When I went to look at their cats during my lunch hour a few months ago, it was obvious that the kittens and cats looked healthy, cared for, comfortable and well-groomed. Their cat cages were spotlessly clean and all of the cats had plenty of food, water, clean litter boxes, clean beds and toys. It was obvious to me that this group spends a lot of time taking GREAT care of their cats. After seeing this, I decided I wanted to see 3 of the cats and made plans to return to their scheduled adoption day on Saturday.
At the Saturday adoption day, I met some of the group's volunteers. I spoke with one of the foster cat parents who was able to give me extra details about one of the cats that I wanted to see. Another one of the volunteers gave me information about 2 other cats that I wanted to see. Everyone made me feel welcome, and no one rushed me, or pressured me to do anything. I appreciated that.
After filling out a form and meeting with a wonderful lady who reviewed my application with me, I was free to spend as much time as I wanted in a private room with 3 of the cats that interested me. This gave me lots of time to play with each cat and see how they reacted to me, and how I felt about them. After an hour, I fell in love with one of them and knew she was going to be my new family cat, and that is the cat I adopted and took home with me. Now, I am happily at home with my cat and life is fantastic for everyone in my family! If I could gave a grade to this group, it would be AAAA++++.
First and foremost, I'd like to make clear that I believe OCARC takes very good care of their animals. That is not in dispute. My grievances has to do in the way they conduct themselves.
A bit about myself. I come from a family that had always owned and cherished their cats. They were always in pristine health, happy, and treated like members of the family. 2 of them lived to about 16 years old; well beyond the average age of a cat. The third is still with us, though missing her brothers who have succumbed to old age.
Given this, we were looking to adopt another cat as a family companion, but also a companion for our existing cat. Everything is set; a designated, entirely closed-off outdoor area, specialized diet, plenty of grooming and recreational toys. We had our heart set on a particular orange tabby. I had been eyeing him for 3 weeks, but was never able to meet up with the adoption people on the weekends at Petsmart of The District because of work. I did, however, manage to submit an adoption form twice on two separate weeks during the weekdays.
None of the applications or 3 of the voice mails I had left (they never pick up their phone!) reached the proper individual. After 3 weeks, I managed to get time off of work to make it to the Petsmart on a Saturday at noon. Little did I know, what should have been fairly straightforward turned into quite the head (and heart) ache.
Right off the bat, none of the volunteers could find the previous 2 applications I had submitted beforehand. This was forgivable; I didn't mind filling out a third. After I did the paperwork, it was given to an older lady for her review. 10 seconds later, she turned to us and said that she wouldn't be able to release the cat to us. I inquired as to why. She said that I had marked that the cat would be an indoor/outdoor cat. She said that she only releases to owners who only keep indoor cats. I explained to her the living situation the cat would be in, and that I had only marked indoor/outdoor because the cat patio we have allocated for him is technically outdoors, but we do not let our cats into the surrounding neighborhoods.
The lady wasn't having any of it. She would absolutely not listen to reason, but rather not release the cat to us based off of her "intuition". I found this to be very unprofessional on the company's part; they claim to have the animal's best interest at heart, but it appeared that the animal's best interest falls to the whim of some old lady. She had decided that she didn't like me, simply because I had corrected her on some issues she had on my cat patio and previous ownership experience.
Needless to say, my experience had been less than pleasant with this company. I would recommend that they truly, and I mean TRULY put the health and happiness of their cats first, and conduct proper adoptee interviews. Not these candid half-assed judgment calls made by some stubborn woman who thinks she knows what is absolute best.