Have you ever had a pet you couldn't care for amymore? What did you do?

Are you asking about rescue pets, OP?

I am talking about all pets, r1. Rescue and otherwise.

I had a beautiful little cat once whom I bought at a pet store. (This was in the late ‘80s.) I already had one cat for a few years that I rescued from an abusive owner - she was a bit skittish but we got along. I thought having two cats would be good for both of them and it was. The major problem was the 2nd cat peed on everything. For years, I sought advice from the vet who always seemed to have some suggestion that raised my hopes that this major issue would resolved. I was constantly spraying everything in my sizeable studio apartment, entire sides of the studio were lined with tin foil, etc., etc. It just went on and on and on. My entire apartment stank of cat urine. After five years I’d had enough and put her in the car carrier and walked with her to the humane society a few blocks away. Once there, I waited with her until the technician came in and I asked what would happen to her. The tech said, “Well, we’re going to give her an overdose of barbiturates until her heart explodes.” (Which seems odd now.) I put my cat in the carrier and took her home.

After another 6 or 7 months, with all of the same behaviour, I took her back to the humane society but this time when they asked me if I wanted to wait with her I said no and left her at reception. I definitely had to push down my emotions and just get out of there but ultimately I figured she’d had a good life and it’s not like she was going to be President or cure cancer or something. She was adorable so maybe somebody took her home though, I don’t kid myself, it’s more than likely she was put down. I think it was hard on the other cat for a while but she got over it and lived another 12 years or so.

I wish there was something I could’ve done about it but ultimately I wanted more for myself than living in this cat’s litter box. It used to infuriate me the way she would look right at me and pee on the wall. I think the vet once suggested she was taken away from her mother too early and/or maybe she was spayed too early. All I know is it was incredibly frustrating and I couldn’t live with it any longer. I think all the yelling at her probably scared her as well but she was adorable and very affectionate with me. She was very small and even after five years still looked like a toy cat. I wish there’d been a better outcome. Maybe there was.

I mentioned it once to my cat loving best friend and we never spoke of it again. I would never even say her name to him or refer to her, the thought of it upsets him so much. (Though, at the time, he never offered to take her.)

It used to be considered shameful to surrender a pet to a shelter, and the shelters would scold owners who did so. Then the shelters realized if they tried to shame owners the owners would just abandon the pets, whereas if they surrendered them the pets would either have a good chance of being re-adopted or would be put down quickly and not allowed to starve in the wild.

Now they realize that usually people who surrender pets to shelters very much don't want to do so but are forced by circumstances beyond their control to do it. The last thing they need is to be shamed when they feel bad enough already.

I brought a pregnant mom cat inside to have her babies. I put her in a spare bedroom to isolate her from my cats. A few days later she had 5 kittens. I cared for them for months with the intention of getting them all fixed and finding them homes. I tried some ads but the people responding sounded flaky. I ultimately gave up and had my friend drive us to the Humane Society, thinking they'd find owners and live happily ever after.

The next day they called me and said the kittens were all hissing and probably not adoptable (they never did this with me). They said I could come get them, otherwise they'd be euthanized. I felt helpless. But I told them I couldn't keep them.

I set the mother back outdoors soon afterwards and it was so hard. She was tame and would've made a nice pet, but she was older. I still remember her standing on the sidewalk looking back at me as I closed the door (ugh)...

She disappeared soon after that. But a few weeks later I was out back and she suddenly appeared. She looked really healthy and clean (white cat). She rose up and rubbed her face into my hand, something she'd never done before.

I went back to yard work. I never saw her again.

This thread wins for most depressing thread to date. I’m out.

I adopted a cat that was rescued from a hoard. She turned out to be a biter. She would sit there in my lap very quietly sleeping then for no reason at all bite me. It escalated to the point where she actually drew blood and I had to go on antibiotics. I had her for about six months and then I had to relinquish her back to the shelter I adopted her from.