Talk to the Paw

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2015/05/22) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted] Manager
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@yahoo.com
On May 5th the complainant and his wife came to our adoption event where we as a non-profit animal rescue find homes for animal...

that we have taken from perilous situations. He and his wife indicated they had to put their cat to sleep and his wife wanted another cat. They looked at the cats we had available and the husband pointed to one of our cats and said "I want this one". We encouraged him to go to our quiet room and visit with the cat before deciding and they did. This cat had never been reactive in a negative way to anything. We offered them our two week foster to adopt plan where you can take the animal for two weeks without paying the non-refundable adoption fee before deciding to finalize. That way before you pay the non-refundable fee you can see if it is a good fit for your home. Complainant declined and said he wanted that cat and if it did not work out consider it a donation to the group. Our policy is the animal comes back to us if at any time it is not a good situation. They were instructed to take the cat home and isolate in a quiet room with food, water and litter for a week or so before introducing to their dog and letting roam the house. They called 14 hours later and said the cat went after the dog and had tried to bite the wife. Clearly they did not follow our instructions. Regardless, the foster mom drove out right away and retrieved the cat. Never were they told they could get a replacement cat down the road and never did he ask for a refund which clearly states in the contract is not done. He signed the contract and verbally said it was a donation. A week later the wife called and inquired about a siamese kitten we had for adoption. When told we had two other adoption contracts on the kitten the wife became upset and said she wanted the siamese kitten and what about her? She was told that we review contracts on our animals and place the animal in the most appropriate home we feel the animal will be happy. She hung up on us and her husband called and said we had accused her of abusing the cat they returned. That never happened. They were simply told that the kitten they were wanting was going to a more appropriate home. We felt that as they did not follow our instructions on introducing the previous cat into the home to the dog at a slower pace we did not feel that an 8 week old kitten would be good in the environment with the dog. They were never accused of doing anything to the previous cat nor was a refund requested. He wanted the kitten. He then became verbally abusive and said he was an elected official and we had not heard the end of this. He then sent a threatening text message of which we have retained for our records. We feel that this was not a good situation for an 8 week old kitten and stand by that. If he wanted a refund he never requested it and legally is not entitled to one as he signed the contract and verbally stated it was a donation. We will gladly refund his donation if he should request, even though the contract clearly states we do not, but we will not place an animal in a situation we do not feel is safe. He states that we placed the previous cat in another home and that is not true either. The cat, which is not aggressive at all in his foster home is still in our care and we will be more careful about where he is placed. We instruct every new adopter on how to welcome a new pet into the home and explain that they need an adjustment period to feel secure in a new environment. This is an important part of any adoption. One night is not enough time for an animal to adjust. We already had two other contracts on the kitten the wife wanted and were not going to bypass those who were there before the wife wanted this particular kitten. We place animals in homes that we feel will be a good fit for both the human and the animal. The gentleman was told no and did not respond well to it.