Ed Ruggero
Some neighbors recently visited a local animal shelter, where they fell for a young cat named Mimi who needs a loving home. Our neighbors let each child pet the cat (parents will recognize this as a huge commitment) and filled out an application to adopt. The kids and adults were very excited, and we joked about how Mimi had hit “the kitty lottery.”
Two days later our neighbors got a call from the shelter saying their application had been denied because they indicated that they would let the cat outside. The shelter worker did not explain the rules for indoor/outdoor cats, nor did she give Mimi’s potential owners a chance to say they’d comply. According to my neighbor, the clerk ended the conversation rather abruptly. Mimi is still in the shelter, and I imagine the kids were not very happy.
Front line employees in animal shelters are underpaid and often over-worked. Most of them are animal lovers and are upset by the instances of abuse they see. They feel overwhelmed and powerless, yet, as this incident shows, this desk clerk was very powerful. From the point of view of my neighbors, she wasn’t just the on-duty clerk, she was the animal shelter. This single interaction characterized, for the client, the entire operation, with its million dollar budget, dozens of employees, scores of volunteers and hundreds of needy animals. ,
