I wanted to update everyone on the situation in Canton with the feral cats that are being captured and then killed at the Stark County Humane Society. Fellow trapper and Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) advocate, Tobin Franks (who first alerted me to the issue), sent me a follow up email below. Alley Cat Allies has gotten involved in this fight for the cats, but they still need you to keep signing the petition and calling and emailing the Canton Council members.

If you can also attend the next Council meeting, it will be Monday, February 6, at 7:30 pm in the Canton City Hall, 218 Cleveland Avenue SW.

The cats in the photo above are from one of our TNR clinics. They were released, not killed. TNR works!

From Tobin: Thank you everyone who came to the City Council Meeting & all who called and sent emails to Canton Officials!

ALLEY CAT ALLIES PRESS RELEASE:
http://www.alleycat.org/page.aspx?pid=1123

CANTON REP ARTICLE:
http://www.cantonrep.com/news/x370660645/Canton-Council-urged-to-be-more-humane-with-cats

As you have seen in the paper, read on Facebook & heard on the radio - we are off to a good start, but the City of Canton is still considering the renewal of the city’s contract with Phil Sedlacko for ‘animal control’ services. Phil rounds up cats & kittens and takes them to the Stark County Humane Society. After years of denial, Stark HS Executive Director Louis Criswell has finally admitted that feral cats brought in by Phil are killed.

Sedlacko is to be paid $27,129.00 for this part-time “animal control” service – in addition to his regular full time job as a deputy Dog Warden.

Cats in Canton still need your help. Please come to the next meeting & bring your SAVE THIS CAT posters (click on any of them in this posting to enlarge and print). There will be a THIRD reading of the proposed contract renewal at this meeting. If you wish to speak please get their early & sign in. Remember they only give you 3 minutes. We especially need people to speak who have has personal,1st hand experience with Phil Sedlacko.

If you cannot make the meeting -  PLEASE keep calling & emailing Council. Tell them there is a better way!

The Next Meeting is: Monday Feb 6 2012 – 7:30 pm

The Humane Society of Madison County (HSMC) is finally in their new expanded building located at 2020 State Route 142 NE, just off of I-70 at the Plain City exit. The new shelter has a West Jefferson address, but is only about 5-10 minutes outside of Plain City.

An article in The Madison Press gave some good PR to the shelter. You can read that HERE.

And there was also a nice story in the Columbus Messenger. Read that HERE.

The shelter does not have a permanent phone number yet. If you need to reach them currently, call 614-359-7560.

The Canton, Ohio City Council is currently deciding whether to grant a one-year “professional-services contract not to exceed $27,129 for animal control services” with Philip Sedlacko, who has filled that position in the past. The contract would run from February 1 through January 31, 2013. Included in “animal control services” is the trapping and killing of stray and feral cats in an endless cycle that does nothing to stop the feline overpopulation problem. Tiny kittens will be separated from their moms. Colony members will be removed from their homes and families and sent to die. And, sadly, nothing will be accomplished except needless killing.

Read the article about the animal control ordinance HERE.

Canton City Council will be meeting on Monday, January 30 at 7:30 pm about this issue. The meeting will be held in the Council Chamber at City Hall at 218 Cleveland Avenue S.W. If you wish to speak at the meeting, you must go early and sign in with the clerk.

The cats need us to speak up for them, as they cannot make their voices heard without us.

Alley Cat Allies, the largest group nationwide fighting to save feral cats, has produced a public service announcement to let people know that local governments are killing cats to reduce their numbers. Watch that YouTube video HERE.

In one of many articles on their web site, Alley Cat Allies explains why Trap and Kill does not work. When you remove one set of cats, more move into the area as resources become available. This phenomenon, known as “The Vacuum Effect,” has been documented in numerous scientific studies. The population quickly rebounds leading to the necessity for more killing. And on and on and on.

The only true solution is trap-neuter-return (TNR). This method humanely traps the cats, sterilizes them so no new kittens will be born in the colony, and then releases them back into their territory where they were originally trapped.

Additionally, while the killing of feral cats may seem legal since it is being carried out by local governments, feral cats are covered under anti-cruelty laws in all fifty states and the District of Columbia.

To write, email, or call the Canton City Council members and ask them to stop the killing and find a better solution, please go HERE.

A petition has also been started to put pressure on the Council members to find a more humane way to help the cats.

Sign the petition by going HERE.

Below is a copy of the report that is filled out each month by the animal control department in Canton. This report is for the month of May 2011. If you click on it, you can see that 46 cats and 20 kittens were trapped and, therefore, killed during that month.

I recently learned of a rescue group, His Hands Extended Sanctuary, in Saint Paris, Ohio, which is located in Champaign County, that is offering low cost spay and neuter surgeries for both dogs and cats to the general public, as well as rescues and shelters. The clinics, which just got started this past October, also provide vaccines at affordable prices. Additionally, they give a ten percent discount to seniors, active military, and to people getting multiple animals fixed (over three).

Cat spays are $40. Cat neuters are $20. Surgeries for dogs range in prices based on weight. For dogs over 101 pounds, the price for a spay is $105 and for a neuter is $95–and those are the most expensive prices. Dogs smaller than 101 pounds get smaller prices for their surgeries!

To see a complete price list and read how to schedule for the Wednesday clinics, go HERE.

For a long time now, I’ve not had any resources for those people B and O was helping in Champaign County. I also never had many resources for people looking for low cost services for dogs. Now I have both! And I am so happy about this. The clinics at His Hands Extended are close enough for people in surrounding counties, including here in Madison and Union counties (it was about a 30-35 minute drive from Plain City to the sanctuary which is outside of Saint Paris).

I first learned about Tanya Jordan and His Hands Extended Sanctuary when she donated food to us for our Pet Food Pantry. My mom and dad went to pick up the food and were so impressed with her set up that they couldn’t stop talking about it. Equipped with many buildings for the dogs and cats who live at the sanctuary, the organization adopts animals into loving families, while providing a lifelong home for those that are never adopted.

I hope to make a trip myself to Tanya’s facilities in the near future and find out how she runs her clinics. There can never be too many low cost surgery options for the dogs and cats (and their care givers) in our rural areas. I am glad to know about one more!

Our beloved vet friend, Dr. Kim West, has been volunteering at the Humane Society of Delaware County learning new spay and neuter techniques and assisting Dr. Melanie deHaan from SOS of Ohio, who also volunteers at the shelter. Dr. West has seen a lot of things since she’s been going up to the shelter over the past few months. The most heart breaking, by far, however, was the cat that came in on December 22 with an arrow through her body.

Dr. West did emergency surgery to remove the arrow. She called OSU to get assistance as she performed the delicate procedure. The metal arrow was completely through the cat’s body. Not only that, but Dr. West said it had been there for at least a week. It was an old injury. The poor cat had somehow been surviving with it in her body.

Because she was worried about infection, Dr. West took the kitty home with her to recover. The one-year-old tiger, tabby female was named “Sparrow,” because she was “spared the arrow.” She is now doing very well and Dr. West thinks she can be adopted into her forever home.

I cannot understand how anyone could do this to a cat or any defenseless animal. Dr. West said it was not an accident, but appeared to have been done intentionally. It truly makes me sick to my stomach.

When I searched for the 10TV news stories about Dr. West’s kitty online, I found several disturbing stories about cats being shot with arrows in Crawford County. A cat was found on Christmas Eve with an arrow through the head. She also is expected to live. There have been five such cases in the Galion area since July. You can read the full story HERE.

A teenage boy has since been identified for shooting the cat in the head and will face charges of animal cruelty. You can read that HERE and HERE.

Sparrow’s assailant is still out there, however, and no charges have been filed in her case.

Miss Sparrow continues to make a full recovery at home with Dr. West. If you are interested in adopting Sparrow, please contact us or go ahead and fill out one of our adoption applications on our web site, www.bandocats.org under “How you can help” and “Adopt.” Once you have been approved, we’ll put you in contact with Dr. West so you can meet lovely, little Sparrow, who is super, super sweet (and young). This kitty will be going to a forever home where she will never, ever be in danger again! You can count on that.

Watch the video of Dr. West on 10TV HERE.

Read the 10TV follow up story HERE.

We received over 120 photos for our first ever rescue calendar for 2012. And these were not run-of-the-mill photos. They were all gorgeous. We had a really hard time choosing our winners. We finally had to make it a rule that we would only pick one photo from a family, because some people sent in multiple beautiful pictures.

One example of this occurred with the Hamiltons. Dick and Linda sent in four photos and they were all stunning. It looked as if the cats had been posed–I do not know how they got the cats to sit so still for the camera. I am including two of their photos that did NOT win here. Just look how great they were. Their winner will be featured as the November kitty, so you can check that out when you buy your copy.

Another person with multiple great photos was Mary Dietz. Most of the photos that Mary sent were of strays who had been dumped on her. She mentioned that in one year, they had 22 cats dumped and we helped them get 12-13 of those fixed. The remainder either found other homes or ran off after the spaying and neutering efforts were under way. They now have a stable and fixed colony of 14 cats that they care for–proof that trap-neuter-return (TNR) and spaying and neutering are the solutions to feline overpopulation.

I am going to post a few of Mary’s “Loser” photos at the bottom of this. Her winner will be featured as “September” in the calendar with a picture of a sweet kitty named “Tres” who she says doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Tres is currently an outside kitty, but Mary would love to find him an inside home if anyone sees him in the calendar and is interested.

I thought that over the next few weeks, as we are working on the calendar with our Printer, Wilson Printing and Graphics in London, that I would post some of the photos we received here and on Facebook.

Thank you to everyone who submitted their babies. It was so nice to see some of our former fosters and know they had found lovely homes!

While we have the perfect name for Halloween (Black and Orange Cat Foundation–sadly, we could never fit in for Christmas–Red and Green Cat Foundation?) and we love the holiday, we always worry about the black kitties we so adore at this time of the year. There are a lot of creepy people who decide it might be fun to harm black cats around Halloween.

The best thing to do as Halloween approaches is to keep your black cats and, in fact, any of your cats or pets, inside where they will be safe from pranksters and mean people. Even if there aren’t gangs of delinquents patrolling your neighborhood looking to tie firecrackers to a cat’s tail or have a “sacrifice” in a local cemetery, just the crowd of trick-or-treaters traipsing to your door can be a scary occurrence for pets accustomed to peace and quiet.

Open doors are also a threat at this time of year as you pass out candy—that thin opening provides a means of escape for a frightened pooch or kitty. Keep animals well away from open doors if they are a bit shy or scared (or even overly exuberant about meeting new people). And just to make sure no one gets lost if there is a door darter, have identification on your pets if they are not microchipped.

And, while we have been guilty of this crime, don’t dress your pets in costumes to torture them unless they are okay with it and are not going to freak out.

We really think Winston secretly wants to be a pirate, so it is OKAY that we made him pretend to be Johnny Depp for a photo op. And Oswald loves to wear hats!

For more safety tips, visit the ASPCA site HERE or the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) site HERE.

For safety tips specific to dogs, please go HERE.

Back in February, a lady wrote to me asking if we could take in her two cats, Midnight and Tiger. Her grandmother was ill and they were moving to a facility that would not allow the cats. Since the boys were in the 6-8 year range, she feared that if she took them to her local “dog pound,” they would just be killed because they were older.

I offered to post the boys on our Petfinder site, as I do for everyone. She sent me photos and something about their images pulled at my emotions. The photos showed a chubby black cat and his tiger striped buddy. They were the most generic of all cat types–their colors the colors of thousands of other cats in need. And to go with their generic looks, they had the most generic names–Tiger and Midnight. How many times had I heard those same names used for tabby and black cats?

But for some reason, I could not get their pictures or names to leave my mind and I kept checking in with the woman to see if she had found them a safe place to go. Sadly, they got overlooked online and no one inquired about adopting them.

In the final few days before she had to move and take them to the pound, I took Midnight and Tiger from her. She didn’t even live in our area. She lived on the East side of Columbus. I never met her in person. I only spoke with her one time after she dropped them off at the Capital City Spay and Neuter Clinic to be evaluated and get updated on vaccines. She wanted to make sure they were okay.

I must thank that woman, because, boy, did she give me two wonderful kitties.

Midnight and Tiger went home with me as my fosters. They were both lovers and it was easy to fall in love with them. Tiger was laidback and quiet, always head butting me and soliciting a scratch on the head. Midnight was a talker. He loved his dinner and he would enthusiastically greet his food as if it was a long lost friend. He was a bit on the portly side, running on thin legs to meet you and ask where you’d been and request a rubdown. His favorite place to hang out was in my bathroom closet in his cup bed. I would come in often to find his head leaned over the side of the bed, eyes closed, perfectly at peace with the world. He would meow at me, lifting his head in greeting, and then go back to sleep.

I loved those boys. They were more special than their photos showed.

I only had the boys with me for a few months. I had worried that no one would want them because they were older and because I wanted to keep them together. They had been pals their whole lives. I could not separate them. They had to be adopted as a pair.

In the time I had them, they both got dentals from Dr. Tom Klein at East Hilliard Vet Services. Midnight, more than Tiger, had a mouth full of problems. He had a snaggle-tooth and several other teeth that needed pulled. I think his poor mouth hurt and after the teeth came out, he seemed to feel so much better.

Everyone who met the boys fell in love with them, as did their new family the Formans. After Midnight and Tiger went to live with Jeff and Monica and their son, I knew they had found their forever people. Monica kept me updated on the boys and donated any unwanted food that they wouldn’t eat to our Pet Food Pantry.

Just about a month ago, Monica wrote me to give me sad and completely unexpected news. Midnight had been having some digestive problems and Monica had been working on his weight and various foods to help him. It turned out that the issues he was having were due to cancer. I was devastated. I never expected anything like that. He had just found a home. I’d put him through all the vet care routine I thought he needed and nothing had showed up while he was my foster. I felt awful.

I asked Monica if I could visit my boy one last time. But sadly that was not to be. This morning, October 20, Monica wrote to tell me that Midnight passed away.

Perhaps that is better. I will always now imagine Midnight, curled up in his little cup bed, eyes closed, happily sleeping, at peace and unafraid. He did not die in a cold, unfamiliar cage at the “dog pound,” crying for Tiger who would not have been with him. Instead, he spent his last days with his friend, loved and spoiled among people who cherished him–the ending all cats should have.

Thank you Monica and Jeff for taking these boys into your life. The Formans had just recently lost another beloved cat and I cannot imagine having to go through this kind of loss again so soon.

Thank you Midnight for the happy memories you gave many, many people who loved you.