Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Heart Broken

My emotions are a mess right now. I generally try to keep the 'tone' of my blog positive but there has been a situation that has made my heart hurt badly these past several days.
It has to do with Bella. It's a bit complicated but by typing it all out here I am hoping to possibly find some relief and even closure.
We originally found Bella via our neighbor who I will name 'W'. W worked part time for a local realtor and he was needing to re-home his cat due to allergies. We took Bella and W said that if it didn't work out that she would re-home the cat for us as she does this 'on the side' for people. I had no reason not to trust her about that. She has lots of pets so I know she's an animal lover.
Well, after things not working out like we had hoped I contacted W and asked her if she would maybe ask around for a new home for Bella. This was on Friday afternoon. On Saturday she emailed to say she had found a home for Bella in Vancouver and she would take her in on Sunday. It was fast and we were relieved to have found her a home so quickly. We knew if it dragged out it would be harder on the kids.
So the cat was delivered on Sunday and I looked forward to hearing how it went. I emailed W and no reply. I emailed again...no reply. I knew she was home...I can see her house! I was getting really agitated at this point as I felt very very responsible to make sure this cat was re-homed properly and was happy.
I knew that my other neighbor friend had driven into Vancouver with W and so I emailed her instead to ask how things went. This is where things got very very bad.
I found out several things that made me really upset. First of all W sold my cat on Craigslist for $35 and secondly the cat was sold to to a man who recently got out of jail and lives in poverty in a slum-like apartment in East Vancouver.
Please before you judge me YES I'm sure an ex-con can love a cat as much as anyone else but can he afford to feed her (and his current cat) and take care of her properly? This is NOT the type of home I envisioned Bella going to. We would have kept her if we knew this was the alternative!
After hearing all this I needed some sort of peace of mind Bella was doing okay with this new living situation. So I asked W for this man's email address (I knew she had made the delivery arrangements with him via email) so I could at least ask him how things were going and to let him know if it wasn't working out we would drive out and pick her up. But W won't give it to me and my hands are tied.
I've never felt such frustration in my life. I know it's 'just a cat' and I can't believe that I feel so so upset by all this but I do.
As it stands now there is nothing more I can do but just hope and pray everything will be fine. And it very well COULD be fine...it's the not knowing that is hard.
So tonight I'll shed a few more tears for my poor kitty. Lesson learned: If you want something done right just do it yourself.

3 comments:

Chris said...

Oh Rachel! This is not good. I'm so sorry that it turned out this way. You wouldn't have expected this at all. But you are right about doing things yourself. That is a life lesson I have had to learn too. I hope this man loves cats, some people who can't get along in society treat their cats and dogs better than anyone else would because they are the only friends they have that will not judge them and who will love them unconditionally. That would be my only comfort in this.

Anonymous said...

Oh, my heart is just breaking for you Rachel. First the sadness of having to give up your cat and now the pain of realizing that you've been betrayed by someone you trusted. The only comfort I can offer you is to let you know that I'll be praying for you, which is perhaps the best comfort of all.

Kimberley said...

aww, that sucks rachel! i think the part that gets me, is that W totally betrayed your trust that she/he was going to spend time finding a GOOD happy home for the cat. the way they went about it is totally wrong and i completely understand your concern. hopefully bella is happy though and is getting fed well. thinking of you guys.