ALEXIS is a little sealpoint ragdoll who is very lucky to be alive. She escaped death twice. The first time she was picked up by animal control as a stray in Milwaukee and then safely transferred to us. The second time she was wearing a microchip that saved her from death in a Chicago shelter when her neglectful adopter left her there instead of bringing her back to us (as was prominantly indicated on her adoption contract).

     By far most of our adopters are wonderful people who do everything they can to take proper care of the cats they adopt from us. They know these are rescue cats with hard lives and they go on to give them something better. Alexis was not that lucky. Shortly after adopting Alexis, the new owner's aunt told her the cat was not a ragdoll but a himalayan. This was completely false as we have been doing rescue for a LOT of years and by now surely know the difference between the two breeds. Her breed was also confirmed by a vet and a CFA JUDGE. However the perceived "difference in breed" made the owner angry, though she never called us to address this issue.  In addition, the resident cats in the household did not like Alexis and there started to be behavioral problems. Rather than immediately calling us to address and solve these issues (and those of you who know us, know we are VERY supportive of adopters) the owner decided we didn't "deserve" to have Alexis back. She started calling other shelters to dump her elsewhere. All the shelters were full, so Alexis wound up at a huge Chicago shelter which, through no fault of its own, was euthanizing DAILY (public shelters are required by contract to take in every animal that comes in. When space runs out, difficult decisions have to be made and a cat like this would have no chance). Alexis was left there with terribly infected, painful ears (you can see one is folded over from infection) which would have doomed her from the get-go. She did NOT leave our rescue the first time with ears like this.

      Fortunately Alexis was also carrying one of our microchips under her skin. It is a tiny rice-sized chip with a code impregnated in it. When scanned at a vet clinic or shelter, the code pops up and the chip company is called. Our name is registered on ALL our chips so if something like this happens we will ALWAYS be there for our cats. The Chicago shelter scanned her and called us immediately. Alexis was swiftly taken back into rescue and into a vet clinic where her painful ears (which had been this way for MONTHS) were taken care of. She is now readopted and is living in a home with folks who know her past and are caring properly for her. As for the previous owner, she had no idea why we were upset about the whole thing, because after all "it was just a cat." Which tells you everything you need to know about this entire situation