Shy, Traumatized, and Justifiably Frightened to Death, Steve Is Toughing It Out at a Shelter as He Waits -- and Hopes -- for a Better Life

Steve Waiting Apprehensively in His Katzenhöhle

"Mit dem entsprechenden Durchhaltevermögen können sie ganz sicher das kleine Katzenherz erobern, auch wenn es seine Zeit beansprucht."
-- Tierheim Hilden

In a small Katzenhöhle at a shelter in Hilden, fifteen kilometers east of Düsseldorf on the right-hand side of the Rhine in Nordrhein Westfalen, a shy and frightened to death four-year-old orange-colored tom named Steve is waiting on pins and needles for whatever Glück or Unglück that The Fates have in store for him. Although he has been languishing there ever since his second unjust incarceration on July 16th, his deliverance does not appear to be any closer at hand than it was back then.

No one is willing to say either where it all began for him or how that he got into such a jam. Suffice it to say that he was born in 2015 and first arrived at Tierheim Hilden at Im Hock 7 two years later following a großen Sicherstellung. How many Katzen were involved in that massive roundup has not been disclosed.

This is mere supposition but both he and his mates were most likely either picked up from the street one-by-one or removed en masse from, inter alia, a hoarder, breeder, research laboratory, pet store, or god only knows what other hellhole. "Vermutlich gab es vorher keine Menschen, die sich mit ihm beschäftigt haben, die ihm zeigten, wie lieb sie ihn hatten," is about all that Tierheim Hilden was willing to reveal about him to the Rheinische Post of Düsseldorf on September 22nd. (See "Verständnis für Steve.")

Consequently, Steve's shyness and fear of humans are completely understandable. That does not, however, make deciding what to do with him any easier.

At some undisclosed time following his initial incarceration in 2017 he was adopted out by Tierheim Hilden to an unidentified individual. He was accompanied by another four-year-old orange-colored tom named Bob who also was snared in the same 2017 roundup. The shelter has not broached the subject, but if looks and circumstances count for anything they very well could be brothers.

It has not been divulged how long that they lasted in their new new home or why that they were returned. The only thing that Tierheim Hilden has said on that subject is that most would-be adopters are seeking cats that are "Leichtigkeit, Spielfreude, (and possess) eine gute Pjortion Selbstbewusstsein."

What the shelter is really intimating is that many individuals who take in cats are actually guilty of committing the egregious error of expecting them to behave like low-maintenance dogs. Whereas it is admittedly not necessary to walk and clean up after cats, they are far more complicated and demanding than dogs. Plus, they have not only radically different personalities but far more mortal enemies than do the latter.

That in turn begs the question as to why Tierheim Hilden knowingly placed Steve and Bob in a stressful situation where their chances of succeeding were slim at best. One possible explanation is that, suspecting them to be siblings, it did not want to separate them.

A second possible answer could be a lack of room at the inn. Whereas freeing up valuable space and resources at a shelter may be a worthy objective in its own right, every failed adoption further traumatizes beleaguered cats like Steve and Bob and ultimately makes their successful adjustment to domestic life all the more difficult.

Simply put, fobbing off cats on individuals who are ignorant of the species and unwilling to make long-term commitments to them is not a good idea. That is especially the case given that such individuals are more prone to, intentionally as well as unintentionally, neglect as well as to physically and psychologically abuse them.

For example, when his owner died unexpectedly in December of 2016 a sedate brown, gray, and white elderly tom named Harvey wound up at Yorkshire Cat Rescue (YCR) in Keighley, West Yorkshire, whereupon he was subjected to multiple failed adoptions and incarcerations over the course of the following two years. He eventually wound up being placed with what YCR has termed as a permanent fosterer.

Harvey Was Forced to Spend Long Intervals in Jail

Information about him is scarce but hopefully he now has found a measure of peace and contentment but there cannot be any denying that he was put through pure hell. (See Cat Defender posts of August 31, 2017, March 12, 2018, and July 19, 2019 entitled, respectively, "With His Previous Owner Long Dead and Nobody Seemingly Willing to Give Him a Second Chance at Life, Old and Ailing Harvey Has Been Sentenced to Rot at a Shelter in Yorkshire," "Much Like a Nightmare That Stubbornly Refuses to End, Harvey Continues to Be Shuttled from One Home to Another at the Expense of His Health and Well-Being," and "Repeatedly Shunned, Maligned, and Bandied About from One Place to Another, Harvey Is Now Engaged in the Most Important Battle of His Life.")

A good portion of his difficulties stemmed from the fact that he, having most likely spent his entire life with only humans, not only disliked other cats but could not abide living under the same roof with any of them. Fortunately for him, Steve does not have that problem. "Aber da (Vertrauen) sind ja noch die Artgenossen," Tierheim Hilden affirmed to the Rheinische Post. "Und die mag er. Denen vertraut er."

Consequently, the shelter has reversed course and this time around it is attempting to place him in a home that already has a well-established resident feline. "Deren hoffentlich nette Katze würde Steve aufmuntern, ihn zum Spielen animieren und ihn nach und nach an die Menschen heran führen," it theorized to the Rheinische Post.

Even under such a scenario would-be adopters are expected to meet certain requirements. First of all, "seine Menschen müssen geduldig sein, dürfen nichts von Steve erwarten," Tierheim Hilden stipulates in an undated article entitled "Steve" that appears on its web site.

Secondly, "ihn nicht bedrängen, sondern ganz langsam Vertrauen aufbauen," the shelter continues. Thirdly, "und sie sollten ein Gefühl haben für scheue Katzen und Verständnis für diese Angst."

Given mankind's disgusting penchant for thinking only of himself and his selfish needs, Tierheim Hilden quite obviously has it work cut out for it in locating an individual who would be willing to put Steve's needs first. At the same time it also needs to be on the lookout for liars and posers who have absolutely no intention of doing so but instead are intent upon only wasting its time and resources regardless of how much damage such a course of action is going to inflict upon Steve.

Not to belabor the point any more than is absolutely necessary, but there are many misconceptions as well as outright lies about cats that are still very much en vogue even at this late date in history. One of the most difficult to dispel is the notion that all outwardly unfriendly cats are homeless and anti-social when actually nothing could be further from the truth.

First of all, cats like Harvey can be exceedingly loving and friendly; they just do not like other felines. Secondly, even some cats that have been born at home and consequently came from the same litter as their well-adjusted siblings nonetheless still develop standoffish personalities. C'est-à-dire, they are able to get along just fine with their mates and owners but they are destined never to become lap cats.

That is most commonly due to having been born into households with multiple cats. In such situations, the most gregarious members of a litter learn early on that it is advantageous for them to hog a lion's share of their owners' attentions and in doing so they push their less demanding siblings to the periphery of domestic life.

That is an unfortunate situation that can occur even in households presided over by the most dedicated lovers of the species. It additionally is an argument against keeping too many cats but even that concern needs to be weighed against denying shelter to other homeless cats and thus allowing them to fall prey to the machinations of despisers of the species.

Although it is never too late to make a special effort to turn these cats around, often it is nearly impossible to alter their personalities to any large degree. Nevertheless, it is important never to give up on them because sooner or later they are going to require either home or professional veterinary care and under such trying circumstances every ounce of trust that has been built up over the years is going to be crucial not only for their survival but also the well-being of their owners' consciences.

 Bob Has Been Released from Captivity and Now Has a New Home

Then there are those cats that once were friendly and sociable but became distant as the result of the wholesale abuse and neglect that they suffered at the hands of previous owners. (See Cat Defender posts of May 25, 2018 and June 15, 2018 entitled, respectively, "Emotionally Scarred and No Longer Young but Every Bit as Beautiful as Ever, Tinka Is Seeking the Permanent Home That Has Eluded Her Throughout Her Turbulent Life" and "Jeany Finally Finds the Lasting Home and Compassionate Care Denied Her by Her Irresponsible and Grossly Negligent Owner at -- of All Places -- a Shelter in Hemmingen.")

In the world at large, however, Animal Control Officers, shelters, cops, and other ailurophobes seize upon every lie and prejudice imaginable in order to justify their crimes against the species and a disingenuous charge of unsociability is one of their most successful stratagems. Actually, there are not any cats that are truly anti-social; instead, there exists an infinite number of them with a corresponding number of personalities and histories.

"An' then I'll show you my pets tame an' untamed, an' tell you how it's man that makes any creature wild...," Zane Grey's Milt Dorn proclaimed in the former's 1919 novel, Dorn of the Mountains. "...how easy they are to tame and how they learn to love you..."

Before that any real and enduring progress can be made in the welfare of cats the myth of the unsocialized cat must be recognized as such and accordingly debunked. If adoptability is destined to be the yardstick by which all felines are to be judged, then extensive time and money must be devoted, as Tierheim Hilden has done with Steve and Bob and YCR with Harvey, to making them that have come from troubled pasts suitable for domestic life.

If shelters and rescue groups are unwilling to make that kind of an investment, sanctuaries and TNR colonies need to be secured for them. Under no circumstances should those individuals and institutions who for so long have spread malicious lies about the species and executed its representatives en masse be allowed to continue to perpetuate their heinous crimes. (See The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 11, 2011, "Shelter Shock: Cats Can Get Sick from Stress: One Proposed Remedy? Keep Them Out.")

As things now stand, however, cats have zero legal rights and those without owners are in the worst shape of all in that they are all alone in this thoroughly wretched, wicked, cruel and, above all, frightening world. Moreover, there is not a single attorney or animal rights law firm on the face of the earth that is willing to come forward and defend pro bono those that have been locked up and charged with being homeless, impecunious, and unsocialized.

Consequently, just about all of them are routinely adjudicated guilty and condemned to death without having been afforded either a trial by jury or so much as a jot of due process of law. Their blood accordingly is not only all over their abusers' and executioners' hands but also those belonging to the members of the feckless feline protection movement.

In Deutschland there are rules, such as the Tierschutzgesetz, in place which supposedly severely restrict the number of cats that shelters are allowed to kill. "Das (the killing of cats and dogs) ist nur möglich, wenn ein Tierarzt schwere, unheilbare Krankheiten feststellt oder das Tier schwere Verhaltensstörungen hat, die es leiden lassen," RTL Television of Köln reported on October 7th. (See "Mallorca verbietet Tötung von ausgesetzten Hunden und Katzen.") "In solchen Fällen entscheidet eine Kommission aus Tierheimmitarbeitern und Tierärzten über das Schicksal des Tieres, wie der Deutsche Tierschutzbund erklärt."

That certainly is highfalutin rhetoric but it is extremely doubtful that very many German cats have profited to any measurable extent from it. Most glaringly, it fails to recognize the inalienable right of all cats to live.

Instead, it places their lives in the hands of veterinarians and the operators of shelters who are still allowed to kill them at their discretion. Furthermore, just about all shelters either hire their own hand-picked veterinarians or retain the services of regular outside practitioners and such arrangements constitute not only an unacceptable conflict of interests but, more importantly, perpetuate an unregulated environment that is rife with mischief and therefore could not be anything but lethal to cats.

It therefore seems only fair to conclude that the Tierschutzgesetz contains enough loopholes so as to easily accommodate the passage of a Mack truck. Besides, since shelters in Deutschland do not publish, at least not on their web sites, either their intake data or kill rates, let alone explanations for all the cats that they liquidate, the public therefore does not have any way of knowing what is actually going on behind their closed doors.

Steve Would Make a Wonderful Addition to Someone's Life

Even if their shelters did operate aboveboard that still would not be sufficient in order to overcome the wholesale carnage and gross hypocrisy of allowing hunters to legally gun down tens of thousands of cats each year. Although a cat's socio-economic status should not have any bearing whatsoever upon its right to live, many of these monsters' victims are beloved domestic cats.

For example, back in July a hunter in Böklund, twenty-two kilometers southeast of Flensburg in Deutschland's most northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, shot and killed Tatjana Milosavljevic's beloved four-year-old cat, Luna.  (See the Schleswiger Nachrichten of Flensburg, July 12, 2019, "Zu weit vom Haus entfernt: Jäger erschießt Katze Luna.")

As revolting as all of that may be, all is not lost at least as far as Bob is concerned. "Bitte helfen Sie Bob, ein schönes Katzenleben führen zu können," Tierheim Hilden pleaded on its web site in an undated article entitled simply "Bob." "In einem ruhigen und friedlichen Zuhause."

It took a while but the shelter's prayers were answered in early October when Bob finally was adopted. Since no additional information concerning him has appeared on Tierheim's Hilden's web site it is not known how that he is coming along in his new home.

The best that therefore can be hoped for is that his new guardian will give him all the time, encouragement, and patience that he requires in order to adjust to domestic life. Above all, that individual should not give up on him and return him to the shelter.

As far as Steve is concerned, at last report he was still suffering in silence at Tierheim Hilden. About a week or so ago the shelter announced on its web site that he had been scheduled for an adoption interview but apparently nothing came of it.

Although his fear of staffers has diminished somewhat over the course of the past few months he, unfortunately, still does not do well in adoption interviews. "Bei unseren Tierpflegern kommt er mittlerweile immer mal raus, verkriecht sich nicht mehr komplett," the shelter acknowledged on its web site. "Währen der Vermittlung findet er diesen Mut noch nicht."

That is definitely a major hurdle for him to overcome and as a result it may take Tierheim Hilden considerably longer than originally planned in order to place him in the right home. Nevertheless, considering that Bob with an almost identical personality and background was able to have made it out of the shelter there is not any obvious reason why that Steve should not be able, sooner or later, to follow in his footsteps.

"Mit dem entsprechenden Durchhaltevermögen können sie ganz sicher das kleine Katzenherz erobern, auch wenn es seine Zeit beansprucht," the shelter declares on its web site That certainly is true enough but at the same time Tierheim Hilden must guard against becoming weary of caring for him and instead it needs to be willing to extend to him the same degree of patience and perseverance that it expects from would-be adopters.

The paramount thing to remember about Steve, Bob, Harvey, and the millions of cats like them is that being shy, frightened, and the victim of abuse should not under any circumstances be deemed to be capital offenses. Au contraire, they are victims, not convicted criminals, and demonizing and killing them is not only unconscionable but unjust as well.

Additional information regarding Steve and his quest for a new home can be found on the shelter's web site. Those wishing to possibly adopt him can reach the shelter either by e-mail at info@tierheim-hilden-ev.de or by telephone at 49 02103 54574.

Photos: Tierheim Hilden (Steve and Bob) and Yorkshire Cat Rescue (Harvey).