First of all, I have a cat. Once upon a time, I had two. Cats are temperamental and scratch and bite sometimes. They especially bite when they are kittens to test their limits. Cats in new environments easily get nervous and freak out. Did she drag the kitty out from his hiding place, or did she let him come out naturally? Knowing what I know, I'm going to guess the former.

Two, I find it curious that in some places, it says she was in the hospital for three nights, and by other accounts, for 5. I'll just chalk that up to stupid media folks :)

Three, there is NO way she was out of work for six months.

jump in front of a train please. skell...

I volunteered for KittyKind for more than a year. While most of the cats were well-behaved, there were a handful that were so upset that you couldn't even open the cage to feed them or give them water. I'm not saying this was the case with these two cats, but some cats do well in new places and some don't. I heard that some of the upset cats did well once they went into a home and some did not. There's really no way to know how a shelter animal is going to react to a new home/living environment, so suing KittyKind is a bit ridiculous. She wouldn't have adopted the cats in the first place if they seemed out of control, so how can she say they knew that these cats were feral? I hope they decide she has no case.

My wife and I adopted a handsome orange-and-white from KittyKind almost 7 years ago. He was a bit wild at first (I still have scars!), but he mellowed out and has become the perfect housecat. We stop by the Petco now and then to look at the cats and donate a few dollars.

To paraphrase Bob Barker, please help control the idiot population and have Ms. Costa spayed.

OK, there are a couple of issues here.

Karen, you're an idiot. Here's what's gonna happen. Costco is going to get out of this and the only remaining defendant will be KittyKind. Even if you win, you won't be able to collect any damages because it's a non-profit, and I doubt they have any kind of insurance. So that's retarded.

BUT that said, I know from unfortunate personal experience that she may be right about KittyKind. We adopted our first cat from KittyKind. We walked into the store, and noticed him sitting all by himself in a little carrier without any brothers or sisters. The women working there told us that he needed to be fostered and we agreed to take him home with us. We didn't have a home visit, we didn't need to give references, nothing. In fact, when my husband returned the following week to formally adopt him, they didn't even know we had him.

He was most definitely feral. We got him fairly young, but not so young that he's comfortable with people. He also spent the first week under the couch, like Karen's cat. He's 5 yrs old and he hides under the bed when people come over. We love him to death: he's our special kitty and we're glad he's with us rather than on the street. But the whole experience did leave a bad taste in my mouth about KittyKind. I don't think they're all bad but there's something sketchy about them.

lolbitez!

I can has FINGER?

Karen Costa: epic FAIL.

I think it's wrong for people to just assume she's just trying to abuse the system. I mean...yeah she might be, but the fact remains that the woman was HOSPITILIZED for THREE freekin days from this bite. The only time I stayed that long in a hospital was when a doctor took a chunk outta my leg due to cancer. That cat must've damn near severed the top of her finger for her to stay in the hospital that long. Or at least given her a really bad infection that eventually would've made her lose the finger anyway if not for the doctors. If it's true the doctors made her stay 3 days at the hospital I'm assuming she's right- that was no domestic kitty.

Felix the Cat:

exposed on a site:

http://amsterdampolitico.wordpress.com/

LOL, what have you exposed except your own lunacy? ROFL. now i am filipino? oh geez, those fake boobs really mess up your head.

Any animal cat scratch or bite. A bite does not immediately mean feral. I think any obtaining of an animal has the implied caveat that they might bite. It's kind of the "coffee is hot" thing. I've been bitten by just about everything of every genus (don't ask). Cat bites, esecially to the joints or tendons to the hand (bact. Pasteurella Multicida) can be quite devastating to function. Human bites can be just as bad. While she may have had a debilitating injury, no liabilty on the provider of the cat, as "animals may bite".

...ehh, what? are you replying to the right person?

Hard to tell, think I was just being lazy :)

I'm guessing he unchecked the "reply to" box after replying to you, so he thought he was writing a new message, but this stupid plugin Gothamist installed doesn't actually stop that reply function unless you reload the page.

Well?...... We're waiting......

>> Her lawyer also calls Harry "a wild animal with claws." >>

Her lawyer has probably been called comparable things.

I just read that linked story about the founder of KittyKind and the 200 cat corpses - yeesh.

I don't see why everyone has to jump up and down on this chick. Petco invited this rescue into their store to attract customers and presumptively received some benefit from it. Petco in turn should take some responsibility for what the rescue was doing.

This woman "adopted" these two cats. I put adopted in quotes since she paid like 200 bucks for them which sounds closer to she purchased the two cats to me.

One of the cats wasn't what she was promised. It was an aggressive feral cat and not a domesticated house cat.

The cat injured her. A wild cat can easily tear a chunk off of your finger, tear nerves and cause damage.

She can't do things she used to do and missed work and lost money. She has hospital bills. She has every right to sue. She won't get any money from the rescue because they don't have any. But she may get some money from petco.

good for her.

I'd love to see what all you personal responsibility people would do if you were in her situation..

If KittyKind openly misrepresented where the cat came from (for instance, they said it was surrendered by someone when in fact it came from a feral colony), then she has a point that they didn't give her the cat they "promised".

On the other hand, the entire story seems fishy. Cats in a new adoptive situation will frequently hide until they feel safe in their new surroundings and resist being picked up, etc. It doesn't mean they're feral at all, it means they're feeling threatened and reacting to that. By the same token if you try to remove a threatened or injured cat from its hiding place it WILL often try to bite you. Feral cats generally want nothing to do with humans and won't just randomly attack them.

Also, most rescues will take their cats back at any time, no questions asked, if the adoption doesn't work out. I'd wonder why this woman chose to keep an "aggressive feral cat" and didn't return him if there were such problems.

Maybe the only mistake the rescue made was not background checking this woman enough to ensure she was fit to adopt and didn't have unrealistic expectations.

The cat did not like her hat.

Cat fight!

Reow!