I totally agree about the long term shelter option not being a good solution. Before all of this happened, I woulda said no way would I even think about letting some agency put my cat to sleep. Honestly, in the end I think it happened for a reason. My cat had severe anxiety issues. He hated strangers. Whenever he heard a knock on the door, he would run and hide. He didn't even like my mom. He has seen her many, many times, and yet he would growl and hiss at her if she came near him. He treated my son the same way. He absolutely could not stand the sight or sound of my son's voice. The thing is, he was never like that at the beginning. The first couple of years he was a very friendly, outgoing cat. Then on one ocassion my kids took him outside to get to know the neighborhood. A very disturbed little four year old girl was mean to him. She would scream and yell at him and hit him with a shoe. My kids were much younger then, and they did not tell me what was going on until much later. By the time I got clued in, the behavior went downhill fast with our cat. I wish my kids would have told me what that little girl was doing the first time around, but they were little and didn't know any better. By the time they let me in on what was happening, my cat was already damaged emotionally. The little girl moved away from the neighborhood, but the cat continued to pee everywhere and acted skittish even though we no longer let him go outside. He absolutely ruined our apartment and I had no choice but to give him up. I very stupidly thought he might change his ways and get adopted. I was wrong. For the four days he was there, he hissed and growled at anybody who would try to get near him. The agency deemed him "unadoptable" and put him to sleep. I think the cat is in a better place, I really do. I don't think living a life in a cage with strangers poking and prodding at him to make him nervous would have been a good thing. Had he not been put down, he probably would have suffered at that shelter for a very long time. I am now at peace with my decision. I know he is no longer suffering.
