O…here we go again…
Yesterday was not a good day... :-(
Catching up with emails last Monday at work , I was greeted by this email from the cat shelter I’m currently focused on:
Hi,
Gemma (this the foster carer of one of the cats I visited) said that you were looking at lots of cats so I don't think it will be worth my while in visiting you if you are going to take a cat from somewhere else.
I was somewhat bewildered. Was it just me, or had I just been snubbed? Was I expected to show loyalty to one cattery alone? I felt a bit like I’d joined a dating site and received an email from them after two months stating, well, hey, if you haven’t picked a boyfriend from us in this time then you’re clearly not really interested & we’re deleting your account. Woooooo!?
But I attempted to respond with patience. And this - the first occasion - it uprighted itself: she responded reason for her email was that she had very little time to give so would I be ok to pick a cat first, & then she’ll come & do a home visit? Sure, I replied. At that point thinking (generously, as you do) that it was just a misunderstanding.
Since then I’ve done two home visits of cats - one in Pimlico, the other in Kentish town - before the kitten-emergency paused all progress. I’ve also battled through torrential rain to Battersea ( which turned out to be quite a distance from nearest tube & a two-security-gate-enforced bastion looking worryingly set as if about to take on a riot of animal haters) to sign with them. But that’s an aside: my focus has been with Paws for Life & to get a cat from them primarily.
I’ve also strained to keep an optimistic tone in all my emails to this woman, since I was possibly trying her patience a bit with wanting to visit the cats first (*clearly here also here a bit wary since that email-battle I experienced three years ago with Mayhew in order to get Happy).
So this week she sent an email suggesting a number of cats. ‘Cool’, I thought, ‘but I’d be a bit more specific to get the right cat’, so I wrote back that I may have a child in the future or / and a second cat, so perhaps some of these cats would fall out naturally as not suitable for those scenarios?
Upon which I got the following response:
Catching up with emails last Monday at work , I was greeted by this email from the cat shelter I’m currently focused on:
Hi,
Gemma (this the foster carer of one of the cats I visited) said that you were looking at lots of cats so I don't think it will be worth my while in visiting you if you are going to take a cat from somewhere else.
I was somewhat bewildered. Was it just me, or had I just been snubbed? Was I expected to show loyalty to one cattery alone? I felt a bit like I’d joined a dating site and received an email from them after two months stating, well, hey, if you haven’t picked a boyfriend from us in this time then you’re clearly not really interested & we’re deleting your account. Woooooo!?
But I attempted to respond with patience. And this - the first occasion - it uprighted itself: she responded reason for her email was that she had very little time to give so would I be ok to pick a cat first, & then she’ll come & do a home visit? Sure, I replied. At that point thinking (generously, as you do) that it was just a misunderstanding.
Since then I’ve done two home visits of cats - one in Pimlico, the other in Kentish town - before the kitten-emergency paused all progress. I’ve also battled through torrential rain to Battersea ( which turned out to be quite a distance from nearest tube & a two-security-gate-enforced bastion looking worryingly set as if about to take on a riot of animal haters) to sign with them. But that’s an aside: my focus has been with Paws for Life & to get a cat from them primarily.
I’ve also strained to keep an optimistic tone in all my emails to this woman, since I was possibly trying her patience a bit with wanting to visit the cats first (*clearly here also here a bit wary since that email-battle I experienced three years ago with Mayhew in order to get Happy).
So this week she sent an email suggesting a number of cats. ‘Cool’, I thought, ‘but I’d be a bit more specific to get the right cat’, so I wrote back that I may have a child in the future or / and a second cat, so perhaps some of these cats would fall out naturally as not suitable for those scenarios?
Upon which I got the following response: