TOO LATE FOR MAYFLOWER

Too Late for Mayflower…

   A local independent rescuer of lost and abandoned cats shared this story with The CAT’S EYE Project in hope of broadening public awareness about the work being done by thousands of animal activist volunteers across America.

 

Before Mayflower came into my life, I had already taken in a neighborhood cat to get her fixed. She always came to eat at my house, and I got tired of seeing her knocked up time after time. I wondered who she belonged to. They did not seem to take good care of her, as she was a bit dirty. Her tail was long and had a yellow stain on it. She was white, with one green eye and one blue eye. I named her Mama Mia. When I caught her I thought she was going to be a wild one, since she was so stand-offish compared to my small colony of cats I take care of. She was just the opposite. I was quickly able to hold her and she let me know she loved being held. I kept her in for one week. Then I let her back outside. I am pregnant and cannot be changing the litter of a cat that has been outside (because of infection risk. Mama Mia kept coming around for about two weeks. Then, I didn’t see her anymore. Had her owners moved and taken her away? Had Animal Control picked her up? Or, had something else happened? 

I looked up a local shelter’s website and saw on it a white cat with one blue eye and one green eye. The shelter listed her by the name of Mayflower. Since I was sick with flu or a bad cold and home in bed, my husband went to the shelter for me to see if it was my Mama Mia. He called me from there. Even though Mayflower looked like Mama Mia and was fixed like Mama Mia, all details didn’t match. Her location of pick up was not in my neighborhood. Mama Mia’s eye that was green was in Mayflower blue, and Mama Mia’s blue eye was green in Mayflower, totally opposite from each other. Mayflower was not my Mama Mia.               

I was fostering another cat and I knew it could take months to find a home for a cat. I do not get paid for my animal rescue work. Like all animal rescuers, I am a volunteer. I use my own money to neuter, feed and care for my rescues. I am a registered nurse and in graduate school. I had too much going on to think clearly about Mayflower’s fate without intervention. I let my husband leave Mayflower at the shelter. I was so sick. I was so worried about Mama Mia.     

I had been reading about, what to me and other animal rescuers are, mass murders taking place at our local -- too trusted animal shelters. My husband said that Mayflower, whom he said seemed like a real nice cat, was in the back ready to be put down. This was a Friday. With a weekend ahead, I thought I could assume she would be safe until Monday. 

I have online connections with other independent rescuers that I have never met. I sent out an e-mail request for advice and help. Right away one of these rescuers volunteered to contact a local rescue organization to see if it could take her. On hearing that good news, my first thought was, “I better check to see if she is even still alive.” I called the shelter. The lady who answered the phone said, with a perky voice, “No, that cat is no longer with us!” I knew then that they had killed her. That back room she was in the day was a death row. They had let my husband back there only because he was looking for our cat. 

I felt so guilty, like I had given the OK to pull the trigger. My husband tried to ease my guilt by saying, “This happens all the time. You should have seen it. There were so many of them there, in different rooms. Some had towels over their cages. There were a lot of kittens too!”  

This did not comfort me. I felt responsible for Mayflower’s death. The next day made me feel even worse, as more e-mails filled with possibilities and hope for Mayflower poured in. One e-mail said she could have gone to a well-kept colony. Another local rescuer said she would have taken Mayflower.      

Had Mayflower not been scheduled to be killed on November 26^th.  she could still be with us now. If they had not been so quick to murder this sweet, innocent, beautiful cat she would now be cuddled in a happy home.

Mayflower, your legacy lives forever in my heart. I hope your death will not be in vain and that readers will learn from your story and with this lesson be inspired to fight for the right of innocent cats to live out their lives. All the beautiful dead animals, like the No Kill animal rights issue itself, are out of sight/out of mind for the majority of Americans. Let your story shine light on the truth for those who read Mayflower’s Story and set the multitude of other doomed cats and dogs free.

Animal Rescue Groups and individual rescuers are welcome to email your animal photos and descriptions to thecatseyeproject@gmail.com for inclusion in our monthly publication and on our blog. 


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