The Cat's on the Roof

     A businessman has to go out of town unexpectedly for a length of time so he asks his neighbor to take care of his cat while he is gone. The first evening he is gone the man calls his neighbor to check on the cat.

     “Your cat is dead,” said the neighbor.

     The businessman is thunderstruck and upset. “How can you give me such bad news so baldly?” he exclaimed. “You should have prepared me for this. The first night you should tell me ‘The cat’s on the roof and we can’t get him to come down.’ The next night you should tell me that the fire department tried and couldn’t rescue the cat. And so on for about a week, until you tell me ‘The cat died.’”

     Several months later, the same man has another business trip and this time asks his neighbor to stop in and check on his elderly mother. The first night on the trip he calls his neighbor to see if everything is alright at the house.

     “Your mother’s on the roof,” said the neighbor.

     Bad joke, huh?

     I was reminded of this joke, though, this past weekend when I shot some photos at the city-run animal shelter and saw a sign on one of the dog cages indicating that it was the last day of life for that particular animal…unless it was adopted. 

     

     Because this is not a no-kill shelter, that dog was “on the roof.” It was sad to see the dozens of bulldogs, Rottweilers, and terriers that had been discarded, apparently after they lost their cuteness. Although the no-kill shelters do try to take up the slack, when they are at capacity also there is little that the city shelter can do.

     The young woman at the right, with both physical and mental special needs, chose a very rambunctious, medium-size dog to love. On the way out the door "Breezy" pulled the girl's mother right on to the floor. Yikes, not a good way to start a relationship.

     This large  furball  was going home with three small boys and their mother.

     A tiny little Maltese dog was brought in while I was there and then adopted out immediately. Its new "mom" looks very happy.

     During the short hour that I was there right after the shelter opened on Saturday morning, three dogs and one cat were adopted. Right as I was leaving the girl in the photo below brought in a puppy that she tried to foster for one night but said, “It kept me up all night. I can’t do this.”

     This Siamese cat had a docked tail but it was hard to say if it was born that way or it was abused. This was the most vocal of all the cats and sported a “Most Entertaining” ribbon on its cage. Of course I saw several I would’ve liked to take home, but then I would be the one on the roof!