hours cat will spend alone? 0
>> Who will have primary responsibility for this cat's daily care? me
>> and roomies
>> How will you care for its coat? brush/comb
>> Do you agree to provide regular health care by a Licensed
>> Veterinarian? yes
>> Do you agree to contact MCA if you can no longer keep this cat? yes
>> Are you be willing to let a representative of MCA visit your home by
>> appointment? yes
>> If not, why?
>>
>> How did you hear about MCA? web

This elicited this response:
> Kathleen McGirr wrote:
>> Dear ************,
>>
>> After careful review of your application, we regret to inform you that
>> you have not been approved to adopt a kitty.
>> Many of our kitties have come from unknown or bad backgrounds and
>> therefore we have a list of criteria that must be met. Unfortunately,
>> your application does not meet these criteria.
>>
>> We wish you luck in finding a cat.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Katy McGirr
>> Director of Adoptions
>> Maine Coon Adoptions

Please note that the snot didn't ask any questions, or even call me to explain anything I didn't fill out. Some "careful review"! They also don't say what their criteria actually are!!

So I replied:

> From: ********************
> Sent: Tuesday, October 17, 2006 8:40 PM
> To: Kathleen McGirr
> Subject: Re: Maine Coon Adoptions
>
> I'm actually surprised that you manage to adopt any of these cats out,
> with how many nosy, personal questions you ask. Considering that our
> current two cats were rescued from a supposed "good" home (a foster home
> for kids) where they were neglected and abused, it makes me wonder about
> your criteria, also.
>
> But whatever. I'll probably be rescuing a kitten from feral instead.
>
> I do better at actually doing the work than filling out nosy forms.
>
> Tell Snow we're sorry she can't come home with us.
>
> **********

Yes, I was annoyed, but this is rather tame for me.

This is what I got back:

> Actually, good families are delighted that we ask so many questions. Your
> comments make us conclude that we were right to not adopt to you.
>
> Elaine
> Director
> Maine Coon Adoptions

Riiiight. "Good families" are willing to let strangers pry, and judge them on unstated criteria. The arrogance, it burns. My response to madam priss:

-----Original Message-----
From: *********
Sent: Thursday, October 19, 2006 3:32 PM
To: elaineln@*************
Subject: RE: Maine Coon Adoptions

Ah, I see. So "good" in your world means people who don't care about
their privacy, and have very standard living arrangements. I'm surprised
you didn't ask for photos of our white picket fence.

I don't know what little box that I didn't fill in to your satisfaction,
but I found the survey very intrusive. I don't feel comfortable handing
out other people's data on web forms, much less my own.

Considering that I know you didn't call the person I had as a reference
(after asking their permission, btw), I can only conclude that you must
have a set of "golden answers" that makes a "good family" to you.

If I were not already owned by cats, I might understand. But while I
won't fill out a great deal of stuff on web forms, I notice that you did
not even call me to set up a time to come meet me and my roommates'
existing cats.

About veterinarians: our previous vet was a place near Cupertino (24 hour
something). We really need to find one closesr to our new home. Your
volunteers at petsmart said they knew of more local ones, but never came
through. Not surprising.

Quite frankly, I am really finding much of the attitude these days of
adoption groups, even shelters, to be downright puzzling. I guess that
you'd rather kill cats than have someone who doesn't fill out all the
little boxes on a form just right.

This is the first time I've had to fill out such an intrusive thing,
although other agencies and groups have them. This experience tells me
not to bother with any others.

Thank you for the insult. It's nice to know that I'm not a "good family".

*********

Her final "parting shot" -- oooooh, I'm so wounded, a yuppie bitch doesn't think I'm good enough to even read mail from:

Just so you know, all your emails to us will now go into our "delete" files.
Enough of you.

Elaine

So, now you know. If you don't tilt your head just so, or tell the right lies, Main Coon Adoptions decides you aren't a "good family" (I guess they thought 4 adults with no kids is "bad").

I just saved $125 for not adopting a cat through a snotty group.

Too bad I also won't be donating any money to them either... "Enough of" them.

Comments

[bosn.livejournal.com]

And sadly Snow suffers.

I have worked for ASPA's and SPCA's (Canada) And one of the kindest by far is the Humane Society in Vallejo on Salono Blvd. A great group who, much to there regret, have to kill many of there kittens due to fokes not wanting them.

[ravan.livejournal.com]

A great group who, much to there regret, have to kill many of there kittens due to fokes not wanting them.

*cry* I hate that. I wish our house was big enough to adopt lots of cats and kittens. I'd love to foster, but I don't think our current two would put up with it.

Currently, one of my roomies has his window onto the front porch open, and a nice mesh enclosure so the cats can be outside, watch the world go by, but not be at risk from the traffic on our street. We eventually want to do a meshed in cat yard, so they can be outside without being free-running.

[ebonypearl.livejournal.com]

Good grief!

I probably wouldn't qualify for adopting from a rescue because I have too geat a variety of critters. But hten, I already know that and so wouldn't even make the effort. I don't know about where you live, but around here, there are far too many critters available for free or nearly free to bother with overly picky rescue shelters.

And if that offends people who run shelters, so be it. Animal rescue people need to loosen up a bit and be upfront and open about their adoption criteria. If they won't do that, then they really aren't a rescue so much as a hoarder.

[http://users.livejournal.com/sunyata__/]

Idiots. I've had trouble with adoption agencies too. I hate the intrusive questions, and personally I think you did a fine job of filling out that form.

They probably didn't like "the more the merrier", is my guess.

Craigslist is the way to go, imo. That's how I found my wonderful, wonderful Becquerel. No forms-- just someone who came across a kitty on a walking path and already had too many pets. I wrote them a nice letter, and within an hour or two I had him home!

See?

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/search/pet?hasPic=1&query=maine%20coon%20&srchType=T

[ciannait.livejournal.com]

I got Dillon from Safe Haven. They're good folks.

[fiona64.livejournal.com]

My Seamus is from Hopalong Animal Rescue: http://www.hopalong.org/

Paddy and Abigail are from Stockton Animal Shelter Friends: http://stocktonpets.org/

I used to be a volunteer cat socializer/behavior hotline resource/dog trainer for the San Francisco SPCA (and adopted my late Mr. Nicky from them ... he sadly developed lymphoma): http://www.sfspca.org/home.shtml

I cannot say enough good things about these rescue organizations. Thank you for your commitment to help homeless kitties find new families.

Well

[(Anonymous)]

Boo hoo that you had to spend 10 minutes of your precious time to fill out the application.

Re: Well

[ravan.livejournal.com]

Boohoo, you're to chickenshit to leave your name. I'm leaving this post here to see what anonymous cowardice looks like.

BTW, it took 25 minutes.

Hi ya

[be4u.livejournal.com]

I saw you comment in lj_maintenance and thought I recognized your username from nativeamerican so I thought I'd check, and saw this entry. Hope you don't mind.

I can't *believe* that stupid adoption agency and their attitude! There's so many homeless pets in the world, and you sound like a perfectly lovely kitty-momma.

[mokie]

I know this is ages late and such, but our store works with adoption groups for dogs and cats, and I could tell you some horror stories...

Co-workers have been accused of being spies for rival groups after pointing out to these groups that the animals they were bringing in were visibly ill and shouldn't be up for adoption. When customers corner you and berate you for 'selling sick cats', there's little you can do except go to the group and try to get them to take care of things. You know, like professionals?

The groups' volunteers have stolen our supplies, ordered employees around, taken over the employees' lounge, and got extremely abusive with employees who dared to point out that, hey, we don't work for them.

Our local vet has cut the groups off not because they stiffed him several times, but because they refused to treat the entire adoption area for feline leukemia after one cat was brought in positive for it, despite it being insanely contagious that way.

At least one person has come in to complain that fostering for these groups resulted in the deaths of their own cats, because though the group insisted that their cats were healthy, the cat the person took home had the feline leukemia virus.

"Hey, Head of Adoption Group, this cat is supposed to be neutered/spayed and he is very, very visibly not." "SPY!"

Some of the groups are so protective of their charges that they rely not just on questionaires and interviews, but also on --'gut feelings' meaning the race of the person wanting to adopt the animal.

On the other hand, nosey questionaires aside, you're better off not dealing at all with any group unprofessional enough to send out that kind of response to an emailed complaint. Basic public relations skills aren't so tough to master; it whiffs of a group you don't want keeping your contact information on file.

(Traipsed in after seeing a comment you left in naamah_darling's journal, btw.)