First Bettie Page, now Majel Barrett.  Who next?

Mike & Ada, thanks for an awesome party last night. I wish we could have stayed longer, but we passed out right away when we got home, so I don’t know how much longer we were good for. I hope the Taboo game was as much fun as the sweater contest!

For the rest of you, be sure to Befriend a Geek this holiday season.  Many geeks, like myself, find the holidays a lonely time.  I remember logging on to Second Life one New Years Eve and finding only a handful of the hard-core users online.  Forum posts dwindle, and many geeks are left feeling alone.  Please, visit your local geek and let them know you care about them.

Befriend a Geek from White October on Vimeo.

From Reddit. Where else?

There’s a blog entry Amy and I have wanted to post, and our experiences this morning have me feeling like it’s time I got it off my chest.

In late November, a man carrying a baseball bat stole his cat back from a Dallas animal shelter.  According to the man, his companion was still wearing his collar and tags, but nobody had made any effort to contact him.  The shelter wanted $132 to let him “adopt” his cat back, and he couldn’t afford it.  I can honestly say I don’t blame him.  If the story is true, I’d have done the same thing for one of my furry little buddies. And, I’m sure our shelter would have given the man his cat back if it had happened here.

No, my problem is with the comments people left on the dallasnews.com articles about the situation

• 11/18 article, “Man with bat takes cat from Dallas shelter”
• 11/19 article, “Man wielding bat takes cat from Dallas Animal Shelter”

“I’ll pay that ridiculous fee if two things happen: 1) They drop charges against the guy; 2) They justify that fee”

“The animal shelter has little to do with animals. Just like the parking ticket racket the city runs, this is all about making moola.  $132 to pick up a stray cat? That’s extortion.” 

“one last thing… fees as such must be limited and capped at a reasonable level. I do not believe $132 is reasonable.”

It reminded Amy of the Reddit comment I responded to the night we adopted Daisy, where someone claimed “there’s no such thing as a no-kill shelter…I urge everyone to spay and neuter, and don’t fall for the no-kill lie.”

We’ve been trying to figure out why there’s such naked hostility toward animal shelters, and specifically toward their policies.  I’m hoping people out there have some ideas.

One of Amy’s theories is that people see shelters as charities, and equate charities with free services.  You don’t see soup kitchens charging homeless people for dinner, right? The thing is, “people shelters” have an easier time getting funding than a small-time animal shelter like ours, and I’m sure they don’t take on hundreds of dollars in doctor bills every time a new resident walks through the door.

When a cat shows up on our doorstep (few people are brave enough to actually turn over their cat in person), we have to isolate it.  Then, it’s off to the vet to be spayed or neutered, microchipped, given a checkup, vaccinated, and tested for Feline AIDS.  Within a week of showing up, we’ve probably spent close to $200 on the cat already.  They can’t live in the main shelter until all that has been taken care of.

When one of my ex-girlfriends was living in a homeless shelter, I don’t remember her saying anything about a hysterectomy.  In fact, she went on to have at least two kids with the bastard she left me for.  But, I digress…

Another possibility we’ve discussed is that these people complaining were turned down when they tried to adopt a pet.  I know shelters can be picky sometimes.  Maybe they’re just pissed.

Or, maybe they’re all just trolls who lump all animal lovers in with PETA as targets of ridicule.

Anyway, this is venturing into “TL;DR” territory, so I’m going to cut it short.  But, please feel free to leave comments with your thoughts on the issue.  What gives people these impressions, and what can we do to spread the word about what we do and how much we need donations?