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He pounced into our hearts. On a bitter January morning, Brittany found a kitten, cold and forlorn, sitting near the entrance to our school. The ladies in the office put him in a paper box, but he was scared in such a busy place.
He found his way to our library, and my office became the biggest home he had ever known. Good thing -- he needed the space to entertain his admirers.
A handsome tuxedo cat, with white bib and paws complementing a black coat, he greeted each new face with enthusiasm and friendly purrs. In only a day, this lovable kitty had students and staff in the palm of his paw.
Tiffany's mom brought food, we purchased milk (whole milk, no 2 percent for our boy), a T-shirt from Mrs. Ross made his nest, newspapers filled his litter box and he settled in with us.
Since the panther is our school mascot, his adoring public wanted to keep him as our
library cat-in-residence. Some suggested names: Shakespeare, Bookmark and Late Pass. Staff members and students offered him a home. Tempted as we were, we couldn't do that. He was about 4 months old and must have been recently adopted.
The "N" tattooed in his ear meant he was an SPCA cat. Worried that his family must be frantic, we called. People in our school have close connections with the SPCA. They shelter animals for the agency. Several of us have pets that are alumni of the agency's kennels. We knew that checking to see if his family wanted him back was the right thing to do.
Mrs. Gullo volunteered to drive kitty to Ensminger Road. When she got there, the agency staff knew about "the cat from the school." She turned him over to the volunteers with the caveat that if his family didn't want him, we did, and left three phone numbers.
The SPCA called to say that the kitten had ringworm. Ringworm is contagious but not fatal. It takes time, effort and medication to cure. We called back to ask about his family and were informed that they had refused him. When asked if one of our people could adopt him, we were told he had been destroyed.
The SPCA gave kitty the fatal shot before notifying people who would have taken him back and got his treatment under way. We weren't asking the SPCA to put the other animals in their kennels at risk. We would have removed him from the building ASAP. We wanted a chance to give him a home. We, and kitty, never got that chance.
The agency said it didn't want to deal with the ringworm. But it didn't have to. We would have done it. We assumed that the SPCA treated all animals with compassion and would work with us. We never expected that he would be killed before we even had a chance to act.
This experience has changed our perception of the SPCA. When I shared our kitten's story with my mother, she said, "I thought the SPCA took care of the animals." Sadly, so did we.
CAROLYN GIERKE, a librarian at Sweet Home High School, lives in Lancaster.
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