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Chapter 57. "Bad Moon Rising!"
"I see a bad moon rising
I see trouble on the way" -- Credence Clearwater Revival
There is a saying, "No good deed goes unpunished."
So it is that whenever someone tries to do some good in the world, s/he is thus opened to all sorts of criticism, complaint or unsolicited "advice" from those who generally do little but knock others down or have little understanding of reality.
When moved to the main floor of Petco, in front of its large windows, I was well aware that someone would always have to be attending the cats. Most of the time that was me. I went to Petco each day at 8:30 AM sharp in order to clean up and feed those cats who stayed in the store until adopted. Though volunteer help would come later in the day to help and afford me breaks either to attend to my home animals or go to CACC, I was at Petco on average 10 to 11 hours a day.
Despite the fact we had large, dog-sized cages for our cats and despite that the animals were kept in clean environments and well fed, people nevertheless found things to complain about.
The most common complaint was, "It's so cruel to see the cats in cages!"
To which I answered, "They only have to stay in the cages until they are adopted or we find foster. -- About two to three weeks. Would you like to foster or adopt?"
The answer was always "no" of course, followed by some excuse.
I learned quickly that those who complained never had any real help to offer. They just wanted to make you feel bad about something. I guess that somehow made them feel better about themselves.
Those who DID adopt, foster or contribute in some way, didn't complain or criticize. Action is always harder and more time-consuming than words.
Another common complaint was, "Why don't the cats have beds?"
"Because it's impossible for us to wash and sanitize beds between cats. We use wee wee pads for them to sleep on for reasons of easy and disposable clean-up."
Once, when refreshing the cat's food bowls at the end of the evening, I threw out the plastic plates with leftover wet food and left the adoption area to buy cans of wet food. There was still dry food and water in the cages.
When on the checkout line with the cans of food, the manager came over to me.
"A woman just complained that you have no wet food in the cat cages."
"That's because I am here buying some. I replenish the food at night."
I couldn't believe in the five minutes it took me to buy canned food, someone complained!
But, that is the way things are when one has high visibility.
There is always an "up" and "down" side to everything. The down side of being on the main floor in front of a big window is that one had to be constantly on guard and forever vigilant. I sometimes think I never exhaled the entire time we were on display in front of Petco's 86th Street window. That was particularly true one fateful week, just before Halloween in 1999.
I was at CACC one evening to pick up cats. Cindy, the rescue coordinator had a special request for me.
"Patty, they are not putting black cats up for adoption because of Halloween next week. There's a few really nice ones here. Neutered already. I hate to see them go down. Can you take them?"
I returned to Petco that evening with four black cats. All sweet, affectionate and healthy.
Our newest volunteer, Sharon McClowsky graciously helped me get the new cats settled in.
"Wow, what's with all the black cats?" she smiled.
"Oh, something about not wanting to put them up for adoption before Halloween. I imagine they are afraid some people will adopt for Santeria -- animal sacrifice."
"Oh, how awful!" Sharon replied. "I didn't know such things existed."
"Yea, they do. We have to be real careful who we may adopt these cats to. We need to screen extra carefully. The main thing now, was to just get them out of the pound."
Sharon McClowsky was a lovely, young blonde girl who worked in PR and had recently been volunteering a few hours on weeknights and Saturdays. She had a very pleasing personality and exceptionally good looks. I felt her to be a great asset to the team.
Sharon and I cleaned up, fed the cats and prepared to leave after the store closed.
"You will be here tomorrow?" I asked Sharon before leaving Petco. "LJ, Judy and Ann can't make it. It will just be you and me and Saturdays are always busy."
"Don't worry, Patty. I will be here sharply at 10AM. I can give you the whole day."
That night, walking home from Petco, I noticed there was a big, bright, full moon shining.
The following day, Sharon and I were not set up more than an hour before the first of many day-long complaints began to come in.
"You have black cats up for adoption before Halloween? Don't you know what some people will do to these cats? That's TERRIBLE!"
"We are not adopting these cats out to just anyone. There is a screening process. They were going to be put to death at the pound!"
But, most of the complainers didn't give us a chance to explain anything. They just blurted out insults and walked away. It was starting out to be a rough day.
As the afternoon wore on, things got worse.
A father argued loudly with someone on his cell phone, while his young son shook our cages and poked relentlessly at our cats. I couldn't get the man's attention to get control of his kid. Once again, we were being utilized as a free baby sitting service.
A mother walked by our adoption display with her young daughter. The young girl wanted to stop and pet the cats. "Come, come now, Jenny!" said the mother impatiently. "You already have a designer cat at home!"
I wondered if their "designer cat" was a Channel, Halston or Calvin Klein?
More complaints about the black cats.
And then there were the people we had to reject for adoption.
One young woman wanted to adopt. She had "many cats" over the years, not one more than a few months. One cat "ran away." Three others she had given away. One had fallen out a window. When I turned the woman down for adoption, she accused me of being a "racist" and complained to management. We had the usual assortment of time-wasters, non-stop talkers and the "It seems so cruel to see the cats in cages!" hit and runners. I could see Sharon was getting very stressed and frustrated from the seemingly non-stop flood of loonies and downright mean people.
"Sorry, Sharon, it's usually not this bad. Maybe its because of the full moon."
For all the "business" and craziness that Saturday before Halloween, we had no adoptions by the end of the day.
Both Sharon and I were exhausted.
When things were finally quiet, I told Sharon I had to run to RiteAid to get more wee wee pads and some other items. "Will you be OK for about ten minutes?" I asked Sharon.
"Oh, sure, Patty. Go ahead. It's quiet now. I will feed the cats and take care of the litter boxes."
But, when I returned back to Petco ten minutes later, Sharon's face was ashen and she seemed very distraught and nervous about something.
"Did something happen while I was gone?" I asked her. "You look upset."
But, whatever it was, the young woman couldn't tell me.
"No, no," Sharon said. "Its fine."
"But, listen Patty, there's something I need to tell you. I really respect all that you are doing, but, I, I, ....can't do this anymore."
"Oh, but Sharon, you are wonderful here! Trust me, today was an unusually bad day......You know, full moon and all. It's not usually like this!"
But, nothing I said could console the pretty young woman who apparently was the target of some sicko or pervert in the few minutes that I left the store.
I never found out exactly what happened in the short time I went to pick up items at RiteAid. I just knew I lost an exceptionally good volunteer.
To add to my woes, I had to explain to the manager why I was forced to reject two potential adopters that day.
"They had terrible histories with animals. I can't adopt cats out just because someone wants one! We have standards they have to meet." The manager didn't seem to agree. "Anyone who wants a cat should be able to adopt one," he said, walking away from me.
I left Petco that night feeling totally depleted and worried.
"I see a bad moon rising. I see trouble on the way!"
The big, full moon blazed bright in the midnight blue sky as if to taunt, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"