My husband and I miss our beloved cat, who because of illness had to be put to sleep, so much we decided to adopt a kitten.

With two dogs in our home we felt that an older cat might attack the dogs.

Keep in mind that I am a certified feline/canine behaviorist.

We filled out the standard form at the first shelter we went to and found a kitten we felt would fit in. After the young girl at the desk read our application, she rushed up to us and explained that because we are seniors, we needed a co-adopter, in case something happened to us.

I called a friend and explained the situation, the young girl was worried that we would drop dead, so we needed a co-adopter. My friend agreed to be our co-adopter.

We were told the manager would review our application. A few days later I went back to the shelter to see the kitten and check on the status of our application. The kitten was gone and I was given several excuses why, then they finally admitted that the kitten was adopted to someone else.

We decided to try another rescue. Again we found a nice kitten and filled out the application. After reading our application the shelter director told us that they wouldn’t adopt a cat to us because — are you ready for this? We own an unneutered male dog???!!!! I explained that the dog was in training for SAR and needed to reach sexual maturity, I also occasionally show him, and I had no intentions of breeding him. I also made it clear what my qualifications were. No dice.

That requirement was so ludicrous I fully expected them to require that my husband be neutered as well.

All the cat rescues in this system had the same requirements.

We finally did find two rescues that had no problem with our dogs or our age. At long last, we were able to adopt a wonderful kitten who is 3.5 months old. Now the most difficult part faces us, what to name our kitten!

Susan Bulanda

Jim Thorpe