Rescue from Death Row

After 2 years without pets, we decided we needed the company of a feline. A friend of mine helps out with various rescue organisations including save our strays, and she suggested we look for our new family member at blacktown pound. I looked on the website and couldn't believe the number of cats and kittens that needed new homes. These animals are only kept for a week from when they arrive. After that they are killed because there are so many. Organisations like save our strays, drummoyne darlings and various other rescue organisations just can't save them all.

We searched through the listed animals and found a tabby kitten who looked adorable and in need of love. He was due out about 3 days later, so I went to the shelter to have a look at him. When I walked into the Cattery, I felt so sorry for the cats and kittens. Cold cement and metal surrounds them, and people walk in and out feeling guilty that they cannot rescue them all. I walked in optimistic that I could at least rescue one. I sought out Gizmo... at the time he was just a number. He wore a pink band around his neck with his number on it as they thought he was a girl. While the other kittens in his cage clamboured over each other to come to the front and get a pat, he sat behind them and just watched. he looked skinny and bedraggled, but so cute.

I didn't want to leave him that day, however the pound had a system of application for tender, meaning you had to bid on the animal and the highest bidder got a call to pick up the animal on its due date. I put in an application on Gizmo hoping I would get the phone call to let me know that we had won his life...

2 days later I got the phone call and went to pick him up. He got his number cut off, got a new number in the form of a microchip, and I paid to release him from death row. He meowed the whole way home, and I felt so mean transferring him from one cage to another without being able to hug him.

I took him straight to the vet for a check up and his first vaccination. They wormed him, gave him a flea treatment weighed him and checked him out. He was malnourished and skinny, but other than that in pretty good condition... oh and they let us know he was a boy.

Finally I got to take our new family member home. He walked out of the cage tentetively, quietly had a walk around, and then curled up on my lap. He had found his forever home, and he knew he liked it. It took us a few days to decide on a name, especially as we had originally been trying to find a girls name. We decided on Gizmo as he had a huge head and ears, and he reminded us of the cuddly little mogwai from the movie gremlins.

Gizmo started to come out of his shell in the first week showering us with cuddles and kisses, sleeping curled up at our feet, or under the covers on the bed. He loved playing with paper and string, and chasing our feet. This would be the beginning of many hours of cuddles and kisses, games of hide and seek, fetch, mischief and fun. He has brought so much to us, and we are just glad we were able to save him from death row.