MIAMI-DADE ANIMAL SERVICES IS A DISASTER

THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT

By now I have invested two hours at Miami-Dade Animal Services and cannot wait behind 10 fresh people deep in the line for service – even though the left hand/right hand total failure between front desk and cat cages keys lady caused me to need to pick again.

Miami-Dade Animal Services has robbed me of half a working day and despite my valiant efforts, incompetence has prevented me from petting/bonding with a single cat.

Callousness and unequaled incompetence has left me with zero desire to ever visit again.

I have taken in dozens of street cats.

I fund cat rescue on three continents.

I am the perfect candidate to address the crisis that Miami-Dade has with animals in need of homes.

But I will not be able to keep cats from being lonely or euthanized.

Not until Miami-Dade County leadership fixes its nightmarish Animal Services process.

I leave -- after being blocked by incompetence -- the Miami-Dade Animal Services house of horrors crushed, spirit broken. 

None of the more than half dozen cats that I tried to will leave to a good home -- because this facility is run by uncaring workers.

 

 

MIAMI-DADE ANIMAL SERVICES IS A DISASTER

 THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT

I’m still at Miami-Dade Animal Services and praying to get past the incompetence to rescue a cat.

I select yet another cat to try to adopt.

It pays to take lots of photos of the cat’s code number, as incompetence will deny your first several choices.

10 minutes to see the cat cage woman.

The same woman who told me I had no choice in the matter of bonding with the cat she (and she alone) deemed unadoptable.

This time, my fourth or fifth choice of a fur baby is smiling and mewing at me.

My heart melts.

Then the cage area woman says he has a return to owner order and I’m out of luck.

If Miami-Dade Animal Services staff could take two minutes to update info on the cages, would-be adopters wouldn’t get their heart broken time and time again.

MIAMI-DADE ANIMAL SERVICES IS A DISASTER

THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT

Now 90 minutes into my visit to Miami-Dade Animal Services, I am led back and a woman tells me the cat I picked is sleeping and mean.

I say I’ll decide.

She refuses to let me see the cat.

I go back, but even though it is 100% Animal Services’ fault, I go to the back of the end of the line again.

20 minutes to wait for the cat with the infection.

Now I’m told it also has FIV and I cannot have.

 

MIAMI-DADE ANIMAL SERVICES IS A DISASTER

THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT

An hour after arriving at Miami-Dade Animal Services, I finally get to the adoption counter.

I find out my first choice is FIV positive and they will not adopt that cat out to a home that has another cat. I have a cat.

It would take two minutes to print out this info and put it on the cage – so I wouldn’t get enamored with a cat I cannot have.

There will be many heartbreaks that could be avoided by taking all of two minutes to update information on cats in the cat adoption zone.

I am told my second choice has a respiratory infection and I cannot touch another cat after him, so I should pick another cat to see first.

I share my third pick.

They tell me that cat is available.

MIAMI-DADE ANIMAL SERVICES IS A DISASTER

THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT

I enter Miami-Dade Animal Services and look at some cats through the glass.

I fall for a few.

I take pictures of the data card next to them.

I got to the desk labeled adoptions.

I get some annoyed looks, then hear a number called.

I realize I was standing in a line that went by number called.

But unlike a grocery store deli, there no little machine from which to grab a number.

You have to talk to a lady. She wanders off frequently, so I had no way of knowing that I could not take my place in line without her interviewing me and printing a ticket.

 

MIAMI-DADE ANIMAL SERVICES IS A DISASTER

THEY MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ADOPT A CAT

Miami-Dade Animal Services is an unmitigated disaster.

It’s a pretty building and modern facility.

Any semblance of competency and care is an illusion.

I went to adopt a cat.

There is about one half as much needed parking, because it’s in the middle of nowhere, miles from fixed rail transit.

Google Maps shows it would take 2 hours of multiple bus transfers to get there from my Little Havana home less than 10 miles away.

I wait 20 minutes for a parking space.

CAT CAFE - 6

SOUTH BEACH

CAT CAFÉ SOUTH BEACH

1423 Washington Ave., Miami Beach

305 397-8201

10 a.m. – 7 p.m.

CatCafeSobe.com

http://catcafesobe.com/

CAT CAFE - 5

SOUTH BEACH

More than 100,000 stray cats run rampant in Miami-Dade County, the Humane Society of Greater Miami estimates conservatively. 

Other volunteer organizations put the number at 150,000 in Miami Beach alone.

About 15,000 cats are brought to Miami-Dade County Animal Services every year, while only about 3,000 are adopted.

--Carlos Frias, Miami Herald

http://catcafesobe.com/

CAT CAFE - 4

SOUTH BEACH

Customers pay $15 to enter the cat area, where they can play with and adopt the animals.

Proceeds go toward the cafe’s partner, Sobe Cats Spay and Neuter, to help control the feral cat population in South Beach. 

There’s no extra cost to watch from the cafe side while enjoying coffee ($2.60), Cindy Lou Cookies ($5), loaded tater tots ($3.50) or avocado toast ($8), among other options.

--Carlos Frias, Miami Herald

http://catcafesobe.com/

CAT CAFE - 3

SOUTH BEACH

Cats and kittens rollick in the room next door. 

They climb replicas of South Beach’s iconic life guard stations. 

They tight-rope-walk a scaffolding high above the room. 

And they jump and chase cat toys beneath a sunny, beach-themed mural.

--Carlos Frias, Miami Herald

http://catcafesobe.com/

CAT CAFE - 2

SOUTH BEACH

Between the two are double-glass doors and a high-efficiency air filtration system to make sure kitties and dander stay on one side and baked treats on the other.

Before passing between areas, guests must disinfect their hands and wear plastic booties over their shoes.

--Carlos Frias, Miami Herald

http://catcafesobe.com/

CAT CAFE - 1

SOUTH BEACH

It’s real, Miami.

In the works for over a year, it quietly opened Friday morning at 1423 Washington Ave.

Just as renderings had promised, it’s part adoption center, part coffee shop, where you can buy pastries, gourmet Cindy Lou’s Cookies and locally roasted coffee while watching adoptable cats jump, climb and frolic on the other side of a thick, glass pane.

--Carlos Frias, Miami Herald

http://catcafesobe.com/