Simon is now safe and relaxing in foster care.

Everyone always tells me horror stories about animals; stories I don’t want to hear and that sometimes keep me awake at night worrying about stranded and abused cats and dogs.

But the story of Simon is one I had to hear and one I want to tell you even though it is difficult to know that things like this occur. The focus of this story is on the positive–one person stepped forward and saved one cat, Simon. And, although he is the lone survivor, we can rejoice in his life.

Here is Simon’s story.

Toward the end of January, I had an email from the Madison County Dog Warden, Gary Kronk. The email said that he needed help for a lady in a local trailer park and her 13 inside cats. The lady was going in a nursing home because of Alzheimer’s and there was no one to take care of the cats. Deputy Kronk needed a place for the cats to go and quickly. He was working with the attorney who was in charge of the lady’s case and she wanted the cats out of the trailer pronto.

Deputy Kronk tried to accommodate the lawyer, but she wanted a solution that day–something he could not do. The lawyer talked about hiring a “nuisance company” to come in and “take care” of the cats, something Deputy Kronk did not want to happen. He wanted to find them a home, even though they were not adoptable in the normal sense of the word.

Most of the cats were very shy. They had only been around the older woman and were not socialized to the point where they could be adopted. To most people they would have appeared to be feral. But, unlike most feral cats, they also had never been outside. They had always lived in a warm, safe environment. Therefore, they needed a barn home where they would be protected from the cold and conditions they had no experience with.

As you well remember, at the end of January into February, Ohio was hit with a ton of snow. Even animals used to living outside were having a hard time. Inside only cats certainly could not manage those extremities.

I could offer no solutions to Deputy Kronk. We had been looking for barn homes for several of our kitties with no luck. He was checking to see if there was any money in the woman’s estate to take care of the cats. We thought maybe we could, at least, get them fixed before they went anywhere else.

But we, and, sadly, the cats ran out of time.

Deputy Kronk had such a hard time working on this case that he finally pulled out because he was having problems trying to offer solutions that did not mean death to the cats.

But death is what they got.

Just about a week ago, one of our Board members, Carol, had a phone call from a vet office here in Plain City wondering if we could help with a Siamese kitty that came from a rotten situation. When Carol began describing the circumstances to me, I knew it was the same case Deputy Kronk had been working on with no success.

The Siamese cat, Carol told me, had come from a trailer after his human had to go to a nursing home. Carol had further details in the saga. It seems that the people in charge of the cats decided to just let them all outside as their way of solving the problem. When one of the neighbors saw beautiful, friendly Simon out in the cold, wading through the snow, he scooped him up and took him inside. The other cats were not so lucky. None survived the weather.

We, of course, offered to get vet care for Simon and help find him a home. It turned out that Simon was already ear-tipped and neutered, so possibly all of the cats had already been vetted and huge expenses used for their vet care–all for nothing.

After I took Simon to the vet, I spoke with the lady who was taking care of him and she gave me further gruesome details in Simon’s story.

It seems that the people went into the trailer, shooing out all the cats that would leave (and really, how many would have opted to run out into the cold and snow, vacating their warm home?). Those that did not go were locked inside to starve. After a few weeks, the people came back and removed the dead bodies.

I cried when I heard this. What a needless waste of life. What an awful way to die. The kinder choice would have been to humanely euthanize them, not allow them to suffer without food and water, wallowing in their own feces, among their dying feline friends.

I could only think of my own cats and fosters. Many of them are very shy. If you opened my front door, not many would run outside. They would, instead, hide from strangers. Under the same circumstances, my cats would also have been locked inside and starved to death.

And what would the poor woman with Alzheimer’s think if she knew the fate of her beloved cats? They were her only companions, their fuzzy faces the one constant in her life. She would not have wanted them to die or to suffer.

Conditions in the trailer after the woman left must have been bad, because poor Simon’s feet were encrusted with feces and cat litter after his rescue. His current protector told me that she started noticing bloody paw prints on her carpet from Simon’s raw feet. Simon, in his attempts to remove the hardened clumps on his pads, pulled away skin, as well.

Thankfully, Simon’s feet have now almost completely healed. He is also very, very thin. But he still loves people, still wants you to pet and hold him. He still trusts that humans will do the best they can for him. Because that is the way with animals. They always forgive.

Simon is a survivor. I only wish I had done more to produce that same fate for the others. I feel terribly guilty that I didn’t get more involved. I am working with Deputy Kronk to see if there are any charges that can be brought against the people who killed the cats. It is too little, too late, but I feel I must do something.

Someday, I hope to never again hear another animal horror story. And the only way to do that is to stop the people who cause these atrocities. I am positive that can happen.

Poor Naomi needs to be pain free so she can smile again!

Naomi, who was formerly called P. L. G. (which stands for Poor Little Girl), came to us after she was abandoned in a trailer when her family moved. The Madison County dog warden (our buddy Gary) found Naomi without food or water living alone in the trailer. He had the trailer park manager contact our volunteers, the Swider family, who live in the area and have trapped most of the cats in the park for our TNR projects. They kindly offered to foster Naomi until we could find her a home.

But this was not a simple case of getting the cat fixed and putting her up for adoption. Poor Naomi had some issues with her mouth that we soon realized were very, very serious. In fact, she had so many lesions and sore spots on her gums that sometimes she had trouble eating and would scream (yes, literally scream) in pain. 

Dr. West at Noah’s Ark offered to help Naomi, but after weeks of antibiotics and pain medicine, we discovered that Naomi actually had a hole in the roof of her mouth. Dr. West suspected that the poor cat may have chewed on an electrical cord, shocking herself and causing the damage with an electrical burn. 

Just this week, Naomi went to see a feline dental specialist because Dr. West felt her problems were extremely complicated. Naomi has two main issues that are making her mouth hurt and causing her to stop eating. First of all, she has the lesions and hole in the roof of her mouth. Secondly, the poor cat has stomatitis, which causes her throat and gums to be inflamed due to an immune related condition.

The stomatitis required that Naomi have a full mouth extraction of all her teeth, which she had done yesterday. With steroid injections and her teeth pulled, the inflammation should be relieved. Once her mouth has healed from the removal of her teeth, Naomi will then need a second operation to close the hole in the roof of her mouth.

And this is why we need your help. The first surgery to remove Naomi’s teeth is estimated to cost $1500-1600 (we haven’t received the bill yet–we are holding our breath waiting for that). But the $1500-1600 is not even taking into consideration what the second surgery will cost.

Even the dental surgeon has told us over and over, “She is such a nice cat.” And she is. She truly deserves to have her mouth fixed and be able to get a home where she will never, ever be left behind again. 

We can only wonder what would have happened to Naomi if we had not agreed to help her. Unable to eat, with no family, and in horrible pain, she probably would have curled up somewhere and died. And it would not have been a slow and easy death, but a prolonged death by starvation made excruciating due to her mouth pain.

Happily, this girl is getting a second chance. And we just need your help to make our toothless girl smile a gummy smile again. If you can make a donation toward Naomi’s surgeries, we can soon bring a kitty smile back to her furry face. 

You can make a donation online through our Paypal account on our home page: www.bandocats.org

You can also mail a donation to Black and Orange Cat Foundation, P. O. Box 126, Plain City, Ohio 43064 or you can drop any donations off at Plain City Druggist, 480 South Jefferson Avenue in Plain City (across from Der Dutchman Restaurant). The Spay Neuter Clinic located at 2752 Sawbury Blvd off of Sawmill Road also has a donation box for us.

We cannot help Naomi and all the other kitties like her, cats that other organizations might not deem worth saving, without YOU!

We promised Naomi that soon she'll be eating all she wants without any pain! Bring on the kibble and tuna!

Albert is feline leukemia positive and needs a loving home where he can hang out.

Albert came to us at the beginning of February when we were all buried under mountains of snow. A lady we have helped with kitties in the past wrote with a desperate email about a little scraggly cat who was scrounging for food. She was worried about him being out in the cold and snow, because she thought he looked really sickly. 

She used a cat carrier baited with soft food to lure the kitty to safety. Once she had him trapped in the carrier, she took him inside out of the weather. After he was warming up in her bathroom, she noticed that he had a wound on his back leg which seemed to be leaking pus. We told her to take him to Noah’s Ark, since it was apparent the little guy needed help.

Poor Albert was one very sick kitty when he arrived at the vet hospital. Not only did he have a giant wound that was horribly infected, but he also tested positive for feline leukemia. We feared that he would have to be euthanized. Thankfully, however, the vets at Noah’s Ark, Dr. Kris Haumschild and Dr. Kim West, wanted to give the little guy a chance. With antibiotics and a lot of love, Albert pulled through. We are hoping, when we re-test him in three months, that he will also test negative for feline leukemia.

Albert has now been at Noah’s Ark for about a month. He cannot get out of his cage to run around or play because he is positive for feline leukemia and cannot be in contact with the other healthy cats. While he has been gaining his strength back and healing, he is now to a point where we need to find a foster home or forever home for him so he can begin to live a normal cat’s life. Feline leukemia cats can live very long and healthy lives. Albert will need to be in a household with only dogs or with another feline leukemia kitty. Unfortunately, it is sometimes harder to find homes for positive kitties and so we are sending out a plea to anyone who might like to foster him or adopt him. 

Albert is still only a baby at around 6 months old. He is a gorgeous long haired brown tabby with some Maine Coon thrown in. He is super, super sweet and loves people. He has made so many advances from when he first arrived at the vet’s office weighing only about 3 pounds!

If you would like to adopt or foster Albert, please go to our web site and fill out an application. We really need to get Albert out of a cage and into a home.

How this baby survived we will never know.

Our second miracle kitty is named, appropriately enough, Miracle. One of our super volunteers, Debbie, had a call from one of the rangers at a local Metro park. The rangers used to work extensively with Debbie whenever they had cats dumped off in the parks. But Debbie had not heard anything from them since last summer and feared they were just rounding up most of the strays and having them euthanized.

Luckily, for this kitty, Debbie was involved. 

The ranger told Debbie that they saw a man going into the woods last Wednesday or Thursday, before we got the most recent piles of snow, with something tucked inside his coat. The “something” was little Miracle. Somehow the kitty survived the snow and cold and wild animals until the rangers called Debbie on Saturday. When Miracle came out into the parking lot, her face was buried in snow and she was so cold she couldn’t move. There was a huge chunk of fur missing on her back, showing that she somehow escaped being some other creature’s dinner. The poor cat was nothing but skin and bones and covered in fleas when Debbie rescued her. 

Miracle was so small that Debbie, at first, mistook her for a two month old kitten. Weighing in at only 4 pounds, it turned out that Miracle was actually an adult cat who was in very, very bad shape. Debbie took her to the vet where she was treated for an upper respiratory infection, diarrhea, and an infected cyst. Debbie said that she truly believed this poor girl would not have lasted another day.

Debbie had also thought that Miracle was a male, but our Miracle is one of those rare orange females. 

Miracle is safe now with Debbie, which is truly a miracle.

Miracle is going to gain some weight and grow healthy before she gets spayed and has an umbilical hernia fixed. At that time, she will be looking for a forever home. 

We know angels must have led Miracle and Albert to our care. And we also know that other angels will soon take them into their homes and love them forever.

Who wouldn't want to find me in their humane trap?

Many of the cats we have posted for adoption on our Petfinder site came from our trapping projects. When we started out doing Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) several years ago, the main goal was to trap the cats, get them fixed, and reduce the number of unwanted kittens being born each year. But always, we would catch wonderful cats and kittens in our traps, too, not just the ferals we had in mind and who wanted nothing to do with us. We’ve trapped Siamese and Himalayans and all manner of purebred cats, as well as tiny kittens that had never been around people yet still knew how to grab our hearts by purring and giving a head butt.

There are always unexpected surprises when you take on a trapping project.

The project I was working on for the past few weeks was no exception. Lots of surprises, including one very small gray and furry surprise.

I had an email at the beginning of the month about several cats in a factory warehouse area. With large semis going in and out all the time and machinery moving large pallets, the kittens born to the more wily old timers were not surviving long. Could we help?

So I set traps for several nights. The very first cat I trapped was a tiny gray kitten. It became pretty clear within the first day or so that he was not feral. In fact, he is very tame and rolls around for belly rubs as soon as you begin petting him. I don’t know how some of these kittens are so good with humans while others, in the same situations, are utterly terrified. I know this little guy wasn’t socialized and yet he loves to be petted and held.

The rest of his family, five other cats altogether, are also not acting like feral cats. They are shy, but they don’t try to escape and they don’t hiss or growl. What to make of all this?

Members of the family hanging out together after their trapping adventures.

I finally caught the last cat this past Monday. He is the senior citizen of the group at 2-3 years old. The others were all between 6 months and a year. Being the oldest, he was the smartest and had avoided the traps longer than the others. But hunger eventually won out over fear. While he was the most “feral-acting” of the clan, he still was not at all what I was expecting.

Another surprise.

This big gray male acts as if he was someone’s pet at one time and had reverted to a semi-feral nature after years of living on his own. Fearful in the trap at first, he now acts as if he is waking from a dream, remembering a former life where someone else took care of him. It is strange to see the transformation.

The little gray kitten, who is now named Samuel, will be going to PetSmart in the near future to find a new home. The rest of his family, after being assessed for adoptability, will go to a warm, safe, and very quiet barn. No more large trucks to dodge. No more being hungry and cold. No more kittens that climb up into warm engines and cannot escape. No more surprises for them. Only a calm, peaceful life on a farm.

Like little Samuel, every trapping project brings something unexpected. It gives me great joy to take those surprises and turn them into blessings for other people. Samuel will soon be someone’s loved and adored companion, as have many others that wandered into our traps. Who could have known how wonderful our traps could be, magically transforming the lives of all who enter?

Truly a surprise…

The oldest and smartest of the family and the last to be trapped.

"There is no pasta too slippery for me to steal," brags the Food Bandit, Stewie.

We have new proof that the Food Bandit is on the loose again! And once again, he has opted for the pasta, proving, as we thought, that Stewie used to be called “Little Stewie Sticky Paws” in his former life as an Italian mobster.

"No one will find me and my sweet piece of pasta here...Arrgghh! They are taking photos of my stolen property. Must find new hiding spot!"

Once the pasta is in his possession, Mr. Sticky Paws finds a place to hide out to enjoy his stolen goods. But no one will leave him alone to relish the sweet pasta decadence. So a new hideout is necessary…

"Will these people stop at nothing? Even under the bed, I am pursued! And now the rigatoni is trying to escape! Is there no peace for a food bandit?"

Under the bed goes Stewie with his rigatoni sweetie. Will the Food Bandit ever get a moment alone to savor his pasta obsession? And what is next for our Italian cuisine thief? Fettuccine? Fusilli? Linguine?

And if Stewie can fit a slice of lasagna in his mouth, we know there is no stopping the pasta kidnappings.

Stock up on a pantry full of macaroni and bring the Food Bandit home with you–he is still looking for his forever family and if you’ve got pasta, you’ve got Stewie’s heart.

Touch my ravioli, dog, and feel my fangs!

Stewie, our renegade food bandit, struck again, this time with ravioli. First, we had evidence of his pizza thievery and now he is after the pasta. Is this boy an Italian mafioso or what? Should Suki, in pursuit of the tasty ravioli, worry that he might be “swimming with the fishies” tomorrow wearing a pair of concrete snow booties?

This is mine, mine, mine!

Don’t nobody steal this boy’s ravioli. But wait, didn’t our food bandit steal it in the first place? Once you begin the life of the thief, everybody wants to take what you’ve nabbed. Stewie better watch his back!

The Ravioli must not get away!

If you have any tasty treats that you think Stewie would like to swipe, please consider giving this food bandit a home. A giant meatball would be just the ticket to lure him into your kitchen (he thinks that faux, pretend meat Christina eats tastes icky!). Roll it across the threshold and roll the Ravioli Ringleader into your life.

  Jerry is still looking for his home as 2010 starts.

Since we don’t usually have dogs in our care with Black and Orange, I thought I would post for the Humane Society of Madison County and a few of their dogs that are still in need of homes. While I know most of you out there probably do have cats, these three dogs cannot be adopted into a home with cats. So pass this along to your friends or family who only have other dogs or no pets at all. These three dogs have been waiting for their families to find them since 2008 when they first entered the shelter. I had an email from Betty Peyton, executive director of the humane society which is located in London, extolling the virtues of each of these wonderful animals.  I am also going to tell you about one of their kitties, as well, at the end of this post.

Here is what Betty said about Jerry and his good buddy, Ben:

“Ben and Jerry were found on New Year’s Eve 2008 and brought into the shelter. They are medium sized dogs, weighing about 35 pounds. They are nothing more than mutts (but who doesn’t love a mutt?). We have them listed as sheltie mixed with maybe spaniel. However, they are older, maybe 8 years old. To some folks, they think this is really old. But to be honest, if well cared for, they could live for another 8 or 10 years. Who honestly knows how long a dog will live? We want them to live forever, but in reality, that does not happen.

Ben is black with brown markings and Jerry is salt and pepper. Both boys like other dogs, but need a home with no cats. They entered the prison program on March 17th, 2009. This program is where inmates foster some of our dogs, teach them basic commands, and work on housebreaking. Both boys did great in this program. However, Ben recently got kicked out for starting to guard his ‘home’ when he growled at an officer. (Guard dogs are not allowed in the prison.) So Ben is now back at the shelter.  Jerry is still in prison (yes, we need to break him out and send him to his family!).

The boys’ adoption fee has been discounted to $75.00 for each. The normal adoption fee for a dog is $105.00, which includes heartworm testing, vaccines, deworming, neuter, and a Home Again Microchip.”

The boys do not have to be adopted together as they had not been together since arriving. They just need a good home with  a loving person to take care of them.” 

The next dog looking for a home is Diesel.

Diesel has also been waiting a long time at the Humane Society of Madison County.

Here is what Betty said about Diesel:

“Diesel came to our shelter back in 2008 and went to prison for 5 months. He was adopted, but then returned at the beginning of 2009 after several months in a home. Diesel is a rott/lab mix.  He needs a home with a family who can remember that he is a pet and is not to be treated like an equal. When you do this with some dogs, they then start to think, ‘Well if nobody else is going to be top of the pack, I will be.’ Which is what Diesel did. He would not listen to the kids or mom in the family. He only viewed the dad as top and Diesel as second in the pack. So Diesel was returned to the shelter.

Diesel needs a home without small kids because of his dominance issue. He also needs folks who understand large dogs (he is 80 lbs) and we would love to find somebody who understand Rotts. He does like other dogs, but can be dominate over male dogs and he does not like cats. Diesel’s adoption fee is now $75.00.”

Finally, we have Oro, a beautiful orange and white male cat.

Oro says, please pick me!

Betty wrote: “Oro came to our shelter in 2008. He is orange and white and is now about 2 to 2 1/2 years old. Oro loves to play with other cats and even likes dogs. He loves attention and being held. We believe the reason Oro has been over looked time and again is because he has ‘weepy eyes.’ This means his eyes always look watery and ‘dirty’ or stained. This cleared up when he went into foster care. But now that he is at the PetSmart Store in the Westpointe Plaza in Columbus off Hilliard Rome Road, his eyes are back to weeping again. The weeping starts because he lives in a cage too close to the litter box. The dust from the litter, we believe, is what causes the ‘weepy eyes.’ After all, in foster care, he had the run of the whole place.  

Oro’s adoption fee is now discounted to $40.00 instead of the usual $60.00. He is current on his vaccines, deworming, has tested neg for Feline Leuk/FIV, and is neutered.”

If you are interested in any of these wonderful animals who have been waiting for their forever families for way too long, please visit the Humane Society of Madison County’s web site, www.hsmcohio.com or email Betty for more information at betty@madisonhumane.org

                 

The Food Bandit strikes again!

One of our major goals as we start the New Year is to concentrate on finding homes for some of our “long term” kitties–the ones who have been with us for a greater length of time either because they are shy or have health issues or are older.

One of those kitties is Stewie, aka: “The Food Bandit.” Whenever I get updates on Stewie and his sweet sis, Maggie, from foster moms, Kristin and Christina, they usually tell me a new story about Stewie’s “thievery.” Stewie watches for dinner to approach the table and then he dashes in and swipes whatever happens to be on the menu for the evening–chicken wings, pieces of bread, slices of pizza–anything you can cook or bake, Stewie will nab.

Thinking that I must not believe some of the more outrageous “Stewie the feline Robin Hood” stories (Stewie’s motto is “I take from the rich and give to the poor–poor, little Stewie”), Kristin and Christina decided to catch “Stewie Hood” in the act. Christina hid around the corner as Kristin placed pizza on the table. Stewie, in Stewie fashion, leapt into action and Kristin sent me this super photo.

And now, Stewie is ready to steal your heart.

Stewie and Maggie have been in foster care since the end of 2008. They came to us as young kittens, in the 4 month old range, but they were extremely shy. The man who contacted me about them had not really worked with them. In fact, he let their feral mother back outside before we could get her fixed and I am sure she has gone on to repopulate his neighborhood. I hated to subject her kittens to the same life of fear and hunger that she had lived with, so I asked Kristin and Christina if they would be willing to take on a tougher foster project–to which they readily agreed.

Stewie and Maggie also had a sister, Cassie, who was the most outgoing of the three kittens. With just a little bit of work, she was ready for a trip to PetSmart and got adopted this past February. We had high hopes for Stewie and Maggie, as well, but when their shyness made it impossible to take them to the adoption center at PetSmart, we began to look for other ways to find them their forever home.

I know there are people out there who are not necessarily looking for a lap cat, who may want the cat (or cats) that no one else has chosen. I asked Kristin to give me a listing of all of Stewie and Maggie’s good qualities, as well as those that only a very special person would shrug their shoulders at and say, “that’s just the way they are”–namely their shyness and fear of new situations. Someone in Siamese Rescue once told me that aggression kept cats out of their foster program, but shyness never did. There were always people willing to love the shy kitties.

Here is what Kristin said about her two shy babies:

“Maggie is very sweet and loves to play with the other cats. She also loves to sit on the cat tower and watch the outside critters. Stewie is Maggie’s best friend and she cries whenever they are separated. One of her favorite activities is playing chase–with the other kitties and with little pieces of paper that you crumple into balls for her. Maggie loves tuna and soft canned food. She does well with the dogs and she knows her name.

“Maggie does have anxiety issues. She does not like to be picked up and usually only lets me pet her in the early morning or late evening. She will run if she thinks you are going to try to pick her up or pet her when she does not want you to. I am the only one she will let near her. I use Feliway and that helps a bit with her anxiety, but she is still scared of new situations.”

Maggie reminds everyone that shy cats are not needy and lurking about waiting for you to sit down so they can climb in your lap. Shy cats, when they bestow their love, have given a great gift.

About Stewie, Kristin wrote: “Stewie is very sweet. Food is definitely the way to his heart.  He loves to play with the other cats and he also likes to ‘drown’ the toy mice in the water bowl.  Stewie loves his big sister Maggie and they like to cuddle on the cat tower together.  Stewie has a favorite bed which he loves to nap in. Unfortunately, his favorite bed is pink.  Even though the color might not be suitable, we call it his ‘big boy bed.’  Stewie is the more outgoing one and loves to play.

“Stewie is not a big fan of dogs and likes to chase and swat at them.  I usually have to tell him to leave the dogs alone.  Stewie likes to hunt and prey on food…..usually the food on your plate.  Even when you think he is not around, he will swoop up and take what you have.  Stewie knows his name and also the words, ‘No, Stewie, not the pizza!’

“Stewie is afraid of people.  He will only let me pet him and pick him up. He runs and hides when people come over. However, Stewie greets me at the door when I come home and  follows me around like one of the dogs. Both Stewie and Maggie have eyes that run, but they do not have an infection. I just wipe their eyes out each day.

“It is going to take a very patient person with both Stewie and Maggie.  They are not really lap cats.  Someone will really have to continue to work with both of them. Stewie has really taken to me, so I know it is possible for him to love his future mommy or daddy.”

Now we just have to find that perfect Mommy or Daddy who will love Stewie and Maggie and not mind that they are not the clingy, cuddly, hang out in your lap sorts. Rather, they are the pizza stealing, independent, gain my trust types. And we know there is someone out there who will love them just as they are–even when pizza is on the menu.

Stewie and Maggie, hanging in the cat tree, planning their next heist. We think Maggie is the brains of this operation and Stewie is the muscle behind the sneak attacks.