Hi fellow Reddit users,
I’m hoping this post won’t be too long but TLDR; I reluctantly returned a domestic short haired kitten back to the shelter after having him for 2 months.
I relocated to another state due to a Job promotion in July. I’ve always had animals my entire life. Ive always wanted a cat, but my family told me no growing up as they didn’t care too much for cats, so I always had dogs, birds, bunnies, fish, and guinea pigs.
i accepted my job promotion back in December 2020, but did not relocate until July.
About 3 days after accepting the promotion, my 3 dogs found a 2 month old stray kitten in the backyard. Somehow, I was able to convince my family who I was living with to keep him. ive just celebrated his 1 year birthday two days ago. my cat became BFF’s with all my dogs and even thought he was a dog at one point; when the dogs would go outside, he would meow At the back door because he too wished to go outside & play around in the backyard - which he did. But only with his leash & harness on.
anyways, after accepting the offer, I knew I was going to have to relocate eventually and I didn’t want my cat going through depression being separated from his bestfriends. also, he was constantly surrounded by my family, even when I would go out of town for a few days, so he was never alone because my family was at home with him and he had the dogs to play with.
So I thought, I’ll adopt another cat (preferably a kitten seeing as he has never been exposed to other cats before & only dogs) to prevent him from getting lonely, because I didn’t know how he was going to react to the sudden move.
after relocation, I adopted two additional kittens on 7/19/2021. (Which wasn’t supposed to happen, but that’s another story) these kittens were siblings (boy and girl) and were about 2 months old.
The shelter informed me that the kittens were quarantined off because they had diarrhea. Also, because I originally had an appointment to adopt the girl kitten, the shelter did not tell me much about the boy kitten - whom I gave back to the shelter on 9/21/2021.
I did not think to ask the shelter how long the two kitties had diarrhea, as I thought to myself “well my eldest was a stray & he had diarrhea and worms when my dogs found him but with a week’s worth of medication, he recovered fine” so I have one cat’s experience with it, how bad can it be?
After only One month of having the kittens, I had been to vet 4-5x for the diarrhea & other concerns. My lowest vet bill was $250 & highest was $690. Ended up having to get pet insurance to help with the costs. Not only was I going to the vet for diarrhea, I kept asking if the boy kitten had worms or some kind of infection because he was very gluttonous & vocal. Excessive vocalization. Not only that but I think he may have suffered from separation anxiety. He could not be left alone.
I would feed all 3 cats 1/2 can of royal canin canned food in the morning & have set lunch & dinner meal times with kibble food. The girl kitten & My eldest cat would finish their canned food within 5-10 mins. The boy kitten would literally finish within 40 seconds. (I have videos detailing this) & would then meow for more. He would meow for every little thing - attention, food, play time, cuddle time, etc. his meowing was nonstop & constant. I’ve never dealt with this before because my eldest only really meowed when he wanted to cuddle which is usually when I first wake up in the morning or right as im going to bed.
The boy kitten would eat so fast he would throw up, and digest his own throw up. He would scream really loudly before throwing up. He would even digest his liquid / soft stool. The diarrhea was so bad that the poor kitten couldn’t even make it To the litter box 1/2 of the time. it also came to a point where I had to start taking the top off of their dome litter box & watch as he did his business, to ensure that he did not eat his own poo. He would consistently poo in the kitten carrier when I would take him to vet.
To help combat the boy kitten being gluttonous, I pulled out my eldest cats’ slow feeder and put kibble food in there. Once the boy kitten figured out the trick to the slow feeder, he would take out multiple kibble at once and gulp them down. After he would finish eating, he would run over to his sister & my eldest cat who were still eating, growl to force them out of the way and eat their food. So I started separating him from the other 2 cats during feeding time.
Again, because he would be the first one finished with food, he would start meowing and crying getting louder and louder. I tried the ignore method, the squirting of water bottle, etc but he would not stop. He meowed so much that I felt he would never stop to catch his breath, because it was nonstop constant all day meowing.
So the vet tried telling me it was normal and that to try giving him more food. So I did. I tried leaving food out all day for like 1-2 weeks and I would watch how he would get up to eat. I think he ate just to eat. Because the food was there. I seriously thought something was wrong with the boy kitten because he ate way more than the other two, yet he always always weighed at least 1.5 lbs LESS than his sister, who is the same age.
I thought well if he’s constantly throwing up, digesting his poop etc, that could be the reason why he’s not gaining weight fast. Or he might just end up being a slim cat. I don’t know.
So one day I noticed that my eldest cat had diarrhea as well - which he hasn’t had since December 2020. At that point I thought the boy kitten was the carrier. So I set out two additional litter boxes with a total of 3 in the apartment, and separated the cats at various times of the day to ensure that the boy kitten wouldn’t infect the other litter boxes. That didn’t work out so well due to the boy kitten’s excessive vocalization. I could only keep him separated for a certain amount of time as he would cry in less than 5 mins of being separated.
Not only was the excessive vocalization irritating me to no end, my eldest cat also contracted diarrhea. This all happened within 1 month of adoption. With all the medication I bought from the vet, my eldest cat & the girl kitten’s stool was starting to firm up, but not the boy kitten. Tried different kinds of medication from the vet as well as tried purée pumpkin as well as vanilla yogurt (oui brand) to no avail.
Moving along, I met a “friend” here in my new state and we became really close. She mentioned that her boyfriend wanted a cat and I offered to give her the boy kitten. I told her everything that the kitten had going on, bought her a starter box set which came with a food and water bowl, litter box, scooper, and toys. I bought an additional set of wand feather toys as well as gave her all the canned food from the shelter, along with some of the special kibble food I bought from the vet and snacks that I would give the cats every now and then. I gave her medication and all of the kittens medical history and paperwork. She was super excited to take him in and said he wouldn’t be lonely due to her already having a 4 month old puppy and a guinea pig.
So I give her the boy kitten. Everything seems to be going great. As soon as I gave him away, the very next day, my girl kitten & my eldest cat’s diarrhea got better - which confirmed that the boy kitten was indeed the carrier.
2 weeks go by and I ask my “friend” to keep the kitten for 1 night as I was taking his sister to the vet for their FVRCP annual & rabies vaccine. It was then I noticed that he might have ringworm. (The girl kitten contracted ringworm 2 & 1/2 weeks prior & I was going to the vet for vaccinations and to pick up her medication to treat it.) the vet later confirms that the boy kitten also had ringworm - 4 lesions in 4 different areas of his face.
So about another 2 weeks or so goes by and My so called “friend” basically drops the kitten off in front of my door (another story I can make on another post) stating that she could not deal with him anymore due to the excessive diarrhea & vocalization and it has not gotten better. During this time before she dropped him off, we had communicated the day prior, and I said I would take him back. I asked if she could watch him while I was out of town over the next few days, and she told me no. I explained that I had already made arrangements to board up my eldest and the girl kitten and that most likely no pet hotel would board a “sick” kitten due to the ringworms (which is HIGHLY contagious) & diarrhea.
So she drops him off literally leaving me 24 hours to figure out what to do with him (as I was going out of town the next day) and I didn’t know what to do. I was in a panic mode because I knew deep down that I could not put up with the excessive vocalization (he would meow so much that it would literally wake me up out of my sleep and I would sleep with noise cancelling headphones on, bedroom door shut) & me being new to the area, I didn’t have anyone I could call to watch him while I was out of town. Myself and the “friend” are no longer friends because of this.
So I packed all of his things, all his medication, food, toys, etc in a box and put him in the carrier and took him back to the shelter. Upon arrival, the poor baby started crying. As I was filling out the paperwork, he started to scream and holler which made my heart drop as that was one of the hardest things I’ve had to do thus far. I almost changed my mind but I knew that he needed a new home where proper owners could care & give him the attention he so desired, that I could not.
He’s fully vaccinated except for not having the FELV & he isn’t neutered yet. His neuter is deferred until the diarrhea & ringworm completely heals.
I tried to absolve myself of my regret by telling myself that I really did try to help and take care of him (it’s obvious by the amount of $$ I spent at the vet). I thought the boy kitten could be lonely (I work from home and go into the office 1-2x a week) so I made a point to spend extra time with him. playing with him & my other cats at set intervals every day.
I am writing this post because I gave the boy kitten back to the shelter on 9/21/2021 & I have regrets. For a week straight, I thought I was hearing him meowing in my apartment. Guilt I guess you could call it. I blamed myself because had I calmed down and looked at things rationally, I probably could have posted him on social media to re-home him. Or ask on social media for someone to watch / foster him while I was out of town, as I was flying out on 9/22. I was not thinking.
I am feeling immense regret tonight about my decision and decided to torture myself further by checking the shelter’s website to see if he has been adopted yet. Unfortunately, he has not yet been adopted. This sweet baby is super loving, talkative, playful, friendly, and ultimately just wants to cuddle all day long and I know it’s not his fault he’s gluttonous, has diarrhea, ringworm, etc. he doesn’t know or understand why these things are happening to him. It’s unfair and i guess you could say it’s also selfish of me to give him back to the shelter, but I also want him to be rehomed to a loving and caring family.
I don’t know if I can re-adopt him or not, but if I can, I am thinking of doing so and re-homing him myself. But I don’t want to subject him to yet another change & “betray” him again. I walked out on him as well as my “friend”. He doesn’t & didn’t deserve that.
So my fellow Reddit users, what do you think I should do in this situation?
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/q7s89m/regret_returned_kitten_to_shelter/
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