Rescue House

DO NOT deal with this organization. They are liars and frauds. They do not care about the health of the cats they adopt out/are happy to simply collect their adoption fees and move on.

I adopted a young kitten from The Rescue House early June. The process went smoothly until I returned home with my new kitten and noticed he had a foggy left eye that had yellow discharge and severe redness around the eyelids. I immediately called The Rescue House to try to understand what was happening with his eye, and they informed me that he had a "healed" corneal ulcer, and had been treated for an infection in his eye, but that everything was resolved and I had nothing to worry about. Being that I trusted these people to be honest with me, I assumed the eye would get better with some time, but still wanted a second opinion as I found it a bit sketchy that they would adopt me a kitten without disclosing any of his health problems to me until after I had paid the adoption fees and signed the adoption papers. None of the 3+ women I spoke to during the adoption process, or while picking him up from PetSmart disclosed any issues about his eye or mentioned any ulcer or infections.

So, I brought the kitten to a new vet, where they confirmed that he had a corneal ulcer and were unsure about what was causing redness in his eye and causing him to be unable to open the eye. The vet recommended I get the kitten checked by an Optometrist as soon as possible as they would be able to diagnose and hopefully resolve any underlying issues. From here, I reached back out to The Rescue House, because the kittens eye issues continued to worsen, and I was hoping they would take care of the kittens treatment considering they had ignored the problems before adopting the kitten to me and had neglected proper treatment, allowing the issue to worsen. Considering how much they seemed to care for the health and safety of the cat during the interview process, I anticipated this would be no problem. After calling them again, a lady named Margie got back to me, where she further expanded on the issues with my cats eye. She had told me that it was very likely that he has Feline Herpes Virus, and that the redness and squinting may be a lifelong issue for my kitten (all while knowing that I already had a resident cat in my home, who would now be exposed to this virus and be at risk of catching the virus as well).

Margie sent me to a new Vet, the Mission Valley Pet Clinic, and said that they would cover all exam fees and medication necessary to address the kittens eye problem. The clinic gave him an ointment intended to treat bacterial infections, intended to be used for a week. After arriving home with my kitten, I notice he is covered in fleas after spending the day at the vet. Now, both my cats and house have fleas, leading to hundreds of dollars in flea treatment for the cats and the home. I scheduled a follow up appointment for the following week as the ointment treatment was not showing any success on the eye, and reached out to Margie to share my frustration with not only The Rescue House not properly treating and resolving the kittens eye issue before adopting him to me, but also for sending me to the vet where my cats would be exposed to fleas. I also shared that I would greatly appreciate any tips for resolving the flea issue, and for being reimbursed for the vet/flea treatment as well, as these would never have been necessary had the issue been resolved in a timely manner, months before it continued to worsen.

The next two weeks, I texted and called Margie about a dozen times as she had never answered my initial message, and she continued to ignore me daily, despite clearly reading my messages, as her read receipts for text messages were on.
I returned to the vet to get the kitten checked again, and see about getting my other cat looked at, as she how has redness in both eyes with a yellow/green discharge and trouble opening her eyes fully. She is also losing some of the short hairs around her eye as a result of this, which makes it clear to me that she has contracted whatever infection/virus the kitten from the rescue house came into my home with. The second visit resulted in the vet doing a stain on his eye and finding that the corneal ulcer was not in fact healed as stated in the health records of the kitten, and a recommendation to have the kitten seen by an optometrist as soon as possible. The said he may lose his eye if not treated ASAP and prescribed different medication which has yet to work, and referred me to an optometrist as I had initially requested. I finally get in touch with Margie after two weeks, where she passive aggressively refuses to help any further to resolve the issues and threatens taking the cat back if I am not happy, with zero assurance that he would be properly treated if I was to do so. Now I am stuck with 2 sick cats and presumptive surgery for one with zero care from TRH.

STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE!!

The Rescue House is one of the few local non profit groups who will take in a cat regardless of injury sustained. They take many from Mexico with injuries and many from the shelters who have injuries as well. They go above and beyond as a rescue and I would highly recommend them. I have adopted 4 cats from them and never had any issues and continue to help as a volunteer in different aspects of the organization. Great group who truly care about the cats and their wellbeing and make sure all have happy endings.

I was going to turn my cat over to the rescue house so they could find him another home. He tested positive for FIV and they would not take him. I made it clear I wanted my cat back but when I wanted to pick him up I found out they had give him to someone else. This is after I had made it clear I wanted him back. Who they gave him to, was not a rescue, was not with rescue house, and they refused to tell me who got my cat or get him back for me or even help me get him back. I felt this was very unprofessional nor did it follow there protocol.