Give me - give me - give me!!!!

It may seem like a no brainer, there’s a kitty in need and a person who wants the cat so why doesn't DCIN simply send the kitty?  If you've been owned by a diabetic kitty or a specially-abled kitty you already know the answer to that question.  When an adopter or foster application comes to me I look at everything and we all know what first impressions can do.  But my first impression is only part of it; I then go further and check references.  I listen to what the reference told me and I listen to how they said it.  A long pregnant pause can be interpreted in different ways; what was said after the pause?  It’s not a scientific approach, it’s an instinct and I am human, sometimes I could be wrong.  But the deal is, if I’m wrong, that could be very harmful to the kitty.

All animals are precious and deserve the best possible home.  Just because a DCIN kitty has diabetes and is much harder to place does not mean they can be shuffled from spot to spot and sent to any house that has a corner available.  A DCIN kitty needs so much more than just an open spot.  They need a home that is willing to alter their lifestyle a little to accommodate the needs of a diabetic kitty.  Do they have to give up their season tickets to the local sports arena? Heck no, but they do need to have the ability to give their new kitty shots on a good schedule and feed appropriate food.  They also need to have a home that is appropriate to the kitty in question.  If the current caretaker says this kitty cannot live with dogs, or is terrified of children we need to take that into consideration when looking at the prospective home.

Our adoptions are almost always long distance.  It’s not usual to find a kitty in Hoboken and a home ten minutes away.  DCIN also does not have a brick and mortar location so we can’t have an applicant come in and meet the kitty in advance.  If we did we could see how the kitty interacts with the person.  It would be wonderful to see a kitty butt heads with a person and feel that joy of uniting two souls, but most applicants and fosters we don’t even get to meet in person.  For this reason we ask lots of questions, some may think we ask too many questions, but how do you know a home will be good if you don't ask questions?

DCIN will never apologize for caring too much.  We will always try harder to make sure once a home is found it's the right home and the kitty is safe.  In some cases, I wish it were never, but in some cases, putting a kitty down humanely could be better than sending him or her to a home that would not give insulin or treat appropriately.   An untreated diabetic will die and it won't be a quick and easy death.  If I send Fluffy to a home that's going to skip shots and treat the diabetes at will and not follow a healthy regime for treating the diabetes, I am responsible for sending Fluffy some place that is causing her pain.  I could not live with myself if I did that and I know my friends at DCIN feel the same way.  We've also added our behavior consultant and through her we are learning more about how to find the right placement for Fluffy and hopefully avoid having to rehome Fluffy in the future.

Once in a while we do have the luxury of being close by and we can do a home visit before or after an adoption.  Before I became a DCIN case manager, Venita, the founder of DCIN was in the area and many of us met up at a local restaurant and had a wonderful few days, we called it a reunion because we had known each other for years but had not met in person before.  I was able to see many people from the feline diabetes board, we had a dinner and a lunch the following day, even Ron went and hung out with the crazy cat ladies for dinner.  During that visit, Venita very tactfully asked me if she could stop by my home on her way out of town.  Even though I had to work that Monday morning and Ron would just be getting out of bed, she didn't change her mind.  I had two DCIN adopted kitties at the time, Bean and Mr. Darcy.  Even though Venita knew me through the diabetes board and we had met in person twice that weekend it was important for her to come to my home and see for herself that my cats had what they needed.  My home is comfortable, it's a small cape cod style home built in the 50s and most everything is updated, but it's not decorated for show, it's a cat house.

It's hard to be so cute.

Ron and I adopt specially-abled kitties, either medically challenged or physically and our home is filled with cat trees, cat walks on the wall, cat furniture and cat fur.  Venita did a quick run through and met everyone even the most famous Lilly Grace, CH kitty extraordinaire.  Had I thought about this ahead of time I may have been nervous.  She wasn't going out of her way to say hi to Mr. Darcy, she was coming to inspect my home.  To know in her heart that cats were getting their meds, they had space to run and play, they had windows to perch in and most importantly both Ron and I loved them dearly.  There was no white glove because trust me if there were, I would not have been given approval to adopt other diabetics in the future.  She wasn't checking to see if my home could be showcased in a magazine, she needed to know that it was a proper environment for our most special kitties.

For those who think we go too far and feel we should simply pass Fluffy along to keep Fluffy alive, I ask you this, if it were your child, your parent, your loved one, would you want an okay place where someone will toss food their way when needed or would you want a place that would truly care for your loved one and make sure they had everything possible for a wonderful quality life?