I brought my son to lollipop to adopt a kitten. W...

I brought my son to lollipop to adopt a kitten. When we were there, they didn't have any kittens but my son found a cat he absolutely wanted. It was the nastiest looking cat you can imagine. His fur was a nasty and crusted with something and he wouldn't look out the window at all. I tried to talk him into any other cat but this was the one he wanted. When the counselor brought the cat into the meet and greet room it immediately hid from everyone. We let him hide while the counselor read the notes about him. He had been brought in several weeks prior, and had a lot of issues. He had been living on the street for an unknown length of time and the people who brought him in thought he was a feral cat. At first, he was not interested in people but during his first couple days, the staff eventually reported he would roll onto his back to have his tummy rubbed so he was not feral, just incredibly afraid of people. She had gone over the behavior reports from the staff and explaining how the cat had been through surgery to remove a number of bad teeth which got him put on antibiotics that he was fighting against taking thus getting his fur all nasty. The counselor then brought the cat out of the box he was hiding in. Once he realized he wasn't going to be allowed back into it, he immediately went to my son, headbutted his leg and threw himself down onto his back for tummy rubs. At that moment, it was a done deal. There was no way my son was going to settle for one of the "nicer looking" cats.

After he was released by the staff vet a couple days later and cleared for adoption, we picked him up and brought him home. He still looked like a walking corpse of a cat, all skin and bones, with nasty fur that he was clearly not interested in cleaning. I figured I would wait and see how he turned out once he had a couple days to settle in. After hiding under a bed for an hour, he came out and began to explore the house. Within an hour of that, he was following people around like a puppy, sitting in laps and just being the friendliest cat ever. He immediately began cleaning his fur and turned into this gorgeous grey tiger on top with a white lower half with the softest fur imaginable. He keeps his fur immaculate now to the point that my wife who is allergic to cats cuddles with him for hours without any symptoms.

Best cat adopted ever. Very surprised that my son saw past the outer zombie cat to see the inner awesome. More surprised that he was kept that long and had that much work done to bring him back up to adoptable standards instead of being euthanized.

My only complaints about the process would be that the staff make you feel like they are doing you a favor by letting you adopt one of their animals. I was very put off by the third degree I received. The adoption fees, while not as high as buying a pet from a pet store, were significantly higher than the amounts they state (in my case, my 5 year old cat cost me almost 150 in adoption fees which was the rate posted for kittens who are twice as expensive). Given the number of free pets you can find online, the staff at the humane society could better serve the animals they take care of by understanding that they aren't the only option for people to get pets and that maybe they could try to not make you feel like you don't deserve these animals.