Glenda -- I'm not real familiar with the laws and policies on this, and of course they vary wildly from place to place, but if it's your understanding that Marmalade became the property of the shelter when you surrendered him, your rights pretty much ended the moment you surrendered him. This is why you should always call the shelter before physically surrendering a cat, without identifying yourself, to find out how the cat will be treated once it's there. And if the shelter requires that you bring the cat in in order for them to list it as found, don't do it. I hope somehow Marmalade bypasses what usually happens, but I'm afraid it's out of your hands. It's too bad, too, since often even shelters can't tell a feral cat from a freaked-out stray. The wonderful place I volunteered at for a few months got a new cat that seemed hostile, and they actually put a note on the cage "BAD CAT" and they labeled it feral. (They're not used to getting strays, they're used to people surrendering cats for rehoming, so this was outside their expertise.) Within a day or two they realized that it was tame but really freaked out.
Diane R. ____________________________ Diane Rosenfeldt Legal Secretary Quarles & Brady LLP 411 East Wisconsin Avenue Suite 2040 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202-4497 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of glenda Goodman Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2007 12:18 AM To: [email protected] Subject: OT: Exactly what are my rights here? Hello everyone, Several of you here know my story about trapping an orange and white cat , whom I named Marmalade. The cat was trapped this last Sunday night in my personal trap. The cat was then transported to our local shelter by a policeman. When the cat was turned over, he became the property of the county shelter...He was trapped at my friend's house, together we decided to call the officer... The shelter decided Monday morning he was a wild"feral" cat and told me he was put in with the wild kitties and would have to be put down. They did say they would wait 3-days to see if anyone came forward to claim him. I went in Monday morning to see the kitty and get my trap back...I was told I could not see him. I asked if I could take him to be tested.After some discussion, I was told I could. I made the appt. for that Monday. I was then told I could not test him until Thursday, after the 3-day waiting period. I went to the shelter yesterday morning to visit the kitty. I just wanted to see him , see if he might talk back to me, show some sign of wanting me to work with him. I was told by a worker ,because he was in the wild kitty section, I was not allowed to see him...I was told the reason being they were worried about liability...I tried to understand their point and did not want to be too much of a thorn in their behind, because at least they had given me permission to have the cat tested on Thursday morning. I had an appt. for 9:15 am. The shelter opens at 9:00am. I was using the same vet they use... Last night I was heading down to the shelter after work and had decided to bring up some points about if this kitty tested negative for the FeLV and FIV and I decided to neuter this cat...after all I already had an investment in the cat and if the cat were young...looked under three years old...was there maybe someone who might enjoy the challenge of working with a feral...if indeed this cat was a feral...Things like that...I called my friend on the way home and decided one more day would not hurt that much and at least after the test I'd have one important plus to work with if the cat tested clean...Us cat people do tend to rattle people enough as it is... Well, I got home tonight and there was a message on my phone from the director of our shelter...It was: Hi Glenda, I have some good and bad news for you. If you get this before 7:00pm give me a call @....Otherwise call me in the morning...I got the message after 9:00pm. Well guys, nothing like suspense...I hate to jump to conclusions , but I bet they put the cat down...and they will tell me he tested neg. I will be on the computer to tell everyone the rest of the story in the morning... The fact the beginning of the story is a story in itself, should hold everyone until morning...I seriously wonder what the wild cat area is like??? I'd like to know what they do with ferals after they are caught here...? I am going to be talking to feral cat people in other neighboring areas to see what type of programs they have...Thanks for reading this. Glenda ________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. http://surveylink.yahoo.com/gmrs/yahoo_panel_invite.asp?a=7 This electronic mail transmission and any attachments are confidential and may be privileged. They should be read or retained only by the intended recipient. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete the transmission from your system. In addition, in order to comply with Treasury Circular 230, we are required to inform you that unless we have specifically stated to the contrary in writing, any advice we provide in this email or any attachment concerning federal tax issues or submissions is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, to avoid federal tax penalties.
