Today, my dad decided to get traps for the stray cats in our backyard.

We caught the mother cat, and I watched as she cried and struggled to get out of the cage.

I knelt down beside her as she continued to cry for help, and her kittens came to her in shock. They just stared at her in fear, for they didn't know what was going on. I started comforting her, calling her by her name "Mixed up". I wiggled my fingers through the cage to pet her and she rubbed against me and continued to cry.

My dad put her in the back of the trunk and we drove on our way to the pound up in the mountain, and I thought of how she terribly wanted her kittens to be with her. She was being taken away from her children, and now they would be at loss without her. Dad told me, "It's okay to be sad, Mikaela." Tears started streaming down my face as we drove up the mountain to the pound. As we got up to the pound in the mountain, I broke down and started crying as I heard "Mixed Up" howl. I noticed there was a woman holding a dog on a leash and they seemed excited. An older man was behind me with a scruffy dog being taken from him. Dad asked me if I wanted to go look at the cats and I told him that I would stay and comfort Mixed-Up. As he went into the building to get someone to assist us with Mixed-Up. I wiggled my fingers more in the cage and I cried with Mixed-Up, saying to her in a quivering voice, "I want you to live Mixed. I want you to live longer." As I cried more over here, she stopped and calmed down. A women came outside to take her away and complimented on Mixed-Up saying, "You're pretty." Mixed-Up cried as she was taken away in a building, and I kept on imagining Mixed-Up not being adopted with the rest of the cats and cried even more, then I decided to go and see the cats to adopt one. Dad came out and told me that the guy who dropped off his dog because he couldn't take care of his dog anymore. The dog was 5 years old and was going to be put-down. I passed by kennels and came across a closed up room with a sign saying, "Quaranteened." I gasped and became hysterical as I noticed most of the animals that were closed up were all cats. I then went down a hall to come to a room for cats to be adopted. More tears flowed from my eyes as I was greeted by so many friendly cats. They let me pet them and love them, and I was happy until they started hissing and growling at each other, competing for attention and affection. It made me even more sad. I kept on being reminded that I can adopt one. Just "one". If I adopt one, then I leave all of the others behind to be put to death. I just wish I could have them all. We left to go back to our house and found one of the kittens caught in the traps. I approached the kitten, and he hissed and spat at me, flinching in the cage. I wasn't crying for this one. We went back to the pound and brought the one kitten with us to be taken away. It howled in anger and fear. Why can't I just die along with all of the cats so I could love them forever in the afterlife? Why don't you put me in the gas chamber so I can be put to death along with them? Why don't I just let myself be bitten by an infected cat and contract rabies so that way I can be quaranteened and locked up away to suffer a horrible disease. I feel like I should die just to save all of their lives.

Also, today at my new school for the first day, no one wanted to be friends with me. The only thing that happened was when we did assignments, and when student council kids came around in the morning and asked if I wanted a mint. However, one kid asked if I needed help, and I talked to a girl in my "Animal Science" class, but she didn't seem like she wanted to be my friend and didn't show any interest. It was as if I were invisible and that no one could see me. Tomorrow is my last day to see people in the rest of my other classes to see if I can befriend them. If I don't meet anyone else, than I will close myself off to anyone who wants to be my friend after that day. No one will be allowed to be my friend, and I will focus on my school work and grades just for the sake of making my mom happy to pass highschool, even though I won't be able to go to college or lead a successful life. I won't be able to get into a relationship at this school and no one will care to socialize with me. I will only care for my family and family friends, and no one else. I will only have my newly adopted cat and my dad's dog "Boris" as my true friends.

[healingme4me]

Sounds like a very rough day, indeed. Hope tomorrow, someone shows you some friendliness. Humans, aren't meant to be solitary creatures. New kids, usually, get at least one person to take them under their 'wing', so to speak. Hope you meet that person.

Sounds depressing about the cats. Sorry, you needed to endure all that. It's tough, to realize that these things happen, in the animal world.

Originally Posted by healingme4me

Sounds like a very rough day, indeed. Hope tomorrow, someone shows you some friendliness. Humans, aren't meant to be solitary creatures. New kids, usually, get at least one person to take them under their 'wing', so to speak. Hope you meet that person.

Sounds depressing about the cats. Sorry, you needed to endure all that. It's tough, to realize that these things happen, in the animal world.

It's not just the "animal world". It happens all around us, including humans.

I even noticed two kittens in cages in the adoption room. As we left, they started clawing at the bars and crying.

I could hear them say, "Don't leave us alone! Please, don't go!!!"

Hey Mikaela I'm sorry it was such a terrible day. Maybe I missed something here but did your dad consider having Mixed Up and the kittens fixed and vaccinated and let them live in the back yard? It sounds like Mixed Up may have been a pet at one time and got lost or was discarded. It sounds like you're very good with animals.
I think you should give the friends thing more time. The first week of school is frantic and sometimes chaotic. It isn't easy to assess a situation under those conditions. Being the new kid is very difficult.

[Yoda]

I am sorry you had such a bad day. It sounds horrible. It would break my heart to have to take cats to the shelter. I did it once when an adult cat was killing my other cat's kittens and I cried all the way home.

Give it some time to make friends at school. The first week is always particularly stressful. I hope you make some friends there this year.

[yellowted]

two days to make a friend is not long at all, most of the other kids will be feeling pretty weird too, it can take a good few weeks for people to feel comfortable enough to approach others in the group/class and even then they may change who they like to spend time around a few times during the year, that is all part of growing up, hey even adults sometimes feel this way too. so give it a few weeks before shutting people out, try to keep the gate unlocked as people may want to come in later. by locking the gate you could miss out on a true friendship developing.

[Perna]

I adopted my second cat, Calvin Klein, from my veterinarian because he was climbing over top of his siblings and the cage bars and screaming, "Pick Me! Pick Me!"

[avlady]

i agree with yellowted.