do the (best) right thing

So the ball is rolling. Finally. After a miserable few days worrying about this kitten, about what the right thing to do is, what the best thing to do is, I decided that to put it in the hands of the local animal control officer. I didn't get into the whole "rabid kitten" thing because I've seen the kitten around and if he were end stage rabies on Friday, he'd be as bad or worse today. He's not. He's not drooly and seems perky, friendly, and not psycho-rabid or stuporous rabid. Regardless, he needs veterinary attention. I just called the city's animal control number and left a message with the highlights of the situation. I don't feel like it's resolved, but I feel a little bit better for having done something to get things started.

The scenario I am hoping for is that animal control will compell her to either prove the kitten has been to the vet or they will take the kitten. If it's the latter, I think my sister may have just won herself a kitty. If it's the former, that works too for the immediate sense in that the kitten will get seen by a vet sooner than it apparently would if it were left entirely up to dumber and dumbest. In the longer term, having it on file that there was a complaint means if I find that cat out in wretched weather in the future, I make another call, and (I hope) at that point animal control will simply remove the cat. And either way, my sister may be getting a kitty.

I decided to do it this way because the girl and her man seem to be approaching this as some kind of battle of wills, mine versus theirs. It is not. There are laws about this sort of shit and I could have just turned her ass in without even a knock on her door. She doesn't realize it was a courtesy of me to even discuss this with her, let alone to offer to facilitate her getting the kitten the proper attention and care it needs. Putting it into the realm of animal control, I hope, will frame it in a different, less debatable context for her. She insists on being unreasonable, I insist that the kitten be cared for, but in the end I don't have the right or authority to compell her to take the kitten to the vet. Animal control does. Now I keep my (kitten scratched) fingers crossed and hope animal control calls back soon and does what seems to be the best right thing.