A neutered and declawed indoor cat named Tails became lost last week while the owners were having work done inside their Florida home. Owner Chelsea Santoro began putting up Lost Cat posters around the neighborhood. Unbeknownst to anyone, Tails had climbed into the engine compartment of a neighbor’s rental car. Miraculously, Tails was unharmed despite riding on the engine for 12 miles while the neighbor returned the car to the rental agency. A worker there found the cat.
Before anyone knew who Tails belonged to, and believing the St Johns Co pound was the safest place to bring the pet so that he could be reunited with his owner, an employee at the rental car company contacted AC to turn Tails over. Once the company connected the dots and determined Ms. Santoro was the owner, they let her know the good news about Tails:
Santoro was ecstatic.
“They told me stories about how they were cuddling with him, and playing with him, and how they made him a little bed.”
Ms. Santoro immediately called the pound to reclaim her pet. But she was told that pound staff had killed Tails. The impounding ACO, on the job for two years, wrongly listed Tails as an unneutered stray male cat. Tails was killed upon intake. Oops:
“Our initial inquiry into this incident indicates that the county’s policies and procedures were not followed, and there was no justification for the actions that occurred, said Michael Ryan, St. Johns County’s communication manager. “The issue is currently under investigation and the employee in question has been placed on administrative leave. Appropriate measures will be taken to prevent this from occurring again. The loss of a pet under any circumstances is tragic and our condolences are extended to the family.”
Ryan seems to have learned a thing or two since St Johns Co killed an owned, lost, microchipped dog named Baby Girl a few months ago. At that time, he was all blame-the-filthy-owners-for-not-finding-their-dog-that-we-didn’t-bother-to-scan. Now he’s singing the “it won’t happen again” tune although to be accurate, he should be saying “it won’t happen again, again” but that’s just me being picky probably.
Anyhoo, don’t criticize because we all want the same thing and if cat owners actually loved their pets then shelters would have a higher RTO rate and if only people would spay and neuter – oh, uh… never mind.
(Thanks Clarice for sending me this story.)