they are black and white tuxedo's...one is rock and the other is rummble..we already have a rock and we already have a rumple (too close not to be confusing) so we will just call them rocky and rummy to keep everyone straight.
while we were driving home the phone rang...(do not answer the phone carol! altho i did have my hands free blue tooth hooked up but i still shouldn't answer because it is always about some needy animal!)
anyway..it was a referral from CARES..this woman was trying to save the life of a 15 yr old cat whose owner was going to put him down. so i was going to say ok..let them. but instead i asked why (good thing!) so she started out with telling me that a few weeks ago, the cat brought in fleas and the family had to treat him with advantage and fumigate the house so they were going to euthanize. and my inside voice is saying.."you have got to be kidding me...the cat is now treated and so is the house the fleas are all dead so why kill the cat???..." and then she went on to say that the owner was elderly, had alzheimers disease and it was because her health care workers and case managers were freaking out about the cat and the fleas and the possible future health risks if the cat ever gets fleas again...(which he probably will because the owner has alzheimers disease...duh..it is a given!)
i work for home health...and i know exactly what freakouts we are about our rules about family pets in clients homes. and the clients are stuck in the middle between our stringent and unbending rules and their long time family pet. depending how much care the client really requires depends on who wins the pet battle....usually the health authority wins because we do have our clients over a needing care and help barrel.
it pisses me off....we have absolutely no respect for the difficulties our sometimes iron clad rules cause in other beings lives....cuz really that cat just wants to die...heaven forbid we just add into the clients careplan to treat the cat with advantage once a month....we simply don't do that...not our job...and so the cat dies instead.
so i said...hold on to the cat for a couple of weeks until i can sort out our current new ones..if it hits a caregiving crises call me back and let me know.
and now i am going to go shoot myself....or..maybe if i can suck tammy into it...maybe we will go for lunch instead...i will worry about this new cat in a couple of weeks....hopefully not sooner.