I run a small rescue in a town of about 3,000 people. A woman reaches out over Facebook.

Woman: “Hi, I have this cat who needs a surgery, and the vet said it’s [amount], but I can’t pay that.”

Me: “I’m so sorry! That must be difficult. Are you looking to surrender the cat?”

Woman: “No! I want you to pay for it.”

Me: “Sorry… what?”

Woman: “I want your rescue to pay for the surgery. I don’t have that kind of money, and I don’t want to put her down!”

Me: “I’m sorry, but that is not a service we provide. What I can do is make a courtesy post about your cat and ask for donations to go to you or the vet office directly, but I can’t use money that has been donated to these animals for someone’s owned pet.”

Woman: “Why not?”

Me: “Because that’s no different than me using the donations to buy dog food for my personal dog. The donations are for the animals awaiting adoption while in our care.”

Woman: “Well, what f****** good are you if you’re not willing to help people?!”

Me: “Have a nice day, ma’am. Good luck with your cat.”

She gave us a one-star review, saying we weren’t willing to help her when she came to us with an injured cat and made several posts where she blasted us for being uncaring and unprofessional. In turn, I replied to every post she made with screenshots of the conversation. She deleted all of my comments, so I just made my own post.

She quickly blocked my page, so I’m sure she’s still talking trash about us behind our backs.

CONTENT WARNING: Animal Death (Kitten, accidental)

The animal shelter near me tries to make drama whenever someone drops off an animal with them. Each animal has a little sheet that explains their weight, color, size, medical history, and “why they were dropped off”. This last part is consistently fraudulent in order to draw extra sympathy.

I became aware of the problem when it happened to me. I found six little kittens half-drowned clogging my gutters. There was a seventh who was drowned stuck in the downspout.

These are not my cats. I do not own cats. I do not want cats. But I care about six waterlogged little balls of fluff that are coughing out water in a frightening way, and I want someone to help them. (And a seventh who was dead).

I brought all seven (including the sadly dead one) to the animal shelter and dropped them off for their emergency vet to handle it. A few days later, I decided to check and see how the kittens were doing.

They were already “up for adoption” which, by my understanding, is a bit quicker than normal and makes me worried that they didn’t do appropriate tests on the kittens. But worse was what they put in the “why they were dropped off” section.

It said, “These six little kittens were dropped off at [Location] Shelter because the owner said they didn’t match her living room treatment.”

I complained, of course. This was slander. The volunteer I complained to asked if I was admitting to being the woman who dropped them off because they didn’t match my living room.

Me: “That’s not what happened!”

Volunteer: “How would you know, then?”

I did eventually manage to talk to someone with some authority, but they told me that unless I was willing to admit that the kittens were “mine” and pay their vet bills as well as a fee for holding and feeding them for a few days, I had no say in anything they did in the effort to get the kittens adopted.

And… I understand that? But lying for fake sympathy seems like a destructive strategy.

After that, I stopped donating anything to that shelter, and I have recommended that all my friends and family use a more honest-seeming shelter that’s a fair way away.

Our animal shelter is doing an adoption/charity drive at a local mall. We bring a few of the friendlier cats and dogs to be placed into pens in one of the mall’s large open atriums. This encourages families and children to see the cute animals and raise awareness of our animal shelter and rescue efforts.

I see a mother bringing her two children over to the kitten pen, and instead of talking to any of us, lifts her children over the fence and in amongst the kittens. She then starts walking away.

Me: “Excuse me, miss! Miss! Excuse me!”

I can tell she was trying to ignore me at first but there was no way she was conceivably ignoring my outburst. She turns around and looks at me in an almost dopey manner.

Me: “The kitten pen is not a children’s play area. Also, you can’t leave your children here unattended.”

Mother: “Isn’t this the mall’s kid’s club or whatever?”

Me: “No, ma’am. This is an adoption drive for our animal shelter. The animals are here to show some of the dogs and cats we have up for adoption.”

Mother: “Just let my kids play with the kitties for a little while. I won’t be long.”

Me: “No, ma’am. You need to come and collect your children immediately. This is not a babysitting space or a kid’s club.”

Mother: “They’ll be fine. I’ll be right back.”

Me: “Ma’am, I don’t think you’re listening to me. If you leave right now I am calling mall security and reporting two abandoned children.”

As I am saying this, I hear a bit of murmuring behind me. I turn to see one of her children has picked up a kitten and is threatening to drop it in the fountain that decorates this particular mall atrium (we had set up right next to it).

As I am rushing over, I see the cat wriggle out of the child’s grip, land at the child’s feet, and flick them towards the fountain as they make their escape. It all happened so quickly the child lost their footing and fell in the fountain.

The mother is running over now. She checks on her child while I check on the cat; both seem to be fine, albeit one is a lot wetter than the other.

Mother: “Your cat did that on purpose! Now my kid is all wet!”

Me: “They shouldn’t have been trying to throw a cat into a fountain.”

Mother: “I’m gonna sue you for this!”

Me: “Sue us! Be lucky I am not having you arrested for putting a child in danger, trespassing on our space, and animal abuse! Get out of here now!”

The wet child is crying, and everyone is staring, so the mother grabs her other child, scowls at us, and storms off. Thanks, kitty!

This story is part of our Editors’-Favorite-Stories-Of-2024-(second half!) roundup!

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It is 2020, and because the world has gone to s*** I have left the big city and moved back in with my recently-retired parents. They own a small farm that is enough to sustain them and sell a few items to local stores in the small rural town. When I say small, I mean “nearly everybody knows everybody” kinda small.

I get some part-time work at an animal shelter while I take my college classes remotely via Zoom. I am chatting with my coworker when we see a pickup truck pull up near the entrance. A woman takes a large cardboard box out from the back of the pickup and dumps it outside. We both know what’s happening, and we both run outside.

The woman sees us running out as she’s jumping back into her truck. She’s obviously annoyed to have witnesses, so she shouts out:

Woman: “Didn’t know the b**ch was pregnant!”

And with that, she screeches her way back onto the road.

Inside the box are seven tiny puppies, newborns I’d say.

Coworker: “Do you remember the intake procedure for abandoned newborns?”

Me: “I do and I’m on it!”

Coworker: “Good. Do that now; I need to make some calls.”

I get the poor little abandoned pups inside and go through the process of making sure they’ll be alright. I won’t bore you with our intake procedures but it involves a lot, physical, healthcheck, cleaning, feeding, weighing, not to mention all the admin work. It takes most of my workday to make sure they’ll be okay and I go home exhausted. 

I’m back at work the next day to check in on the pups and to feed them when I am shocked to see that they’re all being nursed by a big momma dog. My coworker notices my surprise.

Coworker: “That call I had to make yesterday? It was to the sheriff. I recognized the woman and the truck who dumped the puppies.”

Me: “Oh, wow!”

Coworker: “He dropped by her place along with a representative from ASPCA. She didn’t put up a fight and we had the mother brought in here late last night to be reunited with her pups. It was either that or face a potential fine and prosecution.”

Me: “That’s amazing! But what happens now?”

Coworker: “They’re far too young to be adopted, so for the next few months they belong to us! We’ll put them up for adoption when they’re ready.”

I go back home and tell my parents the story.

Mom: “Well, we have been thinking about getting a dog.”

Dad: “Let’s come by next week and have a look at ’em?”

Cut to one year later: ALL SEVEN PUPPIES and their mom now live on my parent’s little farm. Their excuse was that now that they’re older they wanted guard dogs, but considering how friendly and how spoilt those eight little furry ruffians are the most damage they can do is swarm an intruder and lick them to death. Along with my parent and their three full-time staff, they’re the happiest and least attention-starved animals in the country I reckon.

And that’s the story about how my parents went from having zero dogs to having eight.

This story is part of our Highest-Voted-Inspirational-Stories-Of-2024 roundup!

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I work in an animal shelter specializing in cats and dogs. We want all our animals to be adopted but of course, we have to make sure they all go to good homes. I am showing around woman who wants to adopt a dog.

Me: “So that’s all of our medium-sized dogs. Don’t worry, they’ve all been vaccinated against the usual, including rabies, so you wouldn’t need to do any shots yourself.”

Woman: “Excuse me, you say they’ve all been vaccinated? All of them?!”

Me: “Yes. It’s procedure.”

Woman: “Ugh! What a waste of time! You might as well put them all down; no one wants an autistic dog!”

She storms out, leaving me relieved that we did not let her leave with any of our animals. I also called around all the other shelters with this woman’s personal information she provided on the application forms to make sure she would not be able to adopt anything more than a plant in ours and neighboring states!

Related:
You Can’t Vaccinate Against Stupid, Part 5
You Can’t Vaccinate Against Stupid, Part 4
You Can’t Vaccinate Against Stupid, Part 3
You Can’t Vaccinate Against Stupid, Part 2
You Can’t Vaccinate Against Stupid