Let this post be an eye-opener to the hundreds of rescuers, fosterers and animal lovers on this site and every other. Let them NOT make the same mistake that I did with my boy. What has happened to him will torment me for life, but I will make sure that his story doesn't go unheard of. No other fur-kid out there deserves to fall into such irresponsible hands, none of them deserve to become victims of such
intentional neglect.
Rascal was born to a stray mother cat I rescued last year (March '10). After 3 months under my care, he was adopted by a Malay lady and her husband. This year (February '11), she contacted me saying that she was already pregnant with a child and could no longer afford to look after Rascal. He was returned to me, along with his female friend, Minnie.
Rascal:
http://www.petfinder.my/pets/12713/
Minnie:
http://www.petfinder.my/pets/18717/
Two weeks after posting his profile again on PetFinder, I was contacted by another lady who mentioned that she'd just adopted a female cat from the SPCA, and was looking for a male companion for her. I handed Rascal over with good prospects. Unfortunately, the next day she called to tell me that her female cat was constantly hissing and growling at Rascal, and that she'd never managed cats that way before. Rascal was returned for the second time.
During this period, I was contacted by a man named
Muhammad Hafizuddin. His username on PetFinder is
Pjud. He expressed serious interest in Rascal over the weeks that Rascal was with me, constantly asking me for updates on Rascal. In the adoption form, he portrayed a good profile, agreeing to medical care, a safe indoor environment (apartment), good food (royal canin etc.) and personal attention from him and his family.
I believed that Rascal deserved ONE MORE chance.
Less than a week after adopting Rascal (last Sunday night), I noticed Hafizzudin's posts on Facebook, discussing about sending Rascal over to someone. I called him to investigate, and he told me that he was planning to send Rascal to his family house in Negeri Sembilan, to his kampung! Alas,
another adoption gone wrong!
Since hearing the news (Monday and Tuesday), I constantly called him, telling him that i'd like to have Rascal returned. He agreed but delayed our meeting, until Tuesday evening, when he
finally revealed to me that Rascal had gone MISSING.
Horrified, I made my way to his apartment to search for Rascal. I noticed that his kitchen window was WIDE open. He blamed it on his friend who had (according to him) forgotten to shut it. He also told me that Rascal had GONE OUT MANY TIMES BEFORE and managed to safely JUMP over to the corridor area. He had the
nerve to explain this to me! He lives on the
12th floor of the building, and he'd promised to keep Rascal indoors and safe!
I immediately prepared fliers back home. I went over to the apartment area and posted over 200 fliers around. I never stopped calling out to see if Rascal would appear. I returned home hours later, mentally exhausted and
praying that Rascal was safe and sound.
That afternoon, I received a call from one of the apartment residents. He told me that early Monday morning (between 4am to 5am), he'd heard something fall through the back airway (kitchen) area. The man told me that the cleaner lady had screamed a while later (around 7am to 8am) and when asked, told him that she'd discovered a dead cat.
I hurried to the apartment management, hoping to speak to the cleaner and get details regarding the cat. Color, markings, collar, anything. I didn't want to believe that it could've been Rascal.
BUT, I was
cold-heartedly told that I didn't have the permission to speak to the cleaners, and that pets were NOT ALLOWED in the apartment premises.
Hafiz never told me this! The manager also told me that if they find animals, they either call the MPSJ, and if dead, throw them into rubbish bins. He threatened to report ME and told me that they don't entertain fliers around the apartment area.
All the fliers were torn down on the same day.
Today, I made a second call to the management. This time, a lady from the security section picked up. After hearing my pleas, she agreed to help. I rushed over once again, and was escorted by the lady cleaner involved to the airway area.
Her immediate description of the 'kucing warna coklat dengan belang hitam' matched that of Rascal. She opened the steel door to show me
pools of dried blood at the airway area. The sheer agony I felt at the time is not something I can put into words...I took a glance upwards and spotted Hafiz's grill on the highest floor. The entire scene of what may have happened played in my head.
My Rascal never had the chance to cross over to the corridors, he fell 12 floors down to his death the moment he'd stepped onto the grill.
The cleaner explained again that Rascal had been found on Monday morning.
It struck a nerve, as I realized that Hafiz had clearly lied to me about Rascal going missing on TUESDAY. Rascal had fallen in the dark hours of morning, between 4am to 5am...what responsible pet owner would keep their pets susceptible to the outdoors at such hours? Hafiz had left his windows open OVERNIGHT. And he'd LIED to me that the whole accident was caused by his
friend's carelessness!
With a heavy heart, I asked the cleaner where Rascal's body was. She told me that Rascal had been packed in a black bag right then and thrown into a rubbish bin. Picked up on the same day. It's killing me right now to even put this into words...MY BOY DID NOT DESERVE TO DIE, NOT LIKE THIS. I WASN'T EVEN GRANTED THE CLOSURE OF FINDING HIS BODY. RASCAL WAS A DARLING, A VERY WELL BEHAVED CAT, ALL HE WANTED WAS A LOVING AND
PERMANENT HOME.
Now, Hafiz@Pjud is back on his feet again, posting comments on several PetFinder profiles, asking for new cats and kittens to adopt. He CLEARLY doesn't care. The life I placed into his hands meant NOTHING to him, he'd been careless and DOES NOT feel sorry about it. Because it was given to him for FREE. He is now seeking new replacements. Here are a few of the mentioned profiles:
http://www.petfinder.my/pets/19208/
http://www.petfinder.my/pets/19229/
http://www.petfinder.my/pets/19354/
http://www.petfinder.my/pets/19391/
My plea to the moderator, Andy and everyone else:
Please do not let this person dwell any longer around the forums, or among the PetFinder society. Remove him from this space, so that no other fur-kid here will fall victim to his negligence. We rescuers work
so hard for our animals, they do not deserve such horrible endings.
My advice to all pet owners out there:
PLEASE BE SURE of your ability to provide permanent care to the lives you take into your hands. DO NOT ABANDON your pets over trivial reasons, do your research before you take that next drastic step, please...you wouldn't give up on your
family members just as easily, would you? The fact that they're 'just animals' DOES NOT give us the right to treat them ANY lesser, to take their lives for GRANTED.
I do not know who deserves the blame for this situation...but I do know that until the very end, all Rascal wanted was to go home, back to when he was loved and carefree. I hope that in
some ways, his ordeal will help teach others (rescuers and pet owners alike) to be more careful and considerate about the roles they've assigned themselves to.
May Rascal finally have some peace.