Conference misery::feline

    This looks like a fine place for a topic on stray newspaper articles,
    etc.  I'll keyword this NEWS_ARTICLES for future reference.
    
    Jan
    Moderator, FELINE

    
    	uh, Jan....pun intended?? :)
    
    	>> stray newspaper articles
    
    	Sherry
    

    Not really intended but then I've been in "set overwhelm" mode all day
    and didn't notice I'd done that.  Actually, I probably wouldn't have
    noticed a freight train as it passed through my cube.  ;-)
    
    I'm a wee bit better now.
    
    Jan

    There was a great story in the Nashua Telegraph last night.
    
    A woman had a black cat, named Jason, who had been missing for over 2
    years.  She had put out ads, posters, etc., but to no avail.
    
    A couple of weeks ago, Jason came home.
    
    He had been living about 1/2 mile away, apparently fending for himself. 
    A friend of the woman just happened to be visiting the woman one
    afternoon, and told her about a stray that she had been feeding for a
    couple of weeks.  When the friend described it (large head, all black,
    very thin and scratched up), the woman asked a few questions ("Did he
    also have large feet?").  When the answers matched, the friend took the
    woman over to her house.  The cat was sitting on the porch eating.
    
    The woman called, "Jason?  Jay?"...and the cat looked up at her, went
    to her, and started giving her "love nibbles".
    
    Jason is home!
    
    K.C.

    Thanks for sharing that...it will give hope to those that are 
    in search of their kitty or for those that have lost a kitty
    in the past.       Now CAM...where the he** are you!!!!!!!!
    
    Sandy
    
    
    ps...the kitty described reminds me of Van Gogh!! Black, big head...
    big feet...and beat up!!!!

    Great. Thanks for telling. I love good stories. My Smokey (as she came
    to us) was lost for two weeks after one day she was at us. And don't ask
    how she looked like as she came... I almost gave up all hope already as 
    she tumbled in. Now we have her safe since 4 years... But I am happy
    every time I read about a found cat.
    
    Nat

    
    
    
    Hi gang,
    
    I saw this article in yesterday's Boston Globe and thought I'd share it
    with you. It's nice to see stories that aren't always gloom and doom.
    
    Roslyn
    
    
    

		CALIFORNIA FELINE OUTDOES MICE EXTERMINATORS
			July 27, 1992 -- Boston Globe


	Laguna Niguel, CA -- A cat named Johnny 5 is outpacing
   exterminators in the race to eradicate rodents in this Southern
   California suburban community. 
	Named for a robot in the fantasy film "Short Circuit," 
   Johnny 5 catches about 40 mice a week, said his owner, Kim Bristol. 
	Stella Paolini borrowed Johnny 5, and in three nights he
   wiped out the mice that invaded her home. 
	"When you've got Johnny, who needs a $300 exterminator?" she
   said. 
	Many people do. Meadow mice can create a population of 3,000
   in eight months and their numbers peak here every four years, said
   Tim Saunders, owner of Mission Pest Control. 
	Meanwhile, Johnny 5's popularity is spreading.
    

    Hi everyone, 
    
    I couldn't find this story in the file, so thought I'd ask you all if
    you had read the article in Farmer's Almanac about the couple who have
    taken in all kinds of cats (strays, drops, etc) in Canada?
    
    If you haven't heard of it, I have the book with me, and will gladly
    share with you some of the better parts of it.  It's pretty
    phenomenal, to say the least.
    
    Let me know if this has already been put in here...if not, I'll type it
    in.
    
    Nancy

    Nancy I have never read it...please type it in!!!
    
    Sandy

    Yeah Nan, in all your spare time! ;-) I'd love to read it too.
    
    Yonee

    
    Ha ha...I think this story is really an autobiography of
    Nancy C!!!!   The theme of the story will be.. how to go from
    2 cats to 11 cats....in ONLY 6 months!!!!
    
    

    O.k., folks, here it is.......
    
    	
    		The House with the MOST Cats Under One 
    			Roof in America!
    		--------------------------------------
    
    
    In the beautiful and historic Canadian city of Kingston (population
    61,000), located at the eatern spout of Lake Ontario, live Jack and
    Donna Wright and their 640 cats.  The Wrights have more cats living
    with them than any other homeowner in North America.  The Wrights'
    penchant for all things feline has made them famous.  They have
    appeared on television shows the world over.  They have been in dozens
    of magazines and newspapers.  Visitors, from veterinarians to the
    cat-curious, stream into their two-story home.
    
    The cats seem content.  They stand around, blinking, purring, and
    pouncing, doing the regular sorts of things that cats do.  A small,
    furry mountain shimmers by the front door.  Dozens of eyes blink and
    tails wave.  The cats are curious and friendly.  This living rug of
    cats at the entrance is not trying to escape the house.  They simply
    want to crawl all over whoever dares to enter.
    
    Within moments of coming in the door, I find nearly a dozen cats
    hanging from me.  Claws gripping gently, they hang from my arms and
    legs, and a couple more, stretched thin, dangle down my back.  One more
    has wrapped itself around my neck like a fur scarf.  For a brief
    eternity, a catatonic moment, I find myself wearing a living cat-hair
    coat.  I remember that I am dogged by feline allergies.
    
    Cats are everywhere in the Wrights' house.  They occupy all the chairs
    and tables.  They sit in partly open drawers.  They lie in the sink, on
    the toilet seat, on the washing machine, and on the stove.  They even
    manage to somehow obscure the giant television screen in the living
    room.  "When a film crew comes in, you can't get rid of them," laughs
    Jack.  "They crawl all over the crew and the equipment.  They get into
    boxes, go for the lights, and can't wait to have their photos taken. 
    They just love people."
    
    Thhis multicultural crowd of cats assumes a cosmopolitan disdain:  the
    Himalayan lives peacefully with the Burmese, Siamese, Persian, and
    Angora.  The purebred coon cat seems more stylishly disheveled than the
    Heinz-57s it hangs out with.  The cats enjoy each other immensely. 
    They lie together in piles.  They leap at each other.  Indeed, after
    all the years of cat collecting, the Wrights can only recollect one
    fight, a cataclysmic brawl involving about 40 cats!
    
    The house is surprisingly celan.  The Wrights go rid of their rugs
    years ago to make cleanups easier.  While there is an odor of ammonia
    and something else (cat breath, perhaps?) it is not disgusting.  Hired
    help, as well as several friends, help to keep things in order.
    
    Every cat has a name, although there are several duplicates (three
    Boots, three Taras).  Amazingly, Jack can call out a name, and from the
    crowd of fur at one end of the room, the sole cat beckoned will emerge. 
    "You know how people call a cat by saying, 'Kitty kitty.'" Jack says.
    "I've got one named Kitty Kitty.  When I call her, she's the only one
    who will come forward."
    
    The Wrights have a lot of mouths to feed.  Chow time runs 24 hours a
    day.  Each day the cats eat 180 14-ounce cans of cat food plus about 50
    pounds of dry food and nine quarts of milk.  Holiday meals involve a
    dozen 20-pound turkeys, a few pot roasts,  and dozens of cans of pink
    salmon and tuna.  In return, the cats use up seven 20-lb bags of kitty
    litter each day, enough to fill nearly nine large garbage bags with
    waste.
    
    The feeding frenzy takes place throughout the eight first-floor rooms
    in the Wrights' 15 room house.  It all begins each morning at 5:30,
    when 52 year old Jack spends the first 20 minutes of his day at an
    electric can opener.  He leaves food in giant bowls and on trays in
    each room before heading to work (he and Donna, who is 47, run a
    painting and decorating business).  All but one of the cats eats just
    enough and no more.  The exception has an eating disorder that has mde
    it obese.  "The cats are not greedy," Jack says.  "They will take only
    enough to make them happy."
    
    The Wrights' extended family started more than 20 years ago, not too
    long after they were married, when they acquired Midnight.  By 1981,
    when the cat family numbered 45, the Wrights moved to a bigger house. 
    As the number kept increasing, so did their reputation within the
    community.  Kingston has a large student population, thanks to Queens
    Univeristy.  The collection kept growing as students and other locals,
    unable to continue caring for their cats, brought them to the Wrights.
    
    By the beginning of 1987, the collection hit 145 cats.  A family friend
    noticed that the tabloid National Inquirer, was holding a contest to
    find out who had the most cats under one roof in North America.  The
    Wrights entered, and not surprisingly, they won.  Suddenly the press
    attention, as well as the cat population at 94 Elm Street, soared.  "It
    just snowballed," Jack says.  "People started coming from all over with
    their cats.  We got them from Toronto, from Ottawa, from Cardinal
    (Ontario).  We've got some from Pennsylvania.  There are cats from all
    over North America in this house."
    
    It wasn't a conscious decision to attain feline fame.  The Wrights
    could simply never turn away a pet in need.
    
    	(SOUND FAMILIAR, FELINERS?)
    
    ...  To this day, they always leave cat food on their front stoop for
    strays.  The sign above the stoop reads Cat Crossing.  Jack says the
    animals are peaceful; they bring him contentment, a purpose in life.
    
    "The cats weren't put on this earth to be put to sleep," he says
    pleadingly.  "The problem is that people who have them can't look after
    them.  It's nice to have a pet, but if you are not prepared to look
    after a pet like you would a human being, then don't bother having one. 
    They are quite a comfort.  I've seen people sick in the hospital
    without much happiness, and you take their pet to them and they perk
    right up."
    
    As the Wrights' cat collection has grown in recent months, reaction
    within the community has been mixed.  The local city council recently
    passed a law limiting to six the number of cats allowed in one house,
    although the Wrights' got a grandfather clause and can keep their cats. 
    The Wrights' next door neighbor is also upset, complaining that her 640
    furry neighbors are triggering her allergies.
    
    Yet the local humane society is one of the Wrights' biggest fans.  Ron
    McMillan, the director of the Kingston Humane Society, has visited the
    house to inspect the pets' living conditions.  "I'm impressed,"
    McMillan says.  "We have a full-time job looking after the 60 cats we
    have, and we have seven staff.  I think he's doing a good job.  If he
    wasn't here, we'd have to euthanize them."
    
    While Jack dreams of establishing a foundation to care for cats, Donna
    says they are unlikely to take in too many more because of the
    complaints and the cost.  They spend $306 a day on their pets in food
    and veterinary bills (a vet visits every week or when needed).  "We go
    around to the different stores for the specials," Donna says.  Even so,
    the expense of caring for the pets nearly cost the Wrights their house
    earlier this year.  They fell about $8,000 behind in their mortgage
    payments.  But a story in the local newspaper about their plight
    brought in donations of nearly $15,000 from cat lovers around the
    world.
    
    Both Jack and Donna say they have no regrets about the amount of time,
    money, and emotional support they've devoted to their feline family. 
    They simply provide too much enjoyment.  "You never want to get rid of
    them, but sometimes you wonder what you are doing with them all," Jack
    concedes.  He says getting out of bed at night is a risk because the
    cats will take the warm, cozy spot in the bed.  He has spent more than
    one night sleeping elsewhere in the house, forced from his own bed by
    napping cats.  "One will get on your lap, and one will get on top of
    him, and they will just pile right up until they are past your chin. It
    can make it difficult to watch television or just sit around.
    
    But I just love them."
    
    
    --  Copied without permission in it's entirety from the 1993 Farmers
    Almanac.
    
    
    

    
    Maybe someday we ought to think about sending these folks our funds
    from the Silver Lining Memorial...  just a thought.
    
    N

    I second that idea!
    
    What wonderful people, and what a wonderful story!

    Sandy Merritt, you scamp!  Look who's talking,
    Ms.-I-wanna-take-in-every-stray-in-my-city!  :-)
    
    But I do relate...
    
    However, the article made me feel absolutely conservative in my cat
    population at home.....  guess that means I can add a few more!
    
    N

    
    I truly enjoyed the article and just can't imagine 640 cats.  God..
    is there where our lives are heading!!!!   
    
    I agree we should consider these folks for the SLM fund in the
    future.  I'm sure they don't get any help from our Government or
    from animal foundations!!
    
    Sandy (the city scamp!!)   Nancy (the world scamp!!)

    Thanks for typing all that in Nan! It was wonderful! I think they
    should be considerd for the SLM donation also.
    
    BTW, I think Sandy, the City Scamp + Nancy the World Scamp = 2 of the
    most wonderful Scamps I know!!! ;-) ;-) 8-)
    
    Love,
    
    Yonee

    
    I want to go up there and visit them SO much.  Imagine being greeted at
    the door by mountains of cats....by 640 sets of eyes.....the purring in 
    that house must sound like a locomotive....
    
    Box duty is another matter....I barely can stand my twice a day ritual
    now.....with 11....  but 640?  Nine garbage bags a day?  YIKES

    Yonee if it weren't for the law of the place where you and Nick live,
    you would already have twice the amount of cats that Sandy and I do...
    not that we have a lot...I'm sure that some of the other FELINERS
    outpopulate us 3 to one... :-)
    
    N

    So Nancy, (and Sandy?) when do you want to leave! ;-) I'll start taking
    my drugs now! 8-)
    
    Cats crawling all over me? I'd be on the floor in a second! Don't want
    them to have to work to hard to cover me right? ;-) I'd be in serious
    kitty fix heaven!!!!
    
    Yonee
    
    

    This cat house is in Canada, right?  (I'd better go back
    and re-read it)

    There are many feliners who can outpopulate us........but they are
    much quieter about the rescues!!!!  I think we can add Jan as our
    West Coast Scamp...because she has been rescuing cats from her
    complex for quite awhile!!!  Jan..hope you don't mind being called
    a Scamp.....You should be very proud of it!!!!!
    
    Sandy

    Better be careful!! I used to use a brand of litter called SCAMP!
    Karen

    
    
            WOW!!  And hubby thinks 10 cats is a lot...wait till read him
    this!
    
            I also second the contribution next time around.  
    
            Denise and the gang of 10

    
    	Great story!  Thanks for posting it!
    
    	Met a woman today at the vet who has twenty-one cats.  One
    	Abysinnian and the rest are ferals she rescued.  I had to ask
    	her her name on the chance she was a FELINEr but she wasn't.  =)
    
    	The Aby is obviously less than pleased about it....  =)
    

    Did anyone read the article in REaders Digest this month, about Smokey
    the cat????
    
    I sat an cried while reading it!
    
    M-L

    Yes, I did!   My first thought though, was "why didn't they take
    her to the vets?"
    
    Since it's a true story, I'd like to get the sob who left her
    at the dump to burn!

    
        It was bad enough that cats were blamed for the Black Death of
the Dark Ages by ignorant, superstitious people in Europe. Cats were killed
by the thousands, more often than not by being burned - in what can only
be described as a wave of mass paranoid-hysteria. It was believed at the time
that cats were the reason for spreading the Plague throughout Europe, and that
they are inherently evil creatures who are "in league with the devil."

        The title of the article (below) caught my eye, as I don't read
"Dear Abby". The title of her column was: "Readers Warn About Cats and Babies."
Apparently, from some of the references in the columm, she must have posted
a previous column quoting experts saying it was OK for cats and babies to be in
the same household.

        In this colum, obvious cat-haters respond. All it did for me is prove
once again, we're STILL NOT out of the Dark Ages, and that ignorant,
superstitious cat-haters still try to spread fear and loathing about cats. 

        Maybe I'm wrong. But: I've had cats all my life, some around young
children, and I've NEVER seen any of this behavior.

        Would anyone care to comment on the charges listed in the article
below.


From "Dear Abby" (Tuesday, May 18, 1993 reprinted w/o permission)

     DEAR ABBY, I do a slow burn whenever I see one of your articles
defending cats.
     When my oldest son was a tiny baby, a cat wandered into our house, and I
caught it sitting on my babies chest with its mouth buried deep in the baby's
mouth!
     My ex-daughter-in-law told me that her mother claims that a cat smothered
her younger sister to death when she was an infant and too weak to struggle.
     I suspect that some of the sudden-infant-death cases are due to cats in the
household. Your experts don't know what they are talking about. Cats are very
smart - and sneaky. They don't do anything wrong when someone is watching.
     I doubt you will publish this because it disagrees with your so-called
experts. I always tell my story to anyone i know who has a small baby and a cat.
This is true. You may use my name.
                                             - Irma Orr, Omaha, Neb.

DEAR Irma Orr: Thank you. Please read on:

                                    ***

DEAR ABBY: Please inform your animal expert and "Expecting in Yuma, Ariz."
that the subject of cats sucking and smothering the breath out of infants is not
a myth.
      When I was a boy, my mother laid my 6-week-old sister in the middle of her
bed. My sister was asleep and too young to roll off the bed. My mother and I
went outside for a few minutes, and when we came back to check on the baby,
there was the cat on top of the baby, with its mouth on the baby's mouth! The
cat was shifting its weight from one front paw to the other, sucking the breath
from the baby.
      My mother knocked the cat off the baby, who was almost lifeless! My mother
breathed into my sister's mouth and slapped her on the back until my sister
caught her breath and cried loudly. Needless to say, we got rid of the cat.
                                           - Thurman E. Carroll, Del Rio, Texas

P.S. This happened to another woman in Del Rio. Her mother said the baby had
already turned purple when she knocked the cat off her baby.
                                    
                                 ***

DEAR ABBY: This is my first letter to you. But I just can't be still. Yes, cats
are jealous of babies. I have seen it with my own eyes. I was 8 years old at the
time when my mother caught our cat lying across my little brother's face in his
crib. The cat had his mouth right on top of the baby's mouth, and it is still
clear in my mind how Mother jerked the cat off and got my little brother to
breathing again.
       You are wrong about it being a myth. It's a fact. Cats are naturally
jealous, and they will suck the life out of a baby if they get the chance.
       Mothers, watcgh your babies! I am 73 years old now, and I will never
forget that terrible scene.
                                          -Bill Adams, Las Cruces, N.M.
                                  ***

DEAR ABBY: It is not a myth that cats will jump into a baby's crib and suck the
breath out of a baby. When my cousin was 2 months old, I sas our family cat
sitting on the baby's chest, sucking the air as it came out of the baby's
nostrils!
        I pulled the cat off the baby's chest. Shortly after that, we gave the
cat away. I was 18 at the time, and now I'm 64. I will never forget it. Never!
                                        - Mrs. Robert Thureson, Alhambra, Calif.

DEAR MR. CARROLL, MR. ADAMS, and MRS. THURESON: No additional expert I could
quote would convince you otherwise, so I'm not even going to try. Let's all
agree on one thing, however: Parents should not leave infants alone with cats
(or dogs).

    >>DEAR MR. CARROLL, MR. ADAMS, and MRS. THURESON: No additional expert
    >>I could quote would convince you otherwise, so I'm not even going to
    >>try. Let's all agree on one thing, however: Parents should not leave
    >>infants alone with cats (or dogs).
    
    
    Or mad axemen, or baby molesters....I'm speachless.  Are these people
    from another planet or are they taking drugs or something?
    
    I have never heard of such utter cr*p since, as you so rightly say, the
    dark ages when they also believed that if a person floated in water
    they were a witch and should be burnt.
    
    Sucking the breath out of a baby...I ask you!

    and another thought just occured to me...
    
    I wonder what they think the cats are doing when they "sniff each others 
    bottoms/butts" ????
                                                                 

    This sounds an awful lot like what are called "urban myths".  Usually
    the evidence cited is 2nd or 3rd hand ("a friend of a friend"), so it's
    unusual that these people claim 1st hand knowledge.
    
    Cats *do* put their heads in open mouths.  My Merlin does it to me all
    the time, if he's sitting on my chest and I yawn.  I suppose to someone
    predisposed to dislike cats, it would look like he was "sucking the life
    out" of me.  I suspect there's some basic truth to the incidents, which
    have then been blown all of out proportion (turning blue, stopped
    breathing, etc..)  Maybe baby's breath smells interesting to cats.
    
    Some people just don't like cats, and will reach for any justification.
    
    len.
    
        

    My opinion on the sucking the air out of babies, is that the cats are
    really 'licking' the inside of the babiy's mouth, because of the milk
    breath they have! My mother told me our cat always licked our faces
    when we were babies. She was just careful as to where the cat was while
    we napped, and no problem.
    
    It's not intentional because of jealousy. I believe it's accidental. I
    very bad consequence to a cat mooching a snack. Dangerous, yes, but not
    intentional. If the parents were more informed, these incidents could
    be avoided. Ignorance is a hard thing to erase. But we can try.
    sigh....
    Y
    

    
    Well, to a hungry cat, a fleshy wet object such as a tongue....

    Most of the incidences sited in Abby's column happened to the folks
    when they were young children, and now they are elderly.  Perhaps the
    years added something to the stories.....
    
    
    Jo

    I grew in a household where we always had cats (sometimes one,      
    sometimes several - at a time my mother used to feed about 14 strays!) 
    I never remember such a scene, nor was I or my sister ever "attacked"
    by a "life sucker" cat!  To me, it seems like cats, being naturally
    curious, are attracted by babies because of the milk breath they have
    and wouldn't worry about sticking their heads into their mouths to
    explore a bit further.

    Of course, people can be paranoid with just about anything and cats are
    historically one of the favorite scapegoats.  Substitute cats by
    red-haired women or similar and, depending on the age, the paranoia will
    be the same...

    In my opinion, cats are easily "dislikable" because they are free
    minds.  I don't believe anyone can ever really domesticate a cat.  A
    cat is always a wild animal, free and alert, and this doesn't appeal to
    people who like submission (either in pets or in people).  As it was
    pointed out elsewhere in this file, a dictator would never have a cat
    as pet.  Cats are free, the same way people are (or should be) free. 
    That's part of their appeal to me and a reason for hatred in others.

    Eduarda
    

>      When I was a boy, my mother laid my 6-week-old sister in the middle of her
>bed. My sister was asleep and too young to roll off the bed. My mother and I
>went outside for a few minutes, and when we came back to check on the baby,
>there was the cat on top of the baby, with its mouth on the baby's mouth! The
>cat was shifting its weight from one front paw to the other, sucking the breath
>from the baby.
>      My mother knocked the cat off the baby, who was almost lifeless! My mother
>breathed into my sister's mouth and slapped her on the back until my sister
>caught her breath and cried loudly. Needless to say, we got rid of the cat.
 
	Sounds like the cat had found somewhere comfortable, and was kneeding 
	it to make it comfy - like they do when they jump on the bed, or a 
	cushion, or my lap, or, if I'm in bed, on my chest.
	I wouldn't be surprised if it licked the babys face at the same time,
	if it found it interesting.

	I'm a bit more robust than a baby, and can handle the weight (even if
	I'd rather they waited until it was time to get up!!!!!)

	I never understand people who leave young babies unattended, when
	they have any animal that could gain access to them.

	I also wonder where these people think the breath goes when they 
	"suck it out", cats lungs aren't big enough to hold all that air.....
	....maybe a physics lesson on lung capacity and their workings is in 
	order.

	Heather

I am an asthmatic, and owner of 2 cats. One (Spike) will often
come up and tap me on the face at night or lick me, or even put 
his face right in mine. I then wake
up to find my self somewhat mildly distressed in breathing.
I suspect that Spike detected this, and out of concern, or
more likely curiosity is investigating the situation. I could
see that if Spike (15 lbs of orange tabby) were to cuddle up
with a baby (6-8 lbs newborn, bigger later) he might 
unintentionally smother it. I think the behavior is similar
to what they would do with other cats (cuddle up, groom), its
just that a human baby is so helpless at birth that the 
attention may unintentionally be harmful.

Thanks,
Keith
(Dad of 2 cats and soon to be dad of 1 human)

    I saw only pieces of it but there's a horror movie (actually a trilogy
    of stories, I think by Steven Spielberg) where one theme is the parents
    concern of the cat "sucking the breath" out of the little girl... when
    actually she's being attacked by a troll (cat becomes hero when it
    kills troll and saves girl).... maybe these people saw this at some
    time and it has influenced them.
    
    My cats love to sit on us and occassionally do seem to "sniff our
    breath. I suppose that would seem odd to non-kitty people and since
    both cats more than 12 pounds I can imagine that it might be detrimental to
    a baby if they tried the same thing.  What I'd wonder is if the child
    was having problems before the cat got on them and the cat was
    responding to their distress?
    
    However, I can believe the kitties  were they just being curious about
    this little creature - especially when it is being quiet!  :^)
    
    "sucking the breath out of the baby".... good grief!
    

    It isn't just cats, though. My brother's dog recently had puppies
    (labradors) and one of them went to a home where there was a baby. She
    had just been fed and the puppy licked the milk of her face. Not
    hygenic, of course, but certainly not sinister. The parents were quite
    calm about it, too. They just moved the puppy away with a firm "No!".
    
    The trilogy by Steve Spielberg is called Cats Eyes. It's a collection
    of short stories about a cat - I noticed that a lot of his other books
    were mentioned in some way - the car at the beginning from "Christine",
    the St. Bernard, the young actress in the third story also appeared in
    another of his films, etc. I did like the third story of the girl
    attacked by a troll. The end was so beautiful.

    
    
    	bit of trivia.
    
    	the little girl in the troll story is Drew Barrymore.
    

I've had cats all my life and have had the same experience as Len.  If your
face is close (in proximity, not appearance) to a cat's face and you open your 
mouth, the cat will sniff your breath and would probably try to crawl into 
your mouth if you held it open.  

Cats live in a world of odors and they are incorrigably curious.  They will
also lick anything that smells tasty, such as a baby's mouth or tongue.

Over the weekend, my mother-in-law told me about this "news".  She didn't 
mention that it was just Dear Abbey letters.  


Bob

    The Honorable Colonel Sebastian Moran, DROFFC, brought the following
    article from the Auburn News to my attention last night.
    
    ******
    From the police news, May 30
    
    8:55 p.m. There was a report of a deranged cat attacking a German
    Shepherd.
    
    *******
    
    The Colonel's opinion is that they are of the same household and the
    dog ate the cat's supper one time too many. He had me read the article
    to my three dogs so as to instruct them as to what can happen.
    
    As there are no reports of rabid cats in Auburn, I wonder what
    happened? Also, how do you keep a straight face if you're the police
    dispatcher?   They always tell you if someone was arrested or if
    animal control was called. But nothing was mentioned. I guess the
    cat got away with it.
    
    Sari
                         

    Was that in Auburn, NH?  That's were I live, and my 2 cats are
    sometimes out during the evening (but not overnight.)  Let me know
    if you hear any more details,  let me know.
    
    Thanks,
    
    Barbara

    Does anyone have todays' USA Today.  I meant to steal, um, I mean
    borrow it from the Taco Bell I had lunch at today and I forgot to
    pick it up as I left.
    
    There are a couple of items in the Life section that were amusing.
    
    1) There's a paragraph about how popular Socks remains even though
       Clinton is floundering in the popularity polls.  Socks is so 
       popular that they're coming out with a video game staring him.
       Basically, Socks apparently has to save someone or something from
       some KGB agent.
    
    2) There was a survey done on how many people greet their pets before
       there spouses when they return home after work.  I don't remember
       the exact figures but basically the majority greeted the pet first.
       If I remember correctly, for cat owners, 57% greeted the cat before
       the spouse.
    
    Jan

    Re: #2, I often greet my "kids" before Bob.  Usually, because they are
    at the door first.  ;)
    
    Steffi

    That's how I do it too Steffi.  The cats come and greet me at the
    door.  I have to actually walk into the house to greet the RP
    (Romantic Partner).
    
    Jan

I usually greet Spike and my Doberman Ginger before I
get to my wife and daughter. Mostly because they're upstairs
or in the livingroom, and Spike and Ginger come to greet me. 
Hurricane usually gets greeted last as he is almost always 
up on the guest bed sleeping. As far as I can tell no one is offended :-).

Keith

    RE: The film, Cats Eyes.
    
    My mother was watching a programme recently, about an animal trainer
    who appears to have trained everything from dogs to bears. He was the
    trainer for Cats Eyes and said that he had to use TWENTY different
    cats for that film!
    
    He said that dogs were easy to train - they were eager to please - but
    a cat had to be conned into doing what was required. How many of us know 
    THAT from bitter experience?!!

    Seen in a Manchester NH newspaper:
    
    		*********************************************
    
    	Woman was found guilty and fined $449.00 for abandoning 3 cats and
    a litter of kittens.  They were found in a cardboard box on the side of
    the road.
    
    	The woman also is not able to adopt another animal for a period of
    one year.
    
      		**********************************************
    
    This is the first time I have seen something like this in the paper.  I
    was glad to see that cats are finally getting some right-to-life
    support from the courts......
    
	Sandi
    

    Sandi...thanks for sharing!!  I personally think a better punishment
    would be to abandon her in the desert for weeks, but I guess I should
    be happy that "atleast" they are starting to do something for our
    4 legged friends.  I wonder how much proof they needed to convict her???
    
    Someone also mention to me today that three men from NH just went
    to court for abusing a cat and they also were convicted.   The story
    had to be "real" bad because this person would not even tell me what
    they had done to the cat!!  One man had a year jail sentence...which
    was suspended and he has to do "community work"....another one got
    three months jail time..and the other one got a slap on the wrist. 
    Has anyone heard about his?????
    
    Sandy

    .......and just when we get an "apology" for the stuff about cats
    sucking babies breath from Dear Abby,......now channel 7 (I think
    tonight) is doing a thing on how your cat can give you a very serious
    illness - cat scratch fever.  I won't be able to watch it since I'm
    at work, but maybe someone can catch it.  Hopefully it won't cut
    down cats!
    
    denise

    Oh Joy! This one ought to be good! I know a cat CAN give a person Cat
    Scratch Fever, but Geeze! I've had cats scratching me all my life, and
    I've never been sick from it! I hope they present this in a reasonable
    fashion, and not make it sound like you'll die if you EVER get
    scratched by a cat. I get nailed by the shelter kitties on a pretty
    regular basis, and I do take the precaution of cleaning the scratches
    with Hydrogen Peroxide, and bleaching later, but I don't really worry
    too much about it...
    
    I'm pretty sure I'll be home tonight, and will try to catch it, and
    report back tomorrow!
    
    Looking forward to this one..... NOT!!!!! ;-)
    
    Yonee
                             

 Concerning the three men who are to appear in court for abusing a cat...
 The radio announcer said they attempted to feed it to a python.

    About 18 years ago, I wound up in hospital with Cat-Scratch Fever.  Had
    a minor scratch on my ankle that wouldn't heal; eventually a lymph
    node in my upper leg "caught" the bacteria and grew to the size of a
    softball within 24 hours.  I wuz hospitalized, surgerized,
    antibioticized, and eventually went home fine.
    
    Now everytime I have a scratch, out comes the peroxide.  Never had a
    recurrence, but don't know if one develops antibodies.

    I have a nephew who was also scratched by a cat.  I don't know what the
    time frame was after the scratches, but he started developing lumps in
    the lymph nodes on both sides of his neck.   My brother panicked when
    he felt them since the first thing that came to his mind was cancer
    (such a pessimist), my first thought would have been mumps.  Anyway
    they lanced them and run the tests and concluded that the cat scratches
    definitely did cause the cat scratch fever.   I believe its something
    to definitely be aware of and first aid for scratches from a cat done
    immediately...   I do not know if their have ever been any fatalities
    from this type of fever, but having the knowledge about the possibility
    of such and illness before hand  before hand and doing the necessary
    first aid is just common sense....      If there is any additional
    information about CSF, and someone sees the broadcast, could someone
    put more details in here?   
    
    Thanks,
    Sarah

    I heard the story about the 3 NH men on the way to work this morning on
    the radio.  It made me so angry it made me want to volunteer to do the
    same thing to them.  If you're easily upset - hit next unseen now.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    These three guys in their early 20's supposedly pulled the cat's claws
    out with pliers, broke some teeth and then tried to feed it to a
    python.  
    
    It makes me so angry I'm shaking just thinking about it.  They said
    that the cat is okay now.  I think I'll go home tonight and give my
    kids extra hugs and scratches tonight!

    re.56
    
    How sick can you get? 
    I really wonder what goes on in these peoples' heads. 

    The "cat scratch disease" (apparently that's what it's called now)
    thing came from a report in the latest issue of the New England Journal
    of Medicine.  The (an?) author of the report was on CBS This Morning
    this morning (I think that's the one it was - Paula and Harry, except
    Paula's on vacation this week).  The report seemed quite reasonable,
    but the media seem to have jumped on it.  It's not like there's an
    epidemic of it or anything; the report was a discussion of etiology of
    the syndrome, which apparently has not been studied seriously until
    now.

    Swollen lymph nodes seem to the main symptom, and the report implicated
    kittens and fleas as more likely to be the source of infection (the
    flea connection is interesting, as if cats with minimal immune
    response (i.e., kittens) are a vector rather than a host).

    I've lived with cats most of my life, and been scratched many many
    times, but never encountered CSD.  But then, my cats have only been
    kittens for a relatively small fraction of their entire lives, and
    we've never had fleas for more than a few days in total.

    len.
     

    
    I read a story in yesterday's San Jose Mecury news, that three young
    men were seen in the area and were being sought for doing some bad
    things to a kitty with firecrackers.  The public donated $2550 as a
    reward for their arrest!   I hope they get em!!!!
    
    
    

    Reprinted without permission from San Jose Mercury News   8-31-93
    San Jose, California
    
    
    SCRAMBLING FOR ANIMAL CONTROL
    
    San Jose, other cities forced to set up their own services
    
    By Nick Anderson
    Mercury News Staff Writer
    
    A surge of stray dogs and cats since Santa Clara County ended animal-
    control service July 1 has forced San Jose and several other cities to
    dig into their own sparse treasuries to cover the slack.
    
    The San Jose City Council is expected today to approve a plan that 
    would cost the city as much as $1.6 million a year for licensing pets,
    catching and sheltering stray, vicious or injured dogs and cats and
    removing dead animals from city streets.  Income from licenses isn't
    expected to cover the full cost.
    
    County supervisors dropped dog-catching and pet-licensing this year
    as the state government cut the county's tax income.
    
    Meanwhile, animal-welfare activists are pushing San Jose to enact 
    mandatory licensing of cats and new regulations for pet breeders, an
    ordinance that proponents say will cut the population of unwanted 
    pets and the misery of euthanizing animals in shelters.
    
    "Prevention is 10 to 15 times cheaper than catching and killing them,"
    said activist Ellen Dimond.  She said rescue groups are flooded with
    strays.
    
    The so-called pet ordinance, which actress Doris Day and baseball 
    manager Tony La Russa plan to promote at a Wednesday news conference
    in Los Altos, is expected to reach the council by November.
    
    At the moment, obtaining a pet license is impossible in San Jose and
    in most Santa Clara County cities.  Palo Alto has maintained its own
    animal services.
    
    Various groups of cities are banding together for service.  Palo Alto
    has agreed to serve Mountain View, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.  
    San Jose, Santa Clara and Milpitas may enter a joint agreement, said
    Greg Larson, a San Jose deputy city manager.  Morgan Hill and Gilroy 
    may also pair up.
    
    Sunnyvale is launching its own program for $250,000 a year.  The West
    Valley cities are apparently undecided, Larson said.
    
    San Jose is paying the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley $300,000
    for emergency animal service through Oct. 8.  If approved today, the
    city will negotiate an extension through June.  Licenses would be
    issued again starting in October.
    
    In July, 538 people called the Humane Society to report sick, injured,
    dangerous or otherwise unclaimed animals in San Jose.  The society 
    brought 204 animals to shelters.  And San Jose residents themselves
    took 1,442 strays to shelters.  Of those strays, more than 1,000 were
    cats.

    I would like to have a cat added to the SLM. I don't know his/her
    name.
    
    This is terrible. Last night I was reading "Wednesday's" Boston
    Herald.  They showed a picture of a police officer holding a blanket
    with a white cat, his head was hanging from the blanket.
    
    The article read that some scumbag of a kid had kicked the cat three or
    four times in the stomache, and it died.  The cat was in front of 
    a store by the door, where it usually makes its stop in the morning.
    A woman said she saw the kid from the store do that and came out to
    try to stop him, but she said she got scared because when he turned
    around to look at her, he had a mean psychotic look in his eyes.
    
    The police were trying to locate the owner.
    
    God I hat hearing about things like this. I hate to know there are 
    real sick people in this world that do that for "kicks."  That was
    someones pet, part of their family!!
    
    Anyway, I just wanted to know who is in charge of the SLM, as I have
    not kept up with alot of the notes lately, and I would like to know
    where I send a check too, etc.
    
    You can either print the info here, or send me E-Mail at
    BUSY::KVILLANI.
    
    Thanks,
    Karen
    
    I don't know what I should name him in the SLM. Does anyone have any
    ideas?

    I don't understand why people are so afraid to interfere, yell, scream
    or whatever.  Anyone who can just stand there and watch a person kick a
    cat to death without doing anything is just as guilty as the person
    doing the kicking.
    
    This world really sucks sometimes!!  I at least hope the jerk was
    caught by the police.
    

    I heard about this on the radio this morning and it made me sick.  I
    heard that they did find the person responsible and he was facing a
    year in jail.
    
    Lori B.

    .1
    
    Because by the time I the woman realized what the kid was doing I 
    don't think anyone could have save the cat and a kid that will kick a 
    cat to death like that would think nothing of ripping a human to shreds 
    with a knife.  That kid wouldn't be phased by an adult, female or
    male.  Only someone with heavy fire power would have any effect on that
    young killer. 

    This is really disgusting...but what I find more disgusting is
    our laws aren't strong enough and this kid will probably only
    get a slap in the hand.  There is no way he will go to jail
    based on other stories I have read.
    
    Such as the person who killed a dog by stuffing him in a trash
    compacter in Garnder...they said he could get something like 20 years in
    jail...and if I remember correctly he was fined (not much) and
    maybe spent 15 days in jail.
    
    Our laws need to get a lot stronger if we are ever to deal with this 
    issue.
    
    Sandy
    

    On a better note, last nights niew reported that a dog, I don't know if
    anyone here remembers, about 2-3 months ago, a dog that was tied to
    a pole was stabbed repeatedly.
    
    Well they caught the "persons". I forgot what they said. I believe if
    I heard it correctly the owner told his cousins to get "rid" of the
    dog, kill her if they had too, because it was going to the bathroom
    in his house.  I am glad they got them. The MSPCA said they will do
    everything to ensure that they serve time.
    
    But like you said, .1 they will probably get a slap on the wrist.
    
    Anyone know how I can get her/him added to the SLM? Do I have to name
    the cat? I would like to give it some type of a name for the memorial.
    
    Thanks,
    karen

    Well, I just got back from a meeting, and will try to answer some of
    your questions. 
    
    I am, at this time the administrator of the Silver Lining Memorial. I
    will add the poor white kitty to the list. Since you read it in the
    Herald, do you want me to call him that for now? I'll add your name as
    the requestor of the addition. If we find out he had a real name in the
    future, we can change it. Will that be acceptable?
    
    If you want to send a donation to the fund, you can send a check to me,
    and I'll deposit it into the account I have set up for the fund. If you
    have a DCU account, and a branch in your building, you can write to me
    off line, and if you want to I can give you my badge number, and share
    number, and you can transfer money directly, and avoid the cost of a
    stamp! 
    
    I can't imagine anyone doing that, but I know it happens, and it makes
    me sick to my stomach, and my heart too.
    
    If you have any other questions about the fund, you can refer to note
    20 in this file. It's the designated SLMF note. My home address is in
    there too, but I can give it to you again through mail if you need.
    
    Love,
    
    Yonee
    

    
    
    
    
             
                                  1
    
    
    What can we all do to stop this abuse?  I would appreciate suggestions.
    Here's some that I can think of.
    
    	1.  Report any abusive behavior of animals to your state Society
    	    of Prevention to Cruely of Animals.  Also report the abuse to 
            your local police.  In my town, Police Logs are printed in our 
            weekly local paper.  Let the creep be identified.
    
    	2.  Respond to any reported abuse story by writing an article to
    	    your local/city newpaper, Letter to the Editor.  This is
    	    extremely important in raising the consiousness of the general
    	    public.
    
    	3.  Does your town have an animal control officer?  If not, become
    	    vocal in your community and try to influence.  Squeaky wheels
            do get attention.  Again, be pro-active by writing articles,
    	    contacting local authorities, complain at the Town Hall - your
    	    Selectperson - the Board of Health, etc., etc.
    
        4.  Talk, write a letter to your Representatives and
    	    Congresspersons.  Send a copy of the newspaper clipping that
    	    details the abuse to that person and ask - suggest- what can
    	    be done to stop the mistreatment of animals - particularly
    	    cats, because they are not valued as a whole by society and
    	    protective regulations do not apply as much to cats as they
    	    do to legally designated domestic animals.
    
        5.  Donate, donate, donate, as much as your can to non-profit
    	    organizations that truly have animals (especially cats)
    	    interests at heart.  We all know many such organizations.
    
    	6.  Remember THE POWER OF ONE.
    
    
    eleanor
    

    
    
    				  1
    
    
    	November 7 edition of The Boston Globe reported that "Animal
    lovers uniting to find man who killed cat in Charlestown".
    
    	A fund has been set up for a reward so the creep that stomped
    this kitten to death will be found and prosecuted.  The newspaper
    article makes an appeal to any one with information to call the
    Boston Police Departmnt.  The reward fund address is:
    
    			Blondie's Friends Fund
                        P.O. Box 49
    			Boston, MA 02113
    
    So far the reward fund in up to $2,000.00, with more pledges coming in.
    
    										
    note: this information taken from The Boston Globe, 11/7/93, pg. 48.
    
    
    
    regards,
    
    Eleanor                            

    Regarding the reward for the capture of the a**hole that did this
    horrible thing, it has been suggested that the noters may be interested
    in donating to this.
    
    I thought I'd put a feeler out to see how people feel about it, and to
    volunteer to coordinate the donations if we decided to do this.
    
    So, what do you all think? Want to do a special fund to try to nail
    Goldie's killer?
    
    You can answer here or though mail to me. I'm going to send a pledge in
    any case, but I thought one big one on behalf of the FELINErs would be
    a good thing too.
    
    I'll wait to hear from you.
    
    Yonee
                                    

    
    
    Yeah, count me in.  I was going to write a check tonight.  So I'll
    give you a call.  It would be great to send in combined donation.
    
    ems

    Yonee,
    
    Count me in.  I will send a donation for SLM, and a seperate one for
    Goldies Fund.  I will contact you off line for your address.
    
    Thanks,
    Karen

    
    You bet.
    
    len.
    

From San Jose Mercury News - Thursday, November 25, 1993

BEALL TO ASK S.J. TO LICENSE CATS

by Maya Suryaraman

Feline fanciers might contend their pets are superior to any
other.  But a proposed San Jose pet ordinance would treat cats
just like -- heaven forbid -- dogs.

If Councilman Jim Beall gets his way at Tuesday's city council
meeting, the city's cat owners would soon have to pay a licensing
fee, just as dog owners have for years.

And both sets of pet-lovers would have to buy a breeding permit
before they could advertise to sell or give away newborn cats and
dogs.

The city manager's office has come out with its own pet proposal,
also requiring cat licenses, but not breeders' permits.

Beall characterized his idea for a cat license as "an equity issue."
Perhaps more important, he contends, it's a way for the city to 
control its stray animal population and raise much-needed money to
fund animal control.

Because of budget cuts, Santa Clara County on July 1 stopped picking 
up stray animals and performing other animal control services in 
incorporated areas.  Local governments are now scrambling to put
together their own programs, even though many have never had animal
control departments.

"The cost of animal control has been dumped on city government by the
county," Beall said at a Friday news conference where he touted his 
proposal.  "Now the city is faced with a multimillion dollar problem."

Beall said his proposal has raised the hackles of some pet owners who 
believe their animals should be allowed to roam free of government
regulation.  But he says pet owners should bear at least some of the
cost of animal control.  He said that this fiscal year, the city of
San Jose has had to budget $1.6 million for the purpose.

So far, the idea that has stirred most controversy is the breeder's
permit.  People selling puppies and kittens under 4 months old 
would have to buy a permit and display its number on their ads.
Dog permits would cost $100 a litter and cat permits $40.

One local animal welfare group, the Coalition for Humane Legislation,
supports the breeder's permit, as do some pet owners.

"I think it's a great idea," said Barbara Tyree, a San Jose resident
who's advertising to sell an 8-week-old puppy.  "It would mean 
people can't indiscriminately breed their dogs.  There's too many
unwanted dogs at the shelter right now."

But weighing in against the permits is the Santa Clara Valley Humane
Society.

"We don't think it's enforceable," Humane Society spokeswoman Donna
Lynd said.  "You'd have to go door to door, and that's just not
feasible."

Lynd said it would be impossible to assure that the hundreds of people
who advertise kittens and puppies on street sign posts and supermarket
bulletin boards buy a permit.

Beall's proposal also would:

-Make rabies vaccinations mandatory for cats, as they are for dogs, and

-Double the limit on dogs and cats per household from two to four.

The city manager's proposal would lift limits on the number of pets per
household altogether.

Either plan would use money generated by the new fees in part to fund
a low-cost spay and neuter program.


------ End ------


Sounds like the city manager's proposal is the best if we have to have
one.  No breeder's permits.  No limit on the number of animals.  They
didn't give a lot of information about that particular proposal but
it looks like it is just a cat licensing proposal.

Jan

    Jan...thanks for sharing this!   It seems like California
    always starts the trend...and it will slowly come East!
    
    My personal feelings:   I'm sure my opinions will differ
    with many.   Three years ago before I worked for the shelter
    I probably wouldn't agree with any of this.  But I guess 
    being SO close to the problem makes me realize how bad it
    is...and I see our Federal Gov't throwing their hands up.
    I think the city, the public, breeders, and shelters all have
    to work together to even begin to solve it.
       
       o Cat Licensing:  Even with has many cats as I have...
         I'd be more then willing to pay a fee per cat as long
         as the money went back in to helping the overpopulation
         problem. 
    
       o Breeders Permit:  I do agree with this because I feel
         it *might* stop some of the irrisponsible breeders or
         those that say they are in it for the "big bucks"!  I
         don't feel $40 per litter is alot....if they only 
         have a few litters per year. Again the money
         has to go back into helping resolve the problem.
    
       o No limit on the number of pets:  I agree because as long
         as I'm willing to pay for the license.....why should I
         be limited if I own my own home, am a responsible pet
         owner, my house/yard is not filthy...etc.  
    
    My worst fear is HOW will all this be implemented, monitored,
    and what are the penalties!!  What happens with the zillions
    of strays???  What happens to the "cats" if someone does not
    pay for the license or breeder permit.  Would more cats just
    be dumped because people didn't want to pay.   
    
    Alot more thought, planning and work needs to be done on 
    the implementation!  Jan...please keep us posted! 
                                                     
    Sandy

    Sandy voiced my sentiments on this issue. Also the fears part. If some
    Good Samaritan takes in a pregnant stray, it's almost like a penalty to
    that person to have to get a breeder's license to try to find homes for
    the kittens, or for cleaning up the mess after someone dumped the
    problem into the street.
    
    I also think that irresponsible people will continue to be
    irresponsible (I'm not talking breeders here, just general pet owners).
    People already dump far too many pregnant cats. If they are forced to
    pay to place the kittens, I think there is a great chance that even
    more females will be dumped. If they didn't mind paying, they would
    have spayed her in the first place in my opinion.
    
    I agree with the licensing part though, and would be willing to pay the
    fee, as long as the newly licensed felines get the same treatment from
    then on as dogs do. That they will count for something, not be
    considered trash animals by the system. 
    
    Of course the same people will probably dump cats so they don't have to
    pay the licensing fee also. Vicious circle, eh? Aren't some people just
    wonderful? NOT!
    
    I hope they can find some happy medium though. But knowing human
    nature, there will be many many people out there trying to beat the
    system as usual. Too bad. It sounds like a good thing to me.
    
    Yonee
                 

    
    Yonee's second paragraph says it all for me - I think all this will do
    is give irresponsible (or at best thoughtless) people a strong
    incentive to dump kittens and pregnant cats.  I agree with the
    motivation behind these proposals (though I'm not big on limits on the
    number of pets one can own - what's next, a limit on the number of
    cars, TVs, books, ...), but I fear they are unrealistic.
    
    There are still far too many people who think "no big deal, they're just
    animals".
    
    BTW, although cat licenses aren't (yet) required in Massachusetts,
    certified rabies vaccination *is* (at least in Westborough where we live).  
    
    len.
    

    I am already illegal in San Jose and Santa Clara County by having 
    4 cats.  We're limited to 2 here.  An increase or removal of the 
    limit would be a relief.
    
    I don't mind licensing my cats if I'm under the limit.  If they
    continue limiting us to two, only two of my cats will get licensed.
    If rabies shots become mandatory, no problem, all of mine get them
    anyway even though they never go outside.
    
    I'm not crazy about the breeders permit idea (lest we forget my
    sister is a breeder) but this particular permit proposal seems
    relatively tame when compared to a total breeding ban. 
    
    Jan

    
    
    I heard a big to-do about rabies shots for cats being mandatory
    here (Massachusetts) recently and it didn't make much difference 
    to me as mine always get rabies shots anyways. Doesn't seem like
    a bad idea although I haven't heard all the sides of the story. 
    Doesn't seem like it's enforceable though since licensing isn't
    required.  My mother for example (who takes excellent care of her 
    cats but just aggravates me no end lately) says it's all a bunch 
    of hooey and doesn't see why she should bother getting 'mandatory'
    rabies shots for her cats when none of the 'neighbors' will, that's
    for sure.  (Obviously she doesn't like the neighbors ;-)  I snuck
    her kitties out for rabies shots while she was away for a weekend
    so she's none-the-wiser and they're all-the-safer but she's 
    probably representative of a percentage of the population that
    feels if something's mandatory, they'll be d*mned if they'll comply. 
    
    As for limiting myself to two cats - Ha!  I've been trying to do 
    that for years 'cuz it would be more economical, less cat-litter, etc. 
    but darned if they don't keep appearing on the doorstep, pregnant and
    all.
    
    Adrienne
    

    
    .... Limited to two cats per household .....
    
    Hmmm, what do they suggest folks do with their current >2 cats?
    
    We could always turn them over to the already overcrowded shelters. 
    Or we could just open the doors, hum "Born Free" and set them loose
    to fend for themselves .... or other alternatives I don't even want to
    think about less mention... 
    
    .. or we could spread the love and declare every household MUST have
    two cats!!!!!!
    
    
    	   I WISH these politicians would think something through
    	   JUST ONCE before they create these half-a$%-ed ideas!
    
    
    Just my $.02 -------- Heidi

    Right on, Heidi!
    
    Steffi

    I like the system out here. $1.50 for spay/neutered animals one time
    for life. or $10-15 for unaltered animals. I'd like to see a $50 
    'litter permit' if the government would then reimburse the cost of the
    nueter or spay operation. Someone in San Deigo (sp???) might suggest it
    as a better alternative to just a 'litter' tax. (you'd have to tie the
    license number of the animal into it as well to stop scoflaws from
    selling the permits to others (just imagine ... black market spaying
    clinics!!!))
    
    Just a thought,
    Tjp
    

    The pet limit is generally unenforceable unless a neighbor or
    someone turns you in.  It's there in case they need it though.
    
    Oh, heard today from Jo that there's been some type of link 
    between rabies shots and some sarcomas in cats.  So, San Jose may
    not require mandatory rabies for cats.
    
    Jan

    Hi Jan,
    
     I read an article somewhere about the shot causing sarcoma in some
    animals, but it wasn't limited to JUST the rabies shots. They have
    found tumors in both areas that shot s are generally givin. The study
    was still too new to determine if it was caused by the shots or if they
    were going to get it anyway though. 
    
     It did state though, that the percentage they were finding, did not
    outwiegh the benefits the shots give in the long run, but to maybe just
    keep an eye on the areas where shots are administered. (between the
    shoulders, and on the backside) Hope this helps. Oh yeah, it also said
    that the decision would be easier if you have indoor only cats, and no
    rabies shot law. ;-) (we have on ehere in Massachusetts, and the darn
    thing keeps changing!)
    
    Yonee

    Thanks for the info Yonee.  Jo didn't have much time to elaborate.
    
    Jan

    
    There was a nice article yesterday in the Boston Sunday Globe about
    cats at firehouses.  Cats seem to be replacing Dalmations as the the
    macot of choice for firehouses.  The article said they were smart
    enough to get out of the way when the alarms went off, and their added
    value as mousers and rat control officers was unique.  There were
    several touching stories about how various cats had been adopted by
    fire stations.
    
    Maybe, if I have the time and can get the paper back from Sandy, I'll
    type the whole article in.
    
    len.
    

    I heard that the cat adopted by No. 10 Downing Street (home of the
    British Prime Minister) is currently being treated for kidney problems.
    Does anyone know any more than this?

Reproduced without permission from The Boston Sunday Globe, December 5, 1993


                            Reigning cats, not dogs
                                                                     
          In Boston's firehouses, felines have become the pet of choice

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                               By Gloria Negri

                                 Globe Staff
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Dragging her mangled tail across the concrete floor, looking more dead than
alive, a scrawny 5-week-old kitten walked into the hearts of firefighters at
a downtown station seven years ago.

  She was born in an alley, the only survivor of a litter, more than likely
delivered in a dumpster outside the firehouse on Oliver Street.  The fire-
fighters fed her and brought her to a veterinarian, who gave her shots and
amputated her tail.

  They named her Maxine, though some call her Max or Maxie.

  Now, Maxine lives like royalty at the Division 1 firehouse, near South Station,
with an embarrassment of riches and an abundance of love.  The mother-in-law of
one of firefighter even did Maxine in oils for him.  She has her own "condo" and
Christmas tree, and, when firefighters are transferred out of the station, they
always ask about Max.

  "Maxie has been living like a queen here for seven years," chuckled fire-
fighter Robert Beals, Maxine's greatest booster, who confessed he was "never
really a cat lover" before Maxine came into his life.

  Like Maxine, pet cats have found loving homes in firehouses around the city,
where they either wandered in from the streets or were brought in as mousers.
There is Esther in South Boston; Six Toes at the Blue Hill Avenue firehouse;
Spats in the Back Bay, and Lucy in Brighton, to name a few.

  Even today, people think of Dalmations as the pet of choice in firehouses, but
they went out with the horse-drawn fire carts.  The dogs kept the horses in line
while firehouse cats were kept to keep mice out of the horses' hay.

  Today, Boston Fire Department rules ban dogs in firehouses because they take
too much care and are more apt to run under the wheels of fire trucks than cats.
Regulations allow one cat for each station, said Lt. Paul Finn of the Back Bay.

  Like Maxine, a firehouse cat has to have mettle and the smarts to stay out of
danger.

  For the first five weeks of her life, Maxine lived in a hole in the concrete
wall on the second floor of the old Division 1 firehouse on Oliver Street near
the alley where she was born.  "Nobody knows how she made it up there," Beals
said.  "She was so tiny and weak from her injury."

  Beals surmised that Maxine's tail had either been caught in the lid of a
dumpster or been chewed by a rodent.  "Maxie proved then she was a survivor," he
said.

  A particular firefighter on each of the four shifts looks after her and, Beals
said, "she is just as attached to them" as she is to him.

  When it comes to feline smarts, Maxine is second to none.  Except for one time
she became stranded on a steel beam in the cellar, Maxine is pretty savvy about
avoiding close encounters with fire engines.  "When the lights go on, she runs
for the stairs," Beals said.

  She is such a smart cookie that she seems to sense when Beals' night shift is
ending.  At that point, she jumps off the chair where she sleeps in his room and
appears on the desk of the day-shift man who will feed her.  Beef jerky is her
favorite snack.  Beals just has to rattle a carton of snacks for Maxine to come
running from wherever she is in the three-story firehouse.

  Maxine does have a rather regal bearing about her.  The portion of her tail
that remains she carries high.  She is a tiger with hazel eyes.  Beals said she
is a "ferocious hunter," and was a great mouser when there were mice to catch.

  Maxine is smart in other ways.  Lt. Gerald Jenkins says she likes to sit on his
lap while he types firehouse reports and tries to hit the keys.  When he writes
his name, she pushes the pen with her nose.

  At the firehouse on D Street in South Boston, Esther, a gray, black and white
cat, has been loved for 15 years.

  With nearby construction disrupting local rats' routines, "Esther is a big
asset," said firefighter Vincent Gifford, Esther's chief caretaker.  "When they
were doing all that digging in Southie this summer, we sat outside the station
with hockey sticks to get the rats.  Esther is small but terrific in this depart-
ment, but there was one rat too big even for her to handle."

  Gifford is retiring this month after 30 years as a firefighter.  His main con-
cern is who will look after Esther.

  An all-black cat with white paws named Spats, who has been living at the Back
Bay fire station on Boylston Street for most of his six years, hates rats.
"Spats never leaves the upstairs floor because the rats at street level are too
big for him," said Lt. Paul Finn.

  Another "good mouser," a black cat with extra toes on each paw, named Six Toes,
has lived at the Blue Hill Avenue station for 12 years.  Six Toes was one of a
litter literally born in the firehouse, on the ladder truck.  "The truck had to
be taken out of service for the day because of the births," said firefighter Jay
O'Neill.

  And then, there is Lucy, the charcoal cat at the firehouse on Chestnut Hill
Avenue in Brighton.  She has spent all five years of her life there.  Firefighter
Ed Ivanoski said they've made a cat window for Lucy so she can come and go at
whim.

  She does, and she is well known to the neighbors who feed her.  Sometimes she
sits on top of the ladder truck, but her favorite spot is a rug at the top of
the stairs.  "Lucy never gets in the way," Ivanoski said.  "It's like she's
never here, but she is here."
   

    
    Len,
    
    	Thanks for posting this note. I'd heard briefly on the radio
    	that cats are replacing dogs at firestations cause of their
    	"street smarts" and minimal care. It seems that the cats
    	will instinctively get out of the way when an alarm is sounded
    	while the dogs would often get in the way, or hide under the
    	trucks. Its nice to hear the individual stories from each
    	firestation.
    
    	Heidi

    That was a wonderful article.  Seems more people are starting to
    realize that cats are a pretty good bet as a pet!  Glad to see
    the good press, so to speak!
    Karen

    I just sat down, after a hard day of cross-country skiing, to relax 
    and read the Sunday paper. No such luck! On page 1 was a very sad and 
    disturbing story. Though no one likes to hear about these situations, 
    I am entering the article in the hopes that I/we/someone/anyone can 
    do something to help.

    Linda


    Reprinted without permission from the Nashua, NH Telegraph, Sunday, 
    February 27, 1994.


    MORE THAN 20 HUNGRY CATS DISCOVERED IN LOCKED ATTIC

    Fate of felines uncertain as Humane Society investigates maltreatment.

    By SCOTT BURNELL, Telegraph Staff

    NASHUA __ A mysterious telephone call and meows led a Humane Society of 
    New England worker and a landlord to a disturbing discovery Friday night 
    -- more than 20 sick, hungry and dehydrated cats trapped in an attic.

    The cats had been without food for at least four days before they were 
    found, according to Rachel Bruce, manager of the Humane Society.

    On Saturday, Bruce said the felines apparently survived on scraps and 
    the remains of at least one dead cat.

    And she added, "There are a few pregnant cats here. We think some of them 
    may have given birth, and the kittens may have been eaten."

    Bruce estimated there may have been up to 35 cats in the attic, but won't
    know for sure until piles of furniture and trash are cleared out.

    "I'm afraid to look, there may be mroe dead carcasses hidden (in the 
    piles)," she said.

    Ken Blanchard has owned the apartment building at 104 Pine St. for two 
    months. He said he kicked out the apartment's previous tenant earlier 
    in the week for failing to pay rent. 

    Blanchard said he received a telephone call Friday night, saying Scott 
    Laponsee, one of the two former tenants, had re-entered the apartment, 
    and that some cats were being maltreated. Blanchard then went to the 
    apartment.

    Upon his arrival, he found Laponsee inside the apartment, but Blanchard 
    said was not sure how Laponsee had gained entry.

    "I heard some meows and went to check (the attic), but it was padlocked," 
    Blanchard said. "I waited for the Humane Society to get here, then I 
    broke the padlock and we opened the door.

    "The cats were all running around, trying to get out of the attic."

    Bruce said the cats at that time were obviously dehydrated and looking 
    for someone to take care of them.

    "This ranks right up there with the worst cases of mistreating animals 
    we've seen," Bruce said. "It could be called neglect, and that dead cat 
    up there could mean a charge of cruelty to animals, but we'd have to 
    prove the cats were suffering."

    Police, who were at the apartment on Saturday upon Blanchard's request, 
    said no charges have been filed in connection with the case but it 
    remains under investigation.

    On Saturday morning, Bruce and Susan Buzzell, senior health care 
    technician with the Humane Society, returned to the attic with more food, 
    water and litter boxes for the mistreated felines.

    Bruce said many of the cats have upper respiratory infections and other 
    medical problems. The animals' final destination will be decided on 
    Monday, according to Bruce. 

    "The law will decide where they go," she said. "If they come to us, 
    they'll probably be euthanized, because we can't risk infecting our 
    current population."

    She said some of the cats may be treatable, but the Humane Society needs 
    donations to buy medicine for them. Bruce was unsure if any of the cats 
    will get well enough to be offered for adoption. She said anyone who 
    wishes to make a donation or inquire about the animals can call 
    603-889-2275 [my note: this is the number for the Humane Society].

    On the wall of the attic, a small poster of a heart hung over the cats 
    scrambling among food dishes and litter boxes. 

    "These cats needed a lot more than heart," Bruce said.

	If you think reading the article was sad, the video clips
	they showed on the Ch. 9 11pm news Sat. night was sadder :-((

    It never occurred to me to watch Channel 9 news, but it's just as 
    well that I didn't see it. Did they give any more information about 
    the situation, that wasn't in the newspaper article?

    Linda

    Awful as it is, thank goodness someone found them.  

    Who was the one responsible, the old tenant?  (It didn't seem
    clear to me.)  The poor cats.  I am glad that they put it in the
    paper, perhaps they will have a lot of responses for help.
    Karenz

	Re: .4

	Yes, it was the tenents who had been evicted a week earlier
	for not paying the rent.  Ch. 9 noon time news (I'm recovery
	from surgery for a deviated syptum this week) just reported the
	names of the tenents but I didn't catch it.  They said they
	have or may be charged for both animal cruelity and for
	child endagerment.

	They put the count today at 35 cats and said they should be
	removed from the attic today.

    How sad...but what is even sicker is how many times this really
    happens and we don't even hear about it.   I sure hope they press 
    charges on the old tenants....hmmm...I'd like to get a hold of them.
    
    Please keep me posted...I would like to donate to help..but ONLY
    under the condition that I know the healthier cats will be taken
    care of and not put to sleep!!    I personally can't/won't donate
    if the cats are put down.
    
    Sandy

    
    
    	Sandy,
    
    	I agree.  Give me a baseball bat and put me in a room with
    	those people for five minutes.  I'll make sure they never
    	hurt or neglect another animal or child again!
    
    	If I read the article correctly, someone from the Humane 
    	Society said that if the cats came to them, chances are
    	most of them would be put down.  Personally, I haven't
    	liked the place since Michele left but that's just my opinion.
    	And considering the lack of response we got with Mittens (?)
    	I wouldn't expect much response back in this case if we
    	donated either.
    
    	JJ
    

    
     
      They showed the cats on the news again this morning, pretty sad. 
      They also said that the cats belonged to the tenants dad. 
      They also said that he will *not* be prosecuted because he 
      agreed to turn over the cats to the Humane Society. In my opinion
      that is not a good enough excuse. People like that should be 
      punished to the max as to set an example so this kinda thing won't
      happen again. 
    
      It was also mentioned that an enonemus person donated $1000.00 for
      the cats. 
    
      Shaw

    An update from this morning's Nashua Telegraph:

    Humane Society taking abandoned cats:

    A group of cats abandoned in a Pine Street attic will travel to better 
    accomodations this morning, courtesy of the local Humane Society. The 
    owner of the cats will avoid animal cruelty charges, said Michael 
    Philbrook, executive director of the Humane Society.

    Philbrook said Bernard Laponsee, address unavailable, claimed the 
    animals on Monday. He was related to the tenants of the apartment where 
    the cats were found, Philbrook said. Philbrook said Laponsee signed over 
    responsibility for the cats to the society, and Nashua police will 
    suspend charges against him in return.

    The sickest of the approximately 30 cats will be taken to the society's 
    shelter in Nashua, with the remainder going to a kennel in Merrimack, 
    Philbrook said. The kennel owner agreed to donate boarding space for the 
    cats to the Humane Society, Philbrook said.

    The society is still looking for veterinarians to inspect the cats. After 
    the cats have been given a clean bill of health, they could be offered for 
    adoption, Philbrook said.


    A related note follows this news in the paper:

    Humane Society hours change:

    Until further notice, the Humane Society of New England, 24 Ferry Road, 
    will have the following hours of operation: Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, 
    10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and Thursday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The society will be 
    closed Friday, Sunday and Monday.

    After reading the latest news this morning I feel a lot better about 
    the situation. After I entered the article Sunday night and got to 
    thinking about it, it didn't seem likely that the Humane Society would 
    be able to take in 20+ healthy cats, let alone that many sick ones. I 
    had planned to call them yesterday to see if I could get more details, 
    but I had some heavy-duty stuff going on at work and wasn't able to. 
    Looks like they weren't open anyway. 

    I'm not a big fan of the Humane Society, based on several small 
    interactions with them over the years. Including having fostered two 
    rabbits for them for a few months this winter. To be fair, though, 
    running an animal shelter and dealing with the general public is very, 
    very difficult. Shelter people usually burn out after a while. The H.S. 
    is not a no-kill shelter, which makes it even tougher on those who work 
    there. 

    Re: .6

    >    How sad...but what is even sicker is how many times this really
    >    happens and we don't even hear about it.   
 
    Yeah, Sandy, that's really scary. How many other situation are there 
    like this around? I think these things should be publicized when they're 
    found. People need to know that it is not ok to do this.

    Re: .8

    >    They showed the cats on the news again this morning, pretty sad. 
    >    They also said that the cats belonged to the tenants dad. 
    >    They also said that he will *not* be prosecuted because he 
    >    agreed to turn over the cats to the Humane Society. In my opinion
    >    that is not a good enough excuse. People like that should be 
    >    punished to the max as to set an example so this kinda thing won't
    >    happen again. 

    I watched the Channel 9 news last night but didn't see anything about 
    the cats (I was flipping between 5 and 9, though; maybe I missed it). 
    So I didn't bother to tune in to Channel 9 this morning. Drat!

    I wonder if this mess wasn't due to ignorance and misguided good 
    intentions (animal lover takes in an unneutered/unspayed stray or 
    two, things rapidly get out of control) rather than deliberate cruelty. 
    Not that it changes the end result. Pine Street is not exactly the high 
    rent district, and if the tenant was too broke to pay the rent, he 
    probably couldn't afford cat food (let alone spaying and neutering). 
    However, I don't think this excuses a person. I believe that if you 
    can't afford the basics of pet care, then you shouldn't have an animal 
    in the first place. 

    I don't think they should let the owner off scott-free, either. I think 
    an appropriate, meaningful, and possibly the most effective punishment 
    would be to make him work (unpaid, of course) at the Humane Society 
    for a few months, preferably during kitten season. On second, thought 
    make him do it for a year, just to make sure he gets the point.

    >     It was also mentioned that an enonemus person donated $1000.00 for
    >     the cats. 

    Wow! Fantastic! It was also very nice of the kennel owner (mentioned 
    in today's article) to donate boarding for the cats. It looks like all 
    the publicity has generated a lot of interest. I sure hope this story 
    has the happiest possible ending.

    Linda

	Some good news .........


	A cat has been found in a shed 41 days after the earthquake.

	It was very dehidrated and hardly able to move.......but it was ALIVE.

	In one day it has improved tremendously, is eating, drinking, and
	sitting up!


	That cat must have more than the standard 9 lives!

	Heather

    
    
    
    did anyone hear about the cat that got 'built' into a house and was
    stuck there for 45 days.  I heard it on the radio last week.  They
    called the woman who lives in the house.....the woman had a new house
    built and they had a brand new marble floor and tiled wall around the
    tub.  For days she heard a cat and thought it was outside.  After a
    long time, she finally figured out that it was coming from the wall in
    the bathroom.  She had the builder come and break all the tiles to try
    to get the cat out.  She finally came out.  she was a cat lover...
    
    another happy ending...
    
    michele

    re: .102 the cat who was found after 41 days.  I read in the paper that
    unfortunately, Tiffany, (the cat) succumbed to malnutrition. sigh.
    
    Yonee, could you please add her to the SLM? 
 
    Steffi

    Doubly sad that she made it so long, only to pass away after being
    rescued.....

	Anyone hear about the dog that was hit by a car and
	stopped breathing, so the owners buried him.  Only to
	find him alive and kicking on their porch the next day
	covered with dirt.

	It seems the dog (one eyed BTW) was probably only in a coma
	and his siblings/friends probably helped dig him out.

    My husband told me about this story..and I thought ya right..he
    must have read it in the World Weekly Newspaper.  BUT...that night
    I saw it on Channel 4 news and could not believe it really happened.
    
    Amazing but very eerie.....
    
    Sandy
    

    There was a third article in the Telegraph, after the two that I 
    entered in 302.91 and 302.100. I didn't enter the third article as 
    there wasn't much new info, and I wasn't sure how much interest there 
    was in this anyway, since most Feliners are not in the Nashua area.

    After the first article appeared, I called the shelter to ask if they 
    could use help, such as fostering one or two cats. They took my name 
    and said someone would call me back. I had just about given up expecting 
    to hear from them when I got a call last Friday (3/11) from Rachel 
    Bruce, the shelter manager. 

    She said the cats were testing positive for leukemia. :-(  (It sounded 
    like they had just started testing and it was still in progress. I 
    really didn't want to ask a lot of questions.) So, they are looking for 
    foster homes with no other cats (which probably eliminates anyone in 
    this notes file, including myself), though homes with a dog would be ok. 
  
    According to the last Telegraph article, 26 cats were saved from the 
    attic. If they are all leukemia positive, which seems pretty likely, 
    this is a huge problem to deal with, and I'm surprised the Humane 
    Society is even trying. It will probably be difficult -- if not 
    impossible -- to find people who can or will take any of these cats 
    even temporarily. But even if they can only find foster homes for one 
    or two, it will make a difference to those one or two cats. 

    Ms Bruce said they also need foster homes for their healthy cats, and 
    asked me to spread the word. If you are interested in fostering a 
    healthy cat, or if you know someone who is catless and would like to 
    help a Pine Street cat, please call the Humane Society at 603-889-2275. 

    Linda

    re: 302.58
    
    Having recently been given a tentative diagnosis for this malady, I
    did some digging and came up with the article referred to in the above
    note. It is reprinted here in its' entirety without permission:
    
    
    
                             Cat Scratch Disease

                   From Feline Affection to Human Infection


       Although cat scratch disease was first recognized more than 60 years
    ago, only in the past few years has real progress been made in
    identifying the microbes that cause this disorder. The diagnosis of cat
    scratch disease has relied on several criteria: a compatible clinical
    picture, usually with unilateral regional lymphadenitis; a history of
    contact with a cat, often followed by the formation of a papule at the
    site of primary inoculation; the exclusion of other identifiable
    causes, especially mycobacterial; the presence in a lymph-node biopsy
    specimen of multiple microabscesses or granulomas;  and a positive
    response to a noncommercial skin test prepared from lymph-node
    aspirates from patients known to have the disease. The disease is
    characterized by malaise, low-grade fever, and lymphadenopathy. In most
    cases, the disease resolves spontaneously within a couple of months.
    Occasionally, there are severe complications, such as encephalitis,
    follicular conjunctivitis, and neuroretinitis.
       A decade ago, pleomorphic organisms were visualized in lymph-node
    biopsy specimens prepared with the Warthin-Starry silver stain. In
    1988, English and associates cultivated a bacillus in cell-free mediums
    from the lymph nodes of 10 of 19 patients with cat scratch disease. This
    motile, gram-negative rod was subsequently named 'Afipia felis' in
    honor of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AFIP), where much of
    the initial work was performed. In 1991, six afipia species were
    cultured in selective mediums from a broad range of clinical specimens,
    including lymph-node tissure, lymph-node aspirate, bone, sputum,
    pleural fluid, and bone marrow. The next year, afipia species were
    isolated from 10 clinical specimens with the use of a tissue-culture
    technique.
       The picture looked relatively clear until conflicting information
    began to emerge that suggested that 'Rochalimaea henselae' was a more
    common cause of cat scratch disease. Like 'A.felis', 'R.henselae' is a
    member of the alpha-2 subgroup of the class Proteobacteria, and it has
    a similar appearance when treated with the Warthin-Starry stain.
    'R.henselae' belongs to the order Rickettsiales, however, and is not
    closely related to 'A.felis'. Rochalimaea species, including
    'R.quintana' as well as 'R.henselae', have been implicated as the cause
    of bacillary angiomatosis, a disorder characterized by the
    proliferation of small blood vessels in the skin and visceral organs,
    which occurs primarily in adults with the acquired immunodeficiency
    syndrome. But recently 'R.henselae' has been identified in specimens
    from patients with cat scratch disease as well.
       Dolan et al. cultured 'R.henselae' from lymph-node tissue obtained
    from two immunocompetent adults with cat scratch disease and typical
    regional adenitis. Both patients had had contact with cats, and one had
    an elevated titer for antibody to 'R.henselae'. Using an indirect
    fluorescent-antibody assay for 'R.henselae', Regnery and coworkers
    found markedly elevated titers in serum from 36 of 41 patients (88
    percent) with suspected cat scratch disease, as compared with 3 of 107
    healthy controls (3 percent). Finally, five preparations of cat scratch
    disease skin-test antigen tested by methods based on the polymerase
    chain reaction were positive for rochalimaea species but negative for
    afipia species.
       The report by Zangwill and associates in this issue of the 'Journal'
    contributes to our understanding of the epidemiology of cat scratch
    disease and its microbial causes. This retrospective survey of
    physicians in Connecticut identified 60 patients in whom cat scratch
    disease had been diagnosed during a 13-month period. The disease was
    defined very broadly, as unexplained lymphadenopathy in a person who
    owned a cat or kitten. The interactions between 56 of these patients
    and their cats were then compared with those between age-matched
    controls and their cats. The patients with cat scratch disease were
    more likely to have been scratched, bitten, or licked on the face by a
    kitten and to have had at least one kitten with fleas.
       Serum samples from 45 patients were evaluated with a 'R.henselae'-
    based indirect fluorescent-antibody test. Identical testing was
    performed on 112 comparison samples previously obtained for testing for
    measles or varicella antibody in an unrelated group of controls of
    roughly similar age. Of 45 patients tested, 38 (84 percent) had
    elevated titers (GTE 1:64) in one serum sample, as compared with only 4
    of the 112 comparison samples (4 percent). Paired acute-phase and
    convalescent-phase serum samples from four patients were tested: one
    patient had a fourfold rise in titer, but the other three patients had
    high titers in both samples. Samples from 39 of 48 cats (81 percent) in
    patients' households were positive for antibodies to 'R.henselae'
    according to testing with fluorescein-labeled anti-cat IgG, as compared
    with 11 of 29 samples (38 percent) from control cats.
       The clinical features of cat scratch disease as defined by Zangwill
    et al. differ greatly from those reported previously. Symptoms and
    signs other than lymphadenopathy, for example, occurred in 82 percent
    of their 60 patients, as compared with just over half of 1502 patients
    in an earlier study. In contrast, only 25 percent of the patients in
    the current study reported a primary skin lesion at the scratch site,
    as compared with over 60 percent of the patients in the larger series.
    These clinical discrepancies can probably be attributed to the looser
    case definition used by Zangwill et al. The absence of strict
    diagnostic criteria for cat scratch disease is especially problematic
    when patients have atypical presentations, such as encephalopathy.
    Until recently, a clinical suspicion of cat scratch disease in such
    patients could be confirmed only with the help of skin-test and biopsy
    results. Serologic and microbiologic testing for the disorder should
    soon become more readily available and thus permit a more precise
    clinical definition of the spectrum of the illness. Given the broad
    definition of disease in the current study, the serologic findings are
    all the more remarkable. The clinical manifestations of infection may
    be much more diverse than is now recognized.
       A high proportion (17 percent) of the patients in the study by
    Zangwill et al. were hospitalized, and nearly half (43 percent) were
    adults - features that also differ from those of previous reports but
    that most likely reflect differences in the methods of case
    ascertainment. Five of the seven patients with negative titers for
    'R.henselae', however, were adults. Family physicians and internists
    should be alert, nevertheless, to consider the possibility of cat
    scratch disease in cat-owning adults with chronic lymphadenopathy.
    There are now more than 60 million cats in this country, and this
    population is growing. The incidence of cat scratch disease and its
    associated morbidity can be expected to increase. Will cat lovers
    modify their behavior to minimize this risk? Can we devise a feasible
    version of universal precautions for playing with one's cat? Other
    strategies will doubtless be needed.
       Additional microbiologic and serologic studies should help to
    clarify the roles of 'R.henselae', 'A.felis', and perhaps other
    microbes in causing cat scratch disease. The mechanism of transmission
    is another important area for further research, with the intriguing
    suggestion from this study and one earlier study that fleas or ticks on
    cats may be involved. Wider availability of appropriate serologic tests
    should reduce the need for skin testing and for lymph-node biopsy.
    Further identification of the causative agent or agents can improve the
    selection of antimicrobial agents, but placebo-controlled trials are
    much needed. The new information about the causation of cat scratch
    disease may also make feasible the development of a vaccine (or
    vaccines) for cats or humans.

    Children's Medical Center of the Univer-	  Andrew M. Margileth, M.D.
     sity of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22903    Gregory F. Hayden, M.D.
    

    For those that are interested, this month's Cat Fancy has some
    very interesting articles.  I meant to bring my copy with me
    today so I could remember the titles but...oh well, there are
    articles on the domestic cat, anti-breeding legislation and
    groups that work with feral cats.  I'll try to have more of a
    brain tonight when I'm home and will attempt to put the Cat
    Fancy in the stuff I bring to work (or I'll log in from home
    and enter the info).
    
    In addition to Cat Fancy, San Jose Mercury News has a couple of
    articles in their "Living" section today (3-15-94)...believe it
    or not I have this one with me (stole...er...borrowed it from
    the allergy shot station as I left).  There's a full color
    picture of a woman and some of the feral cats she helps "manage".
    The title of that section is "Cat Fight" and there is an additional
    article titled "Cat 'Caretakers' Come Together to Fight Legislation".
    
    The articles are rather lengthy.  If I find some time later I'll try
    one or both of them.  The main focus is the recently defeated legislation
    in California that would have required owners of cats who are allowed
    outdoors to have them sterilized or face unspecific fines.  Owner was
    defined as any person providing care or sustenance for a period of
    30 days or longer.  This would have severely impacted caretakers of 
    "managed" feral cat colonies (not to mention most people who read
    files like this and feed cats on their porches/patios, etc....geez,
    I'd have 7 extra cats under this rule).
    
    Jan

    Okay, here are the Cat Fancy articles for April 1994. 
    
    
    Action Research Report:  Helping Homeless Cats
    	Readers express concern and offer ideas for ways to control
    	the serious overpopulation problems facing cats.
    
    Minding the Store
    	To help customers find the best products for their cats,
    	Petco stores "employ" special feline helpers.
    
    Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Spaying or Neutering
    Your Cat
    	Responsible cat owners know the facts about spaying or neutering,
    	procedures that will make their cats happier and healthier.
    
    The Domestic Shorthair And Longhair
    	Charming, intelligent and favorites for centuries, random-breed
    	cats are the source from which all pedigreed cats spring.
    
    Do Breeding Bans Work?
    	Animal lovers disagree on whether antibreeding ordinances help
    	solve pet overpopulation.
    
    	(This article includes information/quotes from Karen Johnson
    	 who started the National Pet Alliance in San Jose and who 
    	 has been a major opponent of some of the anti-breeding 
    	 legislation proposed here in Santa Clara County.)

    Did any of you see the news last nite on channel 5 at 11:00??
    They did a sort of expose' on and American company working out
    of Mexico.  They sends groups of kids out via truck to neighborhoods
    in Mexico to pay $1 per cat.  They then bring back all the cats
    they have gathered and "dress" them and "pickle" them for export
    back to the US.  These are the cats that are used in school classes
    for disection.
    
    I can't remember the name, but it is a group out of Boston
    that has followed this and did the reporting.  They are trying
    to have it stopped.  US laws can't say what to do with what 
    happens in Mexico, but because the animals are being shipped back
    to the US, they may be able to work it from this end.
    
    It was quite graphic and horrific.  
    
    My own feelings are that this is a justfied thing to fight, not
    breeders.
    Karen

    There was a similar story on either 60 mins, 20/20 or a similar
    show a couple of years ago, but that was here in the U.S..  I 
    didn't see it, thank goodness; I get bad enough dreams about the 
    kitties that I have lost.
    
    

    Karen,
    
    I was watching channel 5 this morning and heard something about it.  I
    started to watch and listen closer and then I had to shut the t.v. off. 
    I can not even listen to things like that.  Makes me want to throw up. 
    I can not understand how people can do this to any kind of animals.  I
    sure hope that something gets done.  
    
    *joyce
    

    At least by showing these things an awareness is created.  If you have
    children in school it is something to look into.  I dissected rats in
    high school and several invertebrates.  Obviously some of the lesser
    schools still do this and the more advanced the school, the more
    advanced the er.. science class.
    
    Computer models are available for this.  There is no need to continue
    using these animals for just a general teaching method.  For doctors
    and students of animal studies in higher education it is a necessity.
    
    If parents ask questions and voice disapproval, we will see change.
    My hairdresser told me she disected a cat in H.S. for biology class.
    It was to teach her "human anatomy".  The cat is very similar to us.
    She saw nothing wrong with it.  I almost changed hair dressers ;']
    Karen

    
    I'd challenge the notion that cat anatomy is similar enough to human
    anatomy to justify dissecting cats in order to learn human anatomy.
    We may have the same organ systems (virtually all mammals do), but we
    are about as different as two mammalian species can be.  Humans are
    omnivores.  Cats are obligate carnivores.  Hence we have completely
    different digestive physiology.  We have completely different skull
    shapes and spinal structures.  Paws and hands are obviously different.
    Etc.  Whoever offered your hairdresser this "explanation" was reaching.
    
    I'm certainly not squeamish, but I've never felt anybody learns
    anything useful from high school dissections.
    
    About the only people who'd gain anything meaningful from dissecting
    cats are veterinary students.
    
    len.
    

    Hi Len!
    I agree with you.  This is what the hairdresser was told by the
    teacher.  Therefor it is a belief of the school.  Hopefully those
    people have since changed their minds.  I think it was about ten years
    ago (guesstimating her age).
    Karen

    The only cat dissection I heard of here was done by, as you say, a vetinary
    student friend of mine at University. We used to dissect rats,
    worms, frogs and mice at secondary school. At least, the rest of the class 
    did! I was usually too sick to participate and used to sit in the prep. 
    lab, reading a book about it! I don't think it gave them a greater 
    advantage in the exams - in fact I got higher marks than most, probably 
    due to all the reading :-). 

    
    	When I was in HS, first year biology classes dissected
    	worms, frogs and baby pigs.  Second year biology dissected
    	cats.  Fortunately I only took one year.  I would have failed
    	the second year I'm sure as I would have refused to dissect
    	a cat.  It was bad enough having a study hall in the biology
    	lab and have to look at them.  =(
    
    	JJ
    

    From the San Francisco Cronicle:
    
    A very nice article about Tony La Russa, the manager of the
    Oakland A's.  The reason my husband gave it to me to read was because
    it wasn't about baseball. ;)  When he and his wife and 2 daughters move
    to Arizona for 6 weeks of spring training, they take all their animals;
    3 dogs, 9 cats and 2 rats.  He said that the idea of putting the
    animals in a kennel and leaving them behind was out of the question. 
    "There is absolutely no thought of leaving them that long," he said. 
    "You don't leave your children."  All the animals were rescued some
    some tough circumstance.  They all get along well together, but show
    more affection to humans than to one another.  For as many beings that
    live under one roof, the house is relatively calm.  You seldom see more
    than two or three animals in the same room at once.  It's just that
    every windowsill seems to come with a cat.  Because of the sheer
    numbers and the cats' quickness, the La Russas are never 100 percent
    certain who is where.  "We do an awful lot of counting around here." 
    La Russa said he has received no complaints from either neighbors or
    landlords about the pets.  "The cats are all indoor cats, so nobody
    sees them but us", he said.  "And we never leave the dogs home alone so
    they sit there and bark.  We take them every place we go.  We are
    always fanatical about cleaning up after the dogs, and we always leave
    places like we found them."  The responsibilities tend to keep the
    family housebound.  "We have had to curtail some things we would like
    to do, like traveling," he said.  "But it is a never-ending delight. 
    Their love is wonderful therapy when I get home.  And they don't care
    if we won or lost."
    
    Steffi

    I love it...and now I like Tony even more!!!!  I know what it is 
    to count continuously!!!  
    
    A funny story about counting!!  Every night when I get home I 
    always do a headcount!!!  One day last winter when I did my
    headcount...I came up with 9 cats.  At that time I ONLY had 8!!
    This isn't too unusual because cats do not stand still long enough
    to count..so many times I count the same cat twice.   Well this day
    I told the cats to stay still (ya right) and proceeded to count again
    and came up with 9 cats again!!!  So I did this a few more times...
    and continued to come up with 9!!!  So...I said okay I'll count by
    name!!!  Lo and Behold....I had an extra black kitty who just so happens
    to be my neighbors!!!!   We never did figure out how he got in my
    house...but my guess is he must have ran right past me!!!
    
    Sandy                                          

    Me, too!  I count noses on my way out of the house.  Usually, there's
    this little tortie nose missing......she likes to sleep in my bedroom
    but she does NOT like being in there all day with Julie!!
    
    I go around counting....brown nose, pink nose, blue nose, 2 black
    noses...then I find freckled nose (Julie) and tortie nose (Beth), who
    are usually up to no good!!
    
    Mary

    I do the headcount on the way out the door two.  There have been
    several times when I've closed the closet door in my bedroom and
    left a cat inside...all day.  I'm sure you can picture the results 
    of this mistake.  Anyway, I've finally found a solution to that 
    problem.  Now, I just leave the closet door open. :^)  I still do
    a quick headcount though.
    
    Jan

    Yup, I do the same thing.  We have to lock the cats out of the bedrooms
    and the living room because the go "exploring" in the living room (up
    to the top of the entertainment center and knock over EVERYTHING), or
    Kyra and Tabitha both like to sleep in the clothes drawers in the
    bedroom (they actually know how to open the drawers and crawl in!). 
    So, I go around and count .. one black nose, one gray nose, one pink
    nose, and one pink nose with a black smudge. (-:
    
    Holly
    

    There as a brief story on the news last night about the people affected
    by the Alameda (Calif) fires caused by the natural gas surge.  I
    thought it was great when the two female students they interviewed said
    they looked outside, saw the fires and got out of the building taking
    only the clothes they had on...and the cats.  They even showed one of
    the cats hanging out in a cardboard box with holes in it.
    
    The two students lost everything except the cats and a few pictures.
    They were given a $100 voucher to buy clothing (from the Red Cross)
    and were set up at a hotel for a while.  
    
    Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) is doing everything possible to help the 
    people displaced bye the fire.  They had a cookout for everyone for 
    dinner last night (while repair crews continued to work on fixing things),
    they decided to send crews house to house all night rather than wait
    till morning to relight pilots so that people would have electricity 
    and hot water the following morning.  And, they're doing several other
    things related to helping displaced people find housing, etc.
    
    I'm impressed.  They're taking a really bad situation and turning it
    into something better by being proactive in their response to the
    community. 
    
    Jan
           

    

    I header a story on the radio yesterday about a kitty
    who wandered into a jeweler's safe.  I guess the door got
    closed before the kitty was finished exploring.  The
    safe had one of those time locks on it and it could not be
    opened again (without blasting) until the following
    Monday morning.  

    The kitty's owner figured out what had happened and
    got a bicycle pump.  He sat for two days and nights
    pumping in air via a small hold through the lock.

    Monday morning, kitty strolled out, hungry but otherwise
    "safe" and sound.
 
   

    Last night on our local news they showed 2 three week-old clouded
    leopard kittens from the zoo in St Petersburg, FL.  They are soooooo
    cute, and one made such cute little sounds.
    
    Steffi

    Ok, how many people want to KILL the person who buried that german
    shepherd in RI??  They ought to be hung!!
    
    H

    
    
    	I didn't hear about it and I don't think I want to....
    

    There is a discussion about this taking place in Canine.  It was also
    on the  news last night.  It was absolutely horrible.  I will spare you
    the details JJ, as well as anyone else who hasn't heard about it.
    
    I hope when this sub-human is caught, a similar act is bestowed upon
    it.  The laws for animal cruelty just aren't severe enough to make the
    punishment fit the crime.
    
    I suggest that anyone who enters a reply here with graphic information
    place it behind a form feed.
    
    -Roberta
    

    or better yet, how about if someone just enters a pointer to the
    applicable note in the cannine conference?
    
    Deb

    Yep, bury him alive and see how *he* likes it!!  I'll bring the
    shovels.
    
    Grrrr,
    Carl

     Anyone else hear the one in the news this morning about the Leominster
     woman (NO it wasn't me - and I don't *think* Sandy_M's moved !!!!)

     Seems she lives in a ranch-style house with about ONE HUNDRED PETS !!!!
     The newscaster talked about something like SIXTY-SIX EXOTIC BIRDS,
     TWENTY-EIGHT DOGS AND FIFTEEN CATS !!!!!!  Oh, ya, they also said she
     had chincillas (?) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     The report said that the MSPCA was telling her she had to get rid of
     the animals due to bad sanitary conditions...........guess the place
     was *really* a mess, according to the report as the animals are ALL
     INDOOR animals !@@!!!@!@!!@

     Sandy_M, imagine THAT pet food bill ?!?!?!?!?   And people think I'm
     nuts with the household we have (2 human adults, 1 child, 5 dogs and
     6 cats) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    No...I did not move to Leominster and I didn't even hear about
    this!!!  I can't imagine...oh my god!!!  I don't care how well you 
    clean I don't think you could keep it sanitary with that many pets
    and I can't even imagine the food bill or vet bill!!!
    
    The sad part is the MSPCA will only give her X amount of time to
    find homes for the animals and then most of them will probably be 
    destroyed..sigh!!!
    
    God..and there are days I feel totally overwhelmed by animals!!
    
    Sandy

    From the C.A.R.E News
    
    But It's Not My Cat!
    
    by Beverly Kling-Hesse (Reprinted from the Fall/Winter issue of Kind
    Times, the newsletter of the Nevada Humane Society)
    
    But it's not my cat!  I protested when my neighbor wearily complained
    that Testosteroni, the undeniably male blue tabby I had been feeding
    for several days, had once again disturbed her sleep by howling,
    yowling and fighting outside her bedroom window.
    
    But it's not my cat.  The words left a bad taste in my mouth, for I had
    heard them too many times before.  "But it's not my cat," a coller had
    replied when I suggested spaying as the answer to her feline problems. 
    Mama Cat was now producing three litters a year instead of her usual
    two, and after five years, the endless procession of kittens was
    getting a bit much.  But it wasn't the caller's cat; it was just a cat
    she fed who lived in the storage shed.  You don't spay or spend money
    on a cat if she's not yours.
    
    And the smelly, surly tomcat who used to be a cute, fluffy kitten
    wasn't the trailer park resident's cat, either.  She had called the
    humane society demanding that we pick up "an obnoxious tomcat" who had
    been wandering around the park, for three years.  Yes, she had been
    feeding him since he showed up on her doorstep as a six-week-old kitten
    but, no he wasn't her cat.  He sure had been a cute kitten, but now he
    sprayed on her porch, cried incessantly and actually scratched at the
    screen door to be allowed inside.  You know how tomcats are.
    
    They weren't his cats, said the good Samaritan who relinquished four
    generations of cats ranging in age from six weeks to three years.  "I'm
    a cat lover, he explained, "I can't stand to see any animal suffer." 
    So he had fed the homeless calico who turned up in his barn three years
    earlier.  And the one cat begot four cats who begot ten cats who begot
    forty cats.  "I found homes for most of them," the cat lover said
    proudly as he signed releases on the twelve semi-feral cats he was
    bringing to us for adoption.  Although all of the cats had been under
    his exclusive custody and control since kittenhood, none had been
    socialized, spayed, neutered or vaccinated.  Why?  They weren't his
    cats.  The "but it's not my cat" mindset is insidious, for it totally
    obsolves a person of the moral and financial obligations of pet
    ownership.  It starts--and ends--with a handful of food.
    
    Sadly, the commitment goes not further, the bond no deeper.  If it's
    not your cat, then you have no responsibility to vaccinate or alter the
    animal.  If it's not your cat, then you have no duty to seek veterinary
    care for the abscesses and respiratory illness that invariably plague
    these creatures who live in "but it's not my cat" purgatory.  And if
    it's not your cat, then convenience, not commitment, is the guiding
    light.
    
    Moving?  Going on vacation?  Reseeding the lawn?  Then abandon or
    relinquish the cat, because he's not yours anyway.  Some might argue
    that feeding these homeless cats is an act of kindness.  I disagree. 
    Unless one assumes the full burden of pet ownership--and, yes, it is a
    burden at times--feeding strays simply perpetuates the misery of feline
    overpopulation and disease.
    
    The kindest act one can do for these cats, if all attempts to find
    their ownders have failed, is to take them to a shelter.  Take the
    fluffy orange kitten with the sweet meow now, before time turns him
    into an unadoptable tomcat.  Take the young female cat in heat now,
    while only one life hangs in the balance.
    
    If, for whatever reason, you won't or can't take a stray cat to an
    animal shelter, then good conscience demands that you face the onus of
    pet ownership head on.
    
    If you feed her, fix her.  Vaccinate her.  Allow her into your heart. 
    In short, make a commitment.
    
    --
    
    If you have concerns about feral or unowned cats in your area, want to
    know fo the nearest low-cost spay and neuter facility or want to adopt
    a homeless kitty, call our cat line at 408-929-CATS.

    All cats are my cats... I try at least. I whined a bit
    reading -1 and do not like humans now again very much... I could not
    behave like them.
    
    Nat, :) and :( both.
    
                                          

    
    Well said, Nat.
    
    len (who's too often ashamed of being "human").
    

    I agree to a certain extent with the article, but do want to point out
    that these ARE feral cats and so not as easy to care for as pet cats.
    
    You may have read elsewhere of the battle I had to get Napoleon to the
    vet to be castrated. He hasn't been vaccinated and I really wonder
    whether I could ever manage to do it after the effort it took to get
    him to the vet the first time. 
    I may need to move away in the near future. I'm very worried about what
    to do with him. Should I take him with me? He hates that carrier. If I
    took him, I couldn't keep him in for a week or two to get him used to
    his surroundings - he's a feral and would hate to be shut up. What
    happens if he runs away and I never see him again? 
    Should I leave him? Who will feed him? None of my neighbours are keen
    on him. He's a battered old tom, not a pretty little kitten. 
    Then there's the question of cost. Napoleon is the fifth stray I've had
    in the last year or so. I'm well aware that others look after more than
    this. It's a sad fact of life that there are hundreds of stray cats out
    there and the shelters are bursting at the seams.

    -.1> Should I take him with me? He hates that carrier. 
    
    While I don't like to make kitties uncomfortable or annoyed either, IMO
    a trip in the carrier is not the worst thing that could happen to him.
    
       > If I took him, I couldn't keep him in for a week or two to get 
         him used to his surroundings - he's a feral and would hate to be 
         shut up.
    
    You mean you don't *want* to keep him in for a week or two.  He'd hate
    to be shut up?  How would he feel about a sudden end to his food
    supply, and subsequent emaciation and disease?
    
    By feeding a feral you have painted yourself (and him) into a corner. 
    I sympathize--but that's why I don't feed ferals, with the exception of
    substituting for Roberta by feeding JJ one weekend.
    
    Leslie 

    I'm finding just how big my responsibility is to the cats I've been
    feeding in my neighborhood right now.  I'm moving next weekend.  I've
    taken the 4 cats I've been feeding into my house now to get them used
    to the fact that they'll be indoor once I get moved.  Prior to the 
    move plans they were going to be able to stay outside until I found
    them homes.
    
    I'm not supposed to have more than 4 cats in my new apartment (or my
    current one for that matter).  This is going to be a real challenge.  
    So far Dolly has managed to get out twice (once slipping by my feet, 
    once pushing the window screen out).  I think Torbie followed her.  
    I haven't found her yet but expect her to be back for her evening meal 
    tonight.  I found Dolly this morning patiently waiting on the patio for 
    her breakfast.  I'm surprised Torbie left, she seemed more content to be 
    inside than Joey did (he didn't make the escape).  Ashlar doesn't seem 
    to care either way for the most part.
    
    Anyway, 8 cats in 640 square feet is a challenge, especially with 
    packing going on.  And, litterbox maintenance has become a major chore
    But, it's the only thing I can do at this point since I'm committed to 
    caring for these guys...after all, I did make them dependent on me for 
    their next meal.  
    
    I'm still at a loss on what to do with the 1 or 2 other cats that
    used to come by occasionally.  I know that other people in the complex
    leave food out (heck, most of their cats are outdoors...and are
    possibily being fostered by me...:^) so I'm pretty sure they'll have 
    food, but, I may end up coming back for Li'l Red after I get 1 or 2 of 
    the others placed in their new homes.
    
    Ah, the joys of being a cat lover...
    
    Jan
                                         

    re .139
                                     
    Well, I was ready to write a very stroppy note, but I've left it a
    while and thought better of it.
    
    Please don't judge my motives like that. I have no intention of ever
    abandoning Napoleon and, as you'll appreciate if you've been following 
    my notes about him, I'm scarcely likely to let him claw me to ribbons 
    getting him to the vet, then totally dump him (although maybe that 
    might be considered to be a good reason :-)) 
    Really, I love him! I wouldn't leave him to starve any more than I
    would leave one of my own, but I DO have the consideration of what on
    earth I can do about it.
    I entered my previous note to try and put the other side of the story
    in. I wonder how many of these people agonise over their decision to
    hand a cat in because they can't look after it? Would you be equally
    brutal with someone who found themselves unable to afford to keep
    looking after a feral? Or physically unable to manage?
    I WOULD appreciate some opinions on what I can do with him, how to get
    him from A to B, how to keep him in B once I've got him there (and
    shutting him in may well be an impossibility -I don't even have interior 
    doors, except in the bathroom). Taking him to the vet was truly a 
    nightmare - this time, if I take him, there's a trip of 30+ miles in 
    heavy traffic (at least an hour's journey). 
    I also have the option of selling the house or renting it ONLY to
    someone who would take on Napoleon as well. It's been done here before.
    
    If you feel that taking Napoleon is the best thing I can do, then I
    appreciate your opinion and would welcome any ideas on how to achieve
    this. I don't think the additional comments were entirely necessary, 
    though.

    
    Re several of the previous - somewhere recently I read an article
    titled "It's Not My Cat" or something like that, about the
    responsibility implicit in taking care of ferals, and the attempt to
    bound it by finally saying "but it's not really *my* cat".
    
    Interesting reading.
    
    len.
    

    There was a story on the news tonight about a woman who went into
    her neighbors apartment and searched through thick smoke for 5 cats.
    There was a fire in a nearby apartment.  She knew the owner wasn't
    home.  She and her friend tore the place apart looking for the hiding
    cats.  They managed to rescue all of them.  And, the apartment did not
    suffer any fire damage.  However, the rescuer is sick from smoke 
    inhalation now and can't work.  
    
    She said she didn't even think about the danger she just knew that 
    with all that smoke the cats would not survive until their owners
    returned home.
    
    The local Humane Society has started a trust fund for this woman to 
    help with her expenses while she recovers.  Their spokesperson said
    that in an age where many people won't lift a finger to help a another
    person, this person risked her life to save animals.  They feel she
    deserves their support/assistance for her efforts. 
    
    Jan

    My best wishes for that lady and special thanks to her.
    BTW, maybe I would not care for humans (inc. me), but for CATS???!!!
    
    Nat :^)

    
    Thats wonderful.. God Bless her!
    
    SueJ

    I heard on the radio today that a couple of navy men have been 
    convicted of felony animal cruelty.  Seems that they killed a cat 
    while at a party.  I didn't hear all of the details in the story
    but I got the impression that they beat the cat until it was dead.
    I could just cry.
    
    They can be sentenced to up to 3 years in prison for this crime.
    
    If I could make the decision, I'd go for the 3 years in prison 
    and then finish it off with having them suffer through the same 
    treatment they inflicted on the cat.  If they survive, they're
    free.  If not, well...
    
    Sorry guys, eye-for-an-eye punishment for this type of crime seems
    suitable to me.  I loathe people who can be so cruel to animals.
    
    Jan 

    Re: .146
    The newscasters interviewed one of the morons and he (the
    moron) kept saying it was "an error in judgement" while he
    was drinking.  Here's hoping for the maximum sentence and a
    dishonorable discharge.
    

    I hope he gets it too.  A simular thing happened here in Michigan last
    year the guy got 5 years in prison.  Sometimes justice works.
    
    Dennis

    When I was in the Navy some guys put a stray cat in a commercial spin
    dryer on the ship. When I found out about it, it was too late. I
    couldn't figure out exactly who(m) had done it. If I had I would have
    beaten the xxxx out of the guys involved. That story still bugs me 20
    years later. If I had only been able to figure out who they were......
    
    Hurting innocent creatures makes me see red.
    
    Jeff

re .150

I know Sharon.  I'm on a long term assignment at her company and I've helped
her as much as I can over the last year or so.  The article is absolutely on
target in its description of her; she is a manic Flying Nun on a mission.  My
family has been very concerned about her since she is so addicted to cats that
she can't take care of herself.  Food, vet bills for her own cats, tires, gas,
etc. are all a struggle for her.  But she's very proud.  You'll notice the 
article only asks for help for her cats.  If anyone wants to help Sharon, send
me mail and I'll get involved.  She's a vegetarian so non-perishable people 
food that doesn't contain animal products would go a long way toward improving
her health.  She has very sallow (sp) skin and bags under her eyes for days.

			SQ

    Reprinted without permission from San Jose Mercury News, July 19, 1995
    
    SO MANY CATS,   |  Woman's time, funds go to 300 
    SO LITTLE TIME  |  feral felines
    
    by Jim Puzzanghera
    Mercury News Staff Writer
    
    [Picture of Sharon Wills hugging one of about 300 wild cats she
     looks after, spending six to eight hours a day making her rounds 
     spending more than $1,000 a month on cat food]
    
    ROCKY THE CAT was waiting.  So was Oscar.
    
    They had silently crept out of the brush surrounding an Atherton 
    school, watching for the only human they trust -- the only human more
    than 300 wild cats on the Peninsula trust.
    
    Sharon Wills swears that Rocky and Oscar, emissaries of a group of
    about 11 cats at the school, can hear her white Honda Civic drive up 
    each night.  They are her favorites, the only ones amoung 30 or so wild
    cat colonies whom she treats to canned food, not dry.  They are among
    the only group of cats who've warmed up enough to let her cuddle and
    play with them.  And they are among the hundreds of furry reasons that
    Wills, a drug researcher, finds herself facing bankruptcy after 10
    years of feeding and caring for the cats nobody else wants.
    
    Each day, she races to more than two dozen feeding spots from Atherton
    to Santa Clara.  And trying to balance it with her full-time job has
    led her to develop quite a system.
    
    At the Atherton school, for instance, Wills makes up seven plates of
    food next to a dumpster so she can immediately toss the smelly cans
    away.  Then, to avoid spills in her car, ,she carefully places the
    plates on the roof of her Civic and slowly drives 300 yards to the
    palm-shaded spot the cats call home.
    
    "I know I live a very abnormal live," Wills said.
    
    So while she has taken it on herself to rescue wild cats -- trapping
    them, getting them spayed or neutered, finding homes for the tamer ones
    and making sure the rest have food and fresh water -- her friends now
    are trying to rescue her.  A sweet 40-year-old woman with the manic
    charm of "The Flying Nun," Wills is gripped by an obsession that has
    depleted her bank account and consumed her life.  She spends six to
    eight hours a day making her daily rounds, and drops more than $1,000 a
    month on cat food.
    
    "She comes in just dragging, looking really tired.  We know she's not
    eating right," said Mark Macy, a friend and owner of the Pet Place in
    Menlo Park, a store that donates some cat food to Wills.  Macy and the
    Palo Alto Humane Society, which has a new program to help wild cats,
    are trying to find volunteers to take over the feeding and caring for
    some of Wills' colonies.
    
    "She's a wonderful person but we'd like to help her out," said Laura
    Pitts, who is coordinating Palo Alto Humane Society's Cat-Works
    program, one of several in the Bay Area that helps care for wild, or
    feral, cats.  So far, volunteers have taken over three of Wills'
    colonies.  But she needs much more help.
    
    'In over my head'
    
     "It's just so overwhelming, I'm in over my head," Wills said.  "I
    can't even afford to eat or buy clothes or do anything.  I wake up in
    the morning hoping I can make it through the day."
    
    It all started so innocently 10 years ago.  One of Wills' five cats at
    the time, Sylvester, disappeared from outside her Palo Alto apartment. 
    She began desperately searching, putting up fliers and visiting local
    humane societies and animal shelters.  People directed her to several
    colonies of stray cats where she could check for Sylvester.  She never
    found him, but she discovered something else -- hundreds of cats living
    on the fringes of suburbia.
    
    "I don't think people are truly aware of the volume of kitties that are
    out there," said Wills.  "People think they do fine on their own
    because they're hunters, but it's truly not a consistent diet."
    
    There are no hard estimates on the number of cats who have reverted to
    their untamed instincts after either being abandoned or born in the
    wild.  For example, the Peninsula Humane Society, which covers San
    Mateo County, had 5,789 stray and feral cats brought in to them in
    1994, only a portion of the feral cats roaming the country.
    
    The cats distrust humans and usually are hard to domesticate.  They
    find homes near restaurant dumpsters or on the sprawling grounds of
    schools or corporate complexes, where management often discourages
    their feeding and tries to trap and remove them.  But the fiew studies
    done on wild cat colonies have shown that cats who are removed from
    them are just replaced by other feral cats.  The best way to deal with
    the problem, some animal experts say, is to have the cats fixed so they
    can't reproduce, get them vaccinated against deadly feline leukemia and
    feline AIDS, and return to the colony the ones that can't be adopted.
                                                                       
    Cost of fixing cats
    
    Wills has her own traps, and the first thing she does with a new colony
    is catch the cats and get them fixed -- another expense that has eaten
    into the earnings from her job at Roche Bioscience of Palo Alto,
    formerly Syntex Corp.
    
    The money was flowing last Friday -- Wills' payday.  She cashed her
    check at the Sharon Heights Shopping Center in Menlo Park and headed
    straight to Safeway, where she loaded two 20-pound bags of Friskies and
    one bag of Whiskas into a shopping cart.  She's a regular at the
    supermarket, which is on her daily route, and a cashier handed her a
    coupon to use on the Friskies.  Her total bill was $36, and she
    practically emptied the bags in the next two hours.
    
    Wills threw the food into her hatchback, which is littered with empty
    cat food bags, and raced off through Palo Alto.  She stopped a few
    times at feeding locations along Arastradero Road, then in an isolated
    part of Woodside before heading to a couple of restaurant dempsters
    along El Camino Real.  She has put 80,000 miles on her car in the past
    three years.
    
    "People keep telling me I should try to get wiht an organization, but
    who has the time?"  Wills said in her out-of-breath, staccato style. 
    There are so many domesticated cats awaiting adoption at humane
    societies and shelters, she said, that the best place for the cats she
    feeds is in the wild -- with regular feedings by her.  She has managed
    to get some litters of feral kittens adopted, and estimates she has had
    75 cats euthanized because of illness over the past 10 years.
    
    Avoiding security guards
    
    At most of her spots, Wills has feeding trays made of cardboard boxes
    and uses big plastic bowls for waterd, usually hidden in the brush.  At
    the places where management doesn't want her feeding cats, she times
    her trips to avoid security guards.
    
    She admits this is all very eccentric and neurotic.  She lives in a
    converted garage in Menlo Park with seven cats, including two feral
    ones she has adopted.  She gets home about 9 or 10 p.m. after doing all
    her feeding.  And she doesn't have the heart to turn her back on people
    who hear about her and call with new locations.
    
    "I go to bed at night, and my heart is just breaking that they're going
    hungry," she said of the wild cats.  "It seems like a lot of people are
    willing to help and call, but when it comes down to it, they don't want
    the responsibility.  It's a huge commitment."
    
    At the Atherton school, she carefully unloaded the plates of cat food
    from her roof and placed them on the grass.  Rocky and Oscar started
    eating as some of the other cats emerged -- Hershey, Tiny, Silly, Oreo
    and Mr. Whiskers.  Most people just call them strays.  Wills gives them
    names.  She sat down in the grass and stroked them as they ate.
    
    If I could have a bazillion dollars, I'd have a pet refuge somewhere,"
    she said.  "A million acres for dogs and cats."
    
    IF YOU'RE INTERESTED
    
    Anyone willing to learn how to feed wild cats and take over some of
    Will's colonies can call her at (415) 855-6346, or Laura Pitts at
    CatWorks (415) 327-0631.

    Wow...amazing!   I don't know Sharon...but I love her already.
    Would it be possible to send me her address...I'd love to write 
    her a letter!  Anyone who can even attempt to take on that major
    stray problem....never mind continue doing it for 10 years alone...
    has my heart, prayers and love.   I know the time and money I have
    put in to feed, rescue, spay/neuter many strays...BUT I can't
    even imagine taking on what Sharon has.
    
    I would like to suggest that we put Sharon on the list for one
    of our quarters recipients the Silver Lining Memorial.  The Silver
    Lining Memorial has donated the money to hospitals, research, cat 
    welfare groups, shelters....and I think Sharon deserves to be on
    of the recipeints.
    
    Sandy 
                                                          

    
    
    	I second that motion Sandy!
    

    Is there an address that we could send a donation to to help feed
    the cats?  If she won't take a monetary donation for herself, will
    she take one to put towards cat food, medical bills, etc?
    
    Sharon

    I was hoping someone would suggest the Silver Lining Memorial go
    to her at some point but I didn't want to be the one since I
    entered the article.
    
    There are two phone numbers at the bottom of the article.  One is
    hers, one is CatWorks.  If someone called they'd probably give an
    address.
    
    Jan

    I have her address.  It's Sharon Wills, 101 Loyola Avenue, Menlo Park,
    Calif. 94025.
    

    Re: .151
    
    Has someone pointed out to her that her own cats will suffer if
    something happens to her?
    

    p.s.  (I'm not organized today) yes, she will accept and really needs
    donations for the cat food, etc.
    

WOW!  You guys are great!  Thanks.  Yes, she absolutely will accept anything 
for the cats.  It's getting her to take things for herself that's the tough
one.  To the person who asked if anyone has pointed out that her own cats 
would suffer if anything were to happen to her, the answer is a resounding 
yes.  And she worries about it, but nothing stops her -- she's driven.  My
husband and I both think that Sharon tried people and cats, and cats won. She 
comes from a seriously dysfunctional family so the cats are all she really 
trusts.  Sharon feeds those cats when she's sick; she doesn't take vacations; 
she doesn't travel for her job (which holds her back) and the last time we 
talked about the subject of vet bills her outstanding balance was over 3k.
I've tried to give her money for simple things like gas and Taco Bell but 
she always insists on paying me back (well, I did get her to take a veggie
sandwich from Togo's once).  Sometimes when I was in the same building with 
her, I could get her to take a piece of fruit -- and always chocolate!  
She wears clothes with holes in them and has only one pair of shoes to her 
name (those came from her mother), but she hates to take charity from coworkers.
We're back in the same building again so I can check on her more often.

BTW, she had 8 cats of her own until last month when one died from FIP (and
probably complications from Diabetes).  She is really devastated by
the loss.  If you send her a card, maybe you could mention something about him.

Thanks again.

			SQ

    If anyone would like to make a donation or send a card to Sharon
    you can mail it to the following address:
    
      Palo Alto Humane Society
      c/o Sharon Wills
      PO Box 60715
      Palo Alto, CA  94306
    
    Hopefully the publicity in the paper will bring in some to help support
    the cats.  If donations can help support the cats then maybe Sharon can
    put some of her own money towards herself.
    
    If only there were more people like her...
    
    Sharon
    

    Re: .160
    
    I'm a little concerned about sending stuff to the Palo Alto Humane
    Society for Sharon;  when I called them yesterday, they tried to talk
    me into helping their efforts rather than Sharon.  (I didn't
    reach the person at the PAHS that the paper named, this was some
    random person answering the phone.)  I think sending mail to Sharon at
    her own address (a few notes back) is something that feels more
    comfortable to me.
    

    Karen,
    
    What note is Sharon's address in?  I did see her phone number but
    not an address.  I'd rather the $$ go directly to her as well.
    
    Sharon

    Her address is in .156
    

Re .159:

This may sound crass, but the woman in the article sounds very sick.
Has she ever considered therapy?

    I don't have any problem with donating the SLM funds to Sharon - even
    if she wouldn't take it for herself and used it for the cats, maybe
    we could make a "deal" - use *this* to buy the food for the cats this
    xxx (week, month) and use your own money for something SHE needs for
    herself.....

    however, the coffers of the SLM are still very slim, so if we want 
    to make this worthwhile, send those donations in !!!!!

    Debbi
    (see SLM note for address to send donations)

re. 164

>This may sound crass, but the woman in the article sounds very sick.
>Has she ever considered therapy?

Yes, Howard, she is sick and she has been urged to get therapy.  She knows
she's sick but she doesn't want to stop.  The images of hungry cats won't 
let her.  Somedays, I'd like to drag her in to see a therapist, but I can't;
she's a grown woman.  Other days, I'm sure she is St Francis of Assisi (sp) 
reincarnated and no therapy would ever help.  This is her mission in life 
and it will either destroy her or it'll be her life's blood for as long as
she lives.

			SQ

PS. Jan, her landlord is making noises about having her move since the landlord
may need the garage for live-in medical help.  Is there any group in the bay 
area that can help her find a place that will accept 7 cats?  She lived in a 
barn before the garage so she's not looking for anything fancy.

>PS. Jan, her landlord is making noises about having her move since the landlord
>may need the garage for live-in medical help.  Is there any group in the bay 
>area that can help her find a place that will accept 7 cats?  She lived in a 
>barn before the garage so she's not looking for anything fancy.
    
    I don't know of any group that will help find apartments for people
    with pets.  If I think of anything, I'll let you know.  7 cats is a 
    lot though (I should talk, I have 8).  Santa Clara County limit is 2.  
    Do you know about how much rent she pays?  Perhaps we could keep our 
    eyes and ears open for something in a similar price range.
    
    I think there's a group up in the San Mateo area call Pet Network. 
    They find homes for cats.  I'm wondering if anyone in that group 
    might give a pointer to some housing.
    
    The place I live was okay with me moving in with 4 cats.  I sprung
    the 4 fosters on them at the last minute and they okayed it since 
    I told them I was looking for homes for the fosters (which all came
    from the old complex that they also managed at one time).  
    Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), I 
    still have all 8.  I'm not sure if they realize that or not.
    
    Jan
                       

    Apartment and cottage ads in the papers here often say pets okay.  7
    cats is over the legal limit (3) for Palo Alto, but I think the police
    don't enforce the limit unless neighbors complain.  She might have
    better luck in "the hills" in terms of her animals being accepted.
    

    Re:  .165  
    
    There's also the option of putting the SLM money towards paying some
    of her huge vet bill (if we can find out which vet is carrying her).
    
    Jan

    re. 159 and others. My 2 cents.
    
    We need to point out, that if Sharon takes something for herself, it is
    for her cats. If she gives everything to the cats, she'll suffer, and
    she is THE possibility for all her cats, sho in some point she is even
    more important than the cats. I know it sounds funny (and my English is
    not wellskilled enough to put into words what I mean) but I am sure you
    understand what I mean. We have to move her to accept things for
    herself, for tuning up back herself HELPS THE CATS.
    
    Nat

re .169

>    There's also the option of putting the SLM money towards paying some
>    of her huge vet bill (if we can find out which vet is carrying her).
    
If you'd like to do this, she goes to:

Hemingway Cat Hospital
12840 S. Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd
Saratoga, CA  95070  
408-741-4844

She still owes Dr. Hertzel 2 grand.

		SQ

	This is incredible, what Sharon is doing.  However, at the same time
	I wonder if it isn't causing the feral population to multiply at the
	same time.  Unless she's able to neuter and spay all the fertile
	kitties, feeding them means they'll have more energy to reproduce.
	I know this sounds very cruel, and I don't like to see anything suffer,
	but there's a little voice in me that's setting off an alarm when I
	read this string.

	Laura

	On to a different topic of cats in the news.  I read in the San Jose
Mercury News last night (Pets on page 2 of the Living section) that the movie
"Nine Months" doesn't handle the issue of cats/pregnant women very well.  I
haven't seen the movie so I don't know first hand, but according to the 
article, concerned friends bring up the issues of suffocation of the infant by 
the cat and toxoplasma(sp?) - the illness you can get from cat feces in the
latter stages of pregnancy.  The movie doesn't discuss the issues and come up
with intelligent solutions -- the 16 yr old cat just disappears.  I'm furious.
I know it's just a movie, but it sends a bad message.

			SQ

    Not only that, but in one scene Hugh Grant is (reluctantly) at a party,
    and while everyone dances he's sitting on the sidelines with a cat on
    his lap, comfortably into a patting session.  Along comes a siren who
    wants to dance with hugh; she *heaves* the cat in a big arc--so far that
    the cat lands offscreen.  Hugh looks mildly upset but doesn't attend to
    the cat; he allows himself to be dragged onto the dance floor.
    
    Harrumph,
    Leslie

    Actually I know a vet who saw the movie and was so upset, she
    is writing a letter to the production company.
    
    What upset her most was the way they dealt with the Toximoplas
    (sp) and stating the only solution was to get rid of the cat.
    It's messages like this that people assume are true, even
    though the movie is a comedy!!!
    
    Sandy

    Really.  Haven't these people ever heard of kitty box liners, or rubber
    gloves?
    
    Leslie

    
    For all you spelling fanatics, it's toxoplasmosis.
    
    len.
    

    Terrible is, that movies make people handle, so a bad movie can result
    in bad handling.
    
    Another thing. Yesterday in the Teletext News I saw:
    
    "The house cat named 'Ugly Sister' saved a whole family in China in a
    small town Beiling (not Beijing=Peking, the capital). In the night the
    cat sensed somehow that the house shall collapse, waked the man and the
    wife and the children by tearing at they pyjamas and hitting them and
    meowing loudly until all got wake and then they saw the house walls
    beginning to move, so the man took the cat under arm and all they ran
    outside, just as the house collapsed. Nobody is harmed."

    Seen this morning on the TV news about a cat stuck in an abandoned
    municipal incinerator building near Boston (Wellesly seems to come to
    mind).  Seems the cat fell down into a fairly deep pit fully surrounded
    on all four sides with cement walls, and the bottom was pretty deep in
    this black, mucky looking oooze!  The locals called a group of
    firefighters whose job is called "high risk rescue".  They mentioned
    this group even gets cats out of trees!
    
    The men rappelled down the cement wall with ropes and pulley. You should 
    have seen this one firefighter trying to catch the critter, who was
    scared outof his wits, running from one end of the pit to the other,
    while the firefighter was tethered to the rope.  They did finally catch
    it, with the help of some food.  It looked fairly OK, definitely had a
    good set of lungs on it!  It was put in a cage and checked by "a local
    vet" who said it was in pretty good shape.
    
    It has been named, but just like ruining a good punchline, I can't
    remember what they called it, but it was appropriate to the experience!
    
    Details as I get them, maybe WBZ-tv will rebroadcast it tonite at 6??
    
    Lyn 

Wasn't the kitty named "Pitfall" or something like that?  I saw the broadcast
too, and thought it was a wonderful rescue story.  

    Yup, that's it PITFALL!  Thanks.   But Oh what a set of lungs on the
    critter!!
    

    Is the actual name of this group "high risk rescue"?
    
    H

    As conversations go around here, it's been a large topic of
    conversation!  Guess I wasn't the only one who saw it.
    
    NO I'm not sure that's the actual name.  But I did get the impression
    it is part of the/or some local Fire Department.  The men wore bright
    orange t-shirts and camoflauge(sp) pants and like combat boots.  NOt
    the normal firefighter attire.
    
    I'm married to a firefighter, and he wouldn't even acknowledge that
    this sort of thing would be done by anyone related to a fire service.
    (Some sort of ego thing I think!)  But he loves ALL they boys just as
    much as I do, sometimes I think even more!!  He's the first one to
    worry when Barney doesn't come home on time, or one of the boys doesn't
    seem up to snuff!
    
    

    
    On the British News this morning was a story about 15 lions being shot
    dead by police after escaping from a private wildlife park.
    Can't remember where exactly but somewhere in the States.f
    
    Was this really necessary?  Could they not have been tranquilized?
    It just seems such a waste of life!!
    
    Kirsty

    
    Yes, that is very sad, I think the number was 16 cats. They said that
    they did not have access to Tranquilizer guns and had no other 
    choice. I forget where it happened, I think it was Idaho or Ohio 
    some stat like that. 
    
    Shaw

    Yes, I believe it was Idaho.  A sad, sad story and certainly a waste.
    Reminds me of the moose they killed a couple of years ago in MA. 
    People were up in arms about that and I believe even the govenor 
    "scolded" the police for killing the animal.  There have got to be
    alternatives to killing!  There's just got to be.
    
    - Lauri
    

    
    The owner of the lions is apparently a bit of a flake, but it's hard to
    justify killing 16 cats.  The news footage this morning was very
    disturbing, seeing all these dead lions lying around.  They claim the
    officers involved were threatened by the cats.  All of them?  All the
    time?  I suppose if you have a gun, it's easier to shoot than it is to
    run.  The spokesman kept referring to the lions being "terminated".
    
    I think I'll go throw up.
    
    len.
     

    Yes, this is appalling.  Sometimes people don't even take the
    time to think.
    

    I heard this story on the radio this morning.  The DJ that read the
    story suggested that maybe the owner of the cats should have been 
    shot as well.  I think I agree.
    

re .189

>    I heard this story on the radio this morning.  The DJ that read the
>    story suggested that maybe the owner of the cats should have been 
>    shot as well.  I think I agree.

  The best idea I've heard all day!!

  The owners are always one step ahead of the law; they keep moving before the 
authorities can shut them down.  Until this time anyway -- the animals who are
still alive are being transferred to a wild-life refuge in Southern Cal I think.

  I know school children were kept home, so I don't see why the police 
couldn't wait for the vets to arrive with tranquilizers.  I also don't 
understand why police don't have tranquilizers on hand for emergencies like
this one.

			SQ

    What I heard was that the 16 cats escaped from this guy's compound
    and were loose all over town thru the night.  Some were hybrids -
    is what the news said!!  
    
    Still, I can't believe that in an area that may have to contend with
    mountain lions or stray bears ... that they didn't have a tranquilizer
    gun/supplies?!
                                         
    Sue

    I saw a story on the news last night that some of the remaining big
    cats have been transported to a new location (near San Diego, I think).
    They will have a new enclosure built and will have their health
    problems looked after and will be cared for in a manner that is much
    more humane.
    
    The woman who arranged this is an animal expert.  She described lions
    who had their claws grow so long they're growing back into the pads,
    etc.  It looks like they'll be cared for much better from here on out.
    
    Jan

    
    In yesterday's San Jose Mercury news, I saw a letter written to 
    Percy Ross (millionaire who runs a weekly column and give $ to 'people'
    in need). It was regarding Sharon Willis and all her hard work feeding
    strays (see note 302.150).  He answered by saying he was mailing her 
    a check for $1000 to help her cover expenses for a month... I smiled!
    
    Becky
    
    

YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

    
    
    
    	clap, clap, clap, clap, clap !!
    

    *THAT* is why I wished to be rich.

	This article was sent to me by my great-aunt, it looks
    	like it came from the Enquirer.. But, it's a great story!
    
    	Sherry
    
    
Tootie the "miracle cat" got lost 450 miles from home - and WALKED all 
the way from Florida to Virginia in four months to rejoin her loving 
owners!

"It sounds incredible but it's true. I know because as Tootie's veterinarian
I treated her regularly for five years", said Dr. Chris Harman.

"When she finally made it back home her paw pads were worn out and she'd
lost half her weight - but she was the same old Tootie!"  Before her 
astonishing escapade, the yellow bobtailed cat had traveled each year 
with owners Marion and Richard Smith between Virginia and Florida. "We
spend spring, summer, and fall running our campground in Willis, Va, and
spend our winters near St. Petersburg, Fla.", said Marion, 40. "In all,
Tootie made eight trips with us. We always follow the same route and stop
at the same gas stations and restaurants. And we believe that routine saved
Tootie's life."

On April 6, the Smiths were traveling north near Jacksonville, Fla, when they
pulled over on the side of the highway with car trouble. The next thing they
knew, they had cat troubles. "A truck jackknifed on the road and slammed 
into my parked Toyota truck", said Marion, who was standing outside the 
vehicle with her husband at the time. "The Toyota was knocked off the highway
and down a bank. The roof flew off in one chunk. Tootie had been sleeping -
and she went out with the roof. No one was injured, but the Toyota was totaled -
and Tootie vanished. For four hours we scoured the area looking for her. We
left flyers with our phone number in nearby gas stations and restaurants, 
and even took ads in the local newspapers telling people how we could be
contacted. Then, reluctantly, we went on our way to Virginia."

Over the next few months the Smiths continued to run ads in the Jacksonville
area, hoping for news about Tootie, but heard nothing. They'd nearly given up
when, on the morning of August 2, a miracle happened! "I was outside our 
house when I heard a familiar meowing coming from a tree. I looked up and there
was Tootie lodged in a fork of the tree! I knew it was her instantly because
of her markings and the sound of her voice. I couldn't believe it! She was
straggly and dirty and her poor little feet were completely worn out. But she
was alive. And she was home!"

Said Dr. Harman, "Tootie's homing instinct kicked in when she was separated
from the Smiths. She was determined to be reunited with her owners." Added
Marion, "Tootie the miracle cat is with us again - 450 miles and four months
later!"
              

    I know we would all like to think it's the people that the cat misses,
    but I am convinced it's the building that cats like.
    
    Back in the forties we lived in a flat in a two story house, we moved
    in, the cat was there, no-body knew where he came from, he was just
    there. When my Father came home from the army we moved into a new house
    and took him with us, every two day's he went missing, on the third day
    we would get a call from where we used to live, he had gone home, this
    went on for about three months before the lady of the house said, leave
    him here, come and visit.
    He was a big black Tom that was very happy to see you (for a while, now
    go home and let me sleep) who lived for a very long time but that house
    was his and he only put up with the people that lived there.
    
    But of course we catered to his every whim :-)

  I don't think old Murray Frymer will ever recover from his faux pas (pun 
intended).  Murray is a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News and in his 
Saturday column he wrote about old Hershey, his 17 year old cat who had been 
banished to the garage.  Hershey's great crime?  Hairballs on the new carpet.
The garage is cold and has no windows and Hershey was used to having the run 
of the house.

WELL!!  I've never written to a newspaper columnist before but I HAD to write 
in defense of poor old Hershey.  It seems I wasn't the only one.  This story 
has a good ending.  Yesterday's column was written by Hershey.  Hershey is 
back in the house and Ol' Mur (Hershey's pet name for Murray) is still 
staring vacantly out the window trying to figure out what hit him.  Apparently,
Murray's daughter who lives in New York heard about Hershey's plight and also 
joined in the clamor to bring the kitty back in from the cold.  Some readers 
were less than kind and told Murray what he could do with his overpriced 
carpet.  Others offered helpful suggestions.  I admit I wanted to use several
expletives but I overcame my base desires and kept my e-mail clean.  I suppose 
the fair thing to do now is send Mur a new message congratulating him on his 
return to common sense.

				SQ

    If I get an okay from the Murky News, I will post both columns here.
    

    	** Pulled over from another file.  I saw this story on 	
    	** CNN over the weekend.  They were so cute!  The radiation
    	** levels are getting lower by the day.
    
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WhiteBoard News for Friday, February 09, 1996 [excerpts]

==========

San Diego, California:

As anyone who has ever tried to keep a cat from
sleeping on the couch or messing with the flower garden
can attest, cats roam wherever they want.  And that
extends to the guarded San Onofre nuclear power plant
with its barbed-wire fences, metal detectors and guards
with automatic weapons.

Which brings up the mother cat which slipped under the
security fence and gave birth to four black kittens. 
The 3-week-old kittens were found last week and
employees tried to carry them off the grounds.  But the
bells and whistles that indicate radiation contamination
went off when the cats were being taken through what are
called the "portal contamination monitors."

Tests showed the kittens had high levels of cesium and
cobalt, both radioactive elements.  Washing helped
reduce the levels but not enough, so the kittens -- by
this time named Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Neutron -- were
taken to a special area run by the health physics
specialists who deal with contamination cases.  The
kittens are being fed by an eyedropper and reportedly
are mewing with contentment.  As for Mom, her
whereabouts are unknown.
==========

    By now everyone must have seen the news story about the momma kitty
    in New York who made 5 trips into an abandoned building that was on 
    fire to rescue her 5 kittens.
    
    The firefighters were just amazed at her determination when they
    realized what she was doing.  They took her and her kittens over to 
    North Shore Animal League for medical care.  The prognosis for 4 of
    the kittens is very good.  They were concerned about possible lung
    damage but the kittens are doing fine.  They're a bit concerned over
    the runt of the litter and have classified him as "guarded" condition.
    Mom is in pretty bad shape.  By her last trip out she was pretty badly
    burned.  Her fur is singed badly enough that they're not sure of her
    actual color and, her eyes are blistered shut.  They're not sure what
    her actual prognosis is.  They can't get her eyes open just yet since
    they're so swollen.
    
    They've named her Scarlett and they've already had over 700 calls
    asking to adopt either her or the kittens.
    
    I have a copy of the article with some details if anyone is interested
    in more info.
    
    Jan

    
    I saw the kittens feeding on the news. Color - the litter is a
    mix bunch, a couple light color, one black and white, and one
    seal point Siamese type, it was a quick glimpse, so don't hold me
    to it, but there was definitely a pointed kitten. I hope mom
    recovers.
    
    Eva 

    
    I saw the pointed kitten on the news lastnight.  I have a very unusual
    pointed "tabby"  she is the most beautiful cat.  She is 14 now, and I
    know when it's her time - I'll never be able to replace her, but I was
    hoping someday I could get another pointed tabby that looked like her.
    
    So when I saw the pointed stray - I wanted it very bad!
    
    My cat was raised by a lynx (belived to be 1/2 lynx) and she had
    a bad herina when she was rescued by Buddy Dog - we had to get her fix. 
    So I thought I'd never be able to find another one that looked like
    her.
    
    but after seeing the news lastnight - I just might :-)
    
    Lou 

    I read that on the online San Jose Mercury News, but they don't
    believe in pictures, sigh.
    

    Karen,
    
    There's a picture of mom and one of the vets from North Shore on page
    4A in today's Murky News.  It's in the morning edition.  Don't know if
    they reprinted it in the afternoon edition.  I "borrowed" my copy from 
    the allergy shot station while I was there this morning. :^)
    
    Jan

    I read in last night's paper that the mother cat had opened her eyes,
    and they expect her to regain her vision as she heals.  Spunky little
    critter!  They had a picture of her too but not a good enough one that
    you could see much of what she looked like other than that her ears
    were singed.
    
    /Charlotte

    That's great news about her eyes!
    
    Funny, our local news station had a quick blurb on and I haven't seen 
    anything more about it from them.  I got most of my information from 
    the 1:00am replay of Inside Edition who did a nice story about it with 
    interviews with one of the firefighters and the vet.  I was pleasantly 
    surprised.  
    
    Jan (who was in tears as she watched that story)

    Reprinted from a column in the San Jose Mercury News 4/9/96 without
    permission.
    
    
    TWO CATS' TALES SHOW TWO SIDES OF HUMANS
    by Linda Goldston
    Animal Friends
    
    Accompanying picture is of Scarlet.  Caption says:
    FELINE HEROINE  A badly burned Scarlet at a New York animal
    shelter after retrieving her kittens from a burning building,
    her eyes blistered shut by flames and smoke.
    
    --
    I can't get heroes and villains off my mind today.
    
    In New York, Scarlet the cat is still recovering from injuries
    she sustained rescuing her five kittens from a fire.
    
    In Texas, people are still rallying behind the four high school
    baseball players who stuffed Tiger the cat in a feed bag, took
    turns beating her with a baseball bat and then drove over her with
    a truck.
    
    Both incidents make me want to cry.
    
    The first because the image of a mama cat making five trips back 
    inside a burning building to save her babies is so touching.
    
    The second because Tiger was just a stray trying to make her way.
    News reports said she liked to hang out at Koym Field, home of the
    East Bernard High School Brahmas, where she made friends with some
    of the fans and salvaged scraps of food.
    
    Scarlet did what any good mother would do but was so badly burned
    after her heroics that it was hard to determine her original color--
    or see her eyes, blistered shut by flames and smoke.
    
    The shelter at the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, N.Y.,
    has received more than 1,000 calls from people offering to help or to
    adopt Scarlet and her five singed babies.
    
    It's too late for Tiger, but I have a feeling Scarlet would have tried
    to rescue her in Texas, too, if she could.
    
    But where were all the people who could have prevented the stray's 
    brutal death, who might have taken the 3-year-old gray-striped tabby
    home before four full-of-themselves boys decided to kill Tiger for
    fun?
    
    They apparently aren't in East Bernard, Texas.  Supporters of the boys
    there were so upset over the superintendent's decision to kick them
    off the baseball team that someone killed and dumped two other cats
    on the superintendent's front yard.
    
    Some might call that Texas-style justice.  I call it Texas-style 
    stupidity -- and cruelty -- but I know it isn't confined to the Lone
    Star State.
    
    In the Bay Area, we've had people killing stray kittens with a high-
    tech bow and arrow, setting animals on fire and using sweet, tame dogs
    to train pit bulls to kill.
    
    What does it say about us that such things go on?  What does it hold
    for the future that so many people see nothing wrong:  "They're just
    animals," we often hear, or "All this over a damn cat, a damn stray,"
    one man said in East Bernard, Texas.
    
    If Tiger had survived, would 1,000 people have stepped forward to 
    give her a home?
    
    Probably.
    
    For some reason, it takes a tragedy to make us pay attention to the 
    plight of animals and people.  So many strays -- human and animal --
    die violently and alone every day.
    
    Yet a headline in the paper or a few seconds of footage on the nightly
    news about an abused kid or animal can enrage the nation.
    
    Is that what it takes to make us care -- a tiny slice of the problem
    we can comprehend instead of the massive numbers of throw-aways in our
    society?
    
    I'm still haunted by the pain and confusion I saw in the eyes of the 
    many adult animals I saw in the shelter at the Humane Society of
    the Santa Clara Valley before Christmas.  Obviously well-cared
    for cats and dogs, they had been someone's pets, loved members of
    someone's family for a time.
    
    And they were struggling to understand why someone kicked them out.
    
    Scarlet did her part in New York.  What can we do here?
    --
    
    Linda Goldston's pets column appears 3 times a month in Living.
    Write to her at the Mercury News, 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose,
    Calif. 951909; fax (408) 271-3786; e-mail to SJFeatures@aol.com.
     
    

    Re. -1/2
    
    As I often said, I hate humans.
    
    Can't you solve the problem of those highscoolers? 
    I would suggest for instance a Jericho/.50" straight in the head of
    each.
    
    Sorry.
    
    I did not need this... You are right put all these in here, but can't
    you please make a sticker: "Nat don't read this note", saving me from
    moderator's blamings? For she should blame me for this note (and delete
    it) but I could not help.
    
    Nat
    
    PS I am not a macho. I am not sure I did it right. But as I saw a 'kid'
    (17 years) torturing a momcat with burning her with matches, my lights went
    out and I broke him four ribs with one kick. The cat is fine (years ago
    this happened and I get wet palms today yet) and right or not I would
    do it again...
        

    
    
    	I saw that note posted in another file this morning.
    	Could only read half of it.  Couldn't bear to read the
    	rest.
    
    	It sickens me that people hurt animals in the name of
    	"fun".
    

    
    Nat,
    	Don't feel bad for saying what you feel, because most of us
    who read your note feel the same way, we just let you talk for us!
    It would drive me over the edge if I saw an animal being abused,
    lets just hope that PMS isn't setting in at the time! I would
    pity the poor fool!
    				Sue, Bo, Mandy, Pumpkin, Crunch and Bird

    I thought the warning in the title would let people know that if
    they didn't want to read disturbing stuff that they should pass on
    by.  Guess it didn't work.
    
    For what it's worth, I think the punishment ought to fit the crime.
    An eye for an eye and all that stuff.  I'm sure if they had to endure
    what they did to that cat they might think twice before doing it 
    again (if they survived).  Certainly they should be charged with a
    crime or something.  I can't believe getting kicked off the team
    is their only punishment.
    
    Jan
    
    

    Out here there is some chance at least that they would wind
    up in jail, although not for nearly long enough.  I did a
    search on the online San Jose Mercury News, but this column
    was the only article about it.  I too can't believe that being
    kicked off the team is all that will happen.  And those poor
    other kitties.  I feel such sorrow that someone wasn't
    there to protect those cats...
    

re .210

>    PS I am not a macho. I am not sure I did it right. But as I saw a 'kid'
>    (17 years) torturing a momcat with burning her with matches, my lights went
>    out and I broke him four ribs with one kick. The cat is fine (years ago
>    this happened and I get wet palms today yet) and right or not I would
>    do it again...

Nat,        

You absolutely did the right thing.  You stopped the abuse and you taught the
rotten kid that there are consequences to evil behavior.  Obviously, his 
parents neglected that part of his education.  My kids have always known to 
respect life -- they knew what I'd do to them if they behaved badly.  Too 
many people just look the other way or don't care.  Those kids in Texas should 
do some jail time at least, although I'd rather see them get a caning like 
that kid in Singapore got for vandalism.  My rotten day just seems to be 
going downhill.

					SQ

	A few weeks ago the local (Mass) tv stations were covering a story
	about the heroic mother cat who rescued her kittens from a burning
	building.  Does anyone know how they fared ? 

       jc

    The latest I've heard is that the mother cat will be having surgery on
    her eye/eyes (not sure if its both) and that 2 of the kittens died but
    the rest are fine.  I hope the part about the kittens dying isn't true. 
    I did see the mother and her babies on CNN a couple of weeks ago, and
    they were all doing well.  The poor mother needs some work, but she
    survived.  I guess whoever has the kitties has been swamped with
    thousands of calls to adopt these babies and mother.

    FYI
    
    The note for the story about this heroic kitty starts at 302.202.  I
    went through the rest of them but didn't see any updates to her
    condition at the moment.  There were a few that stated that she *might
    be able to see* and that she was doing fine and that 1,000's of people
    volunteered to help her and her babies.  I also saw *somewhere??* that
    one of the kittens didn't make it.  It was the runt of the litter.  But
    I didn't see anything else since then either.
    
    WHAT AN AMAZING KITTY !!!!!!
    
    Sandi, mom to the Notorious Seven

    I just sent email to our local newspaper which has an online
    edition, asking if they'd run a followup story.  Time will
    tell.  Poor little kitten(s) :-(
    

    I saw a TV news thing that showed the Mom being re-united
    with her babies.   As soon as she saw them she started 
    lapping them all.
    
    They do believe she will recover, but probably will never
    have fur on her face again.
    
    Sandy 

    The North Shore Animal League has a web page about
    Scarlet and her kittens, also a picture of her and,
    apparently, the 4 surviving kittens -- as well as I can
    tell there is one white, one black, one black and white,
    and one beigeish.  Here's their report, in reverse
    chronological order, from
    
        http://www.infohouse.com/nsal/news.html#latest
    
    April 28,1996 -- Sadness and Survival
    
        Scarlett the heroic cat who rescued her litter of
        kittens from a fire has lost one of them to a virus.
        Three of the five kittens came down with the virus.
        One of them, a little white male who had apparently
        suffered the most lung damage, died on Saturday.  He
        was the kitten that was probably most exposed to fire
        and smoke of the five kittens.
    
        The other two kittens who had the virus have recovered.
        All 4 kittens are doing quite nicely.
    
    April 25,1996 -- Update On Scarlett and her Kittens
    
        Scarlett continues to improve each day.  The two
        kittens in their foster care home have been playful and
        are eating well.  The third kitten will be placed in a
        foster care home shortly.
    
        The kitten in stable condition continues to improve
        while we are cautiously optimistic about the one in
        serious condition.
    
    April 24,1996 -- Update On Scarlett's Kittens
    
        Two of the kitten's remain hospitalized for a common
        kitten virus.  This is one of the things we have been
        concerned about the whole time because of their young
        age and unknown history.  We are doing everything we
        can for them.
    
        One is in stable condition and one is currently in
        serious condition.
    
    April 23,1996 -- Update On Scarlett And Her Kittens
    
        Scarlett's condition is good.  Her wounds continue to
        heal nicely and she is becoming more playful with each
        day.
    
        Three of her kittens are currently hospitalized with a
        viral infection.  One of these kittens remains in
        critical condition but continues his improvement.  The
        prognonis is still guarded.  The other two affected
        kittens have continued to improve and are eating well.
        Tests are pending which will help assess their
        progress.
        
        The remaining two kittens continue doing well in their
        foster care home.
    
    April 19,1996 -- Introducing "Scarlett's Web" at
        http://marge.infohouse.com/NSAL/scarlett
    
        Since we have been receiving so many inquiries about
        Scarlett and her kittens, we are dedicating a Web page
        all to themselves.....Scarlett's Web!  We hope to have
        pictures of Scarlett and her kittens, updates on their
        condition and progress and more stories about heroic
        animals.
    
    April 18,1996 -- Update On Scarlett And Her Kittens
    
        The update from our Medical Center says that Scarlett
        is doing really well - and I can attest to that as I
        just saw her.  She is eating and purring and meowing.
        Her burns are healing, but hair will not grow back in
        some areas.
    
        Unfortunately, two kittens are in isolation because
        they have panleukopenia - feline distemper.  One kitten
        had to receive a blood transfusion last night and is in
        serious condition.  The other kitten is stable.  We are
        keeping a round the clock watch on them.  We will
        update you when the situation changes.
    
    April 10,1996 -- Scarlett Fund Created
    
        In response to the incredible outpouring of support
        from people all over the world, NSAL has created "The
        Scarlett Fund".  This fund will accept donations which
        will benefit animals like Scarlett and her family who
        need our help.
    
        Donations to the Scarlett Fund can be made by sending
        checks payable to:
    
            NSAL's - The Scarlett Fund
            Lewyt Street
            Port Washington, NY 11050
    
        Credit card donations can also be made by calling
        1-800-248-7729
    
        Mention that you saw "The Scarlett Fund" on our Web
        Site!
    
    April 9,1996 -- Update on Scarlett
    
        Scarlett's medical condition continues to improve each
        day.  She is eating well and her wounds are healing.
        However, due to scarring near her eyes, she is not able
        to open her eyelids as wide as she should.  This
        condition will not affect her vision but might require
        a surgical procedure in the future.
    
    April 4,1996 -- Medical Status on Scarlett and her Kittens
    
        The kittens are doing well.  They are eating, drinking
        and thriving.  One kitten has burns on the ear tips but
        is doing well.
    
        Scarlett's condition is stable.  She is eating well,
        but has a lot of burns to deal with and we are watching
        very carefully for infection.  Her eyes look good and
        she will have full vision.  We are still cautiously
        optimistic.
    
        Scarlett is unable to nurse because of burns and
        irritations on her mammary areas, but the kittens are
        eating well on their own and do not need to nurse.
        They will be placed, as a litter, in to a foster home
        in our foster care program unil they are ready for
        adoption.
    
    March 30,1996 -- Feline Mom Saves Kittens
    
        Phones have been ringing off the hook at North Shore
        Animal League as concerned animal lovers from
        everywhere have been calling to ask about "Scarlett",
        the brave Brooklyn feline who rescued her five kittens
        from a burning building.
    
        Scarlett gained widespread fame after bringing her
        4-week-old kittens out of a burning, vacant building in
        the East New York section of Brooklyn.  The courageous
        mother was badly burned in the process.
    
        The fire-scarred cat and her brood were discovered by
        Firefighter David Giannelli, a 17-year veteran with
        Ladder Company 175.  He gathered the family together
        and placed them in a box.  "Even though Scarlett's eyes
        were swollen shut and her paws burned, the cat made a
        head count of her young ones touching each kitten with
        her nose to make sure they were all there, " Giannelli
        said.
    
        Named Scarlett because of red patches that can be seen
        through her singed fur, the cat is eating well and in
        stable condition.  Her wounds were very serious,
        however, so her long-term prognosis is still not
        completely known.  The kittens are all recovering
        nicely and will be ready for adoption in two to three
        weeks.
    
        We will keep you up to date on Scarlett's progress.
    
        

    A few nights ago the local news had a story on Scarlett and her
    kittens being adopted.  Scarlett is beautiful, some damage to
    her face, but gorgeous multi-colored fur and magnificent whiskers.
    She is going to one household, two of her kittens (one black and one
    tuxedo kitty) to another household, and the remaining two (beige
    siamese-like and Russian Blue-like) to a third household.  Apparently
    Scarlett is okay with the kittens going elsewhere now.
    
    For those of you who saw this, the tuxedo kitty looks a lot like
    my Blackie.
    

    Did anyone see the story about the cats that were rescued from a house
    in either Washington or Oregon.  I only caught a bit of it on the news
    last night. 
    
    Apparently, there were 70+ cats living in terrible conditions in that 
    house.  The news specifically showed two siamese-like cats that could
    only walk or run in circles

    Jan

http://www.service.com/PAW/thisweek/news/1996_Jul_3.CATS.html

Publication Date: Wednesday Jul 3, 1996

S.C. COUNTY: Feed a cat, become a pet owner

Residents of unincorporated Santa Clara County to become owners of cats they
feed more than five days

Anyone who feeds a homeless cat for more than five days becomes the official
owner and must license, vaccinate and spay or neuter the cat, under an
ordinance passed last week by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

The ordinance, which takes effect in late August, applies only to those
residing in unincorporated areas of the county, such as the Stanford
University campus. Greg Van Wassenhove, director of the county's animal
control, said typical fines would range from $50 to $100. Residents of Palo
Alto and other cities will not be affected by the ordinance.

"The person causing the most impact on stray cat populations is the
individual who feeds cats but doesn't do anything else," Van Wassenhove
said. "It is sad that folks do not realize the ramifications of their
actions."

The ordinance, which passed 4-0 on Tuesday, June 25, is in response to the
general increase in the homeless cat population (which includes stray,
abandoned and wild cats) and the need to put some controls on its growth,
according to Van Wassenhove.

About 20,000 live homeless cats and 10,000 dead ones are brought yearly to
the Humane Society of the Santa Clara Valley, according to Chris Arnold,
executive director. That's more than half of the 47,000 animals brought to
the society each year.

Some members of groups working to control the stray cat population argue
that the ordinance will be ineffective in lowering the number of homeless
cats, and will send out the wrong messages.

"Where cat licensing has been enacted in other jurisdictions, it has been
proven to not affect the population," said Carole Hyde, executive director
of the Palo Alto Humane Society. Hyde argues that what has proven effective
is providing people with the resources to spay and neuter the cats they are
feeding.

"The ordinance encourages people to stop caring for a cat because they are
afraid of penalties and fines," Hyde said, calling the ordinance "completely
unnecessary."

"We asked the Board of Supervisors to provide free spay and neuter
services," Hyde said. "They have declined and instead given us a law."

Van Wassenhove said that if enough cat owners participate in licensing,
there may be enough money in a few years to match resources and have a spay
and neuter fund.

According to Van Wassenhove, one must have a license to own a cat, and the
ordinance assumes that a person would normally become the owner of a cat
after feeding and caring for it for more than five days.

Enforcement of the ordinance will depend on complaints from neighbors of
people who feed homeless cats. The animal control department, which will be
responsible for enforcing the ordinance, already receives calls of this
nature, according to Van Wassenhove.

"The content and spirit of the ordinance are potentially beneficial," said
Carole Miller, co-founder of the Stanford Cat Network, an organization that
offers information on how to trap cats for spaying or neutering and advice
on how to manage cat colonies. "Yet there is a concern that people who
provide marginal care for cats will stop."

Miller, who collaborated on the ordinance with the county, said that she
wishes this kind of legislation was not necessary, but that it has become
almost unavoidable. She said people should not abandon their care of
homeless cats, but rather take care of them more fully.

The ordinance also raises the household limit on cats from two to five,
requires the spaying or neutering of any cat that is likely to leave the
house (beginning Jan. 1, 1997), and authorizes vaccination records to be
audited at the offices of veterinarians in unincorporated areas to ensure
compliance.

The Palo Alto Humane Society currently provides vouchers for spaying and
neutering through its CatWorks program to those who become members of the
society.

"People who are feeding these animals are doing the right thing. The next
step is to spay and neuter them," Hyde said.

--Vanessa Arrington

    I've been meaning to put this article in for a few days but kept
    forgetting to do it.  This is from the San Jose Mercury News and
    I think it was printed on Friday, July 12th.
    
    
    KITTEN SAVES ALL 9 LIVES WITH CALL TO 911 NUMBER
    Newsday
    
    A fortunate feline saved all his nine lives by making a 911 cat call.
    
    The desperate 9-week-old gray-and-white kitten, named Tipper, screeched
    for help in a telephone call Wednesday to dispatcher Elena Arroyo at
    the Hillsborough County sheriff's office, north of Tampa, Fla.  The cat
    was choking on his flea collar, which apparently got caught in his
    mouth when he tried to take it off.  Tipper then knocked a phone off a
    table and hit a speed-dial button, which his owner had programmed for
    911.
    
    "Our dispatcher received a phone call via 911 and heard the meow on the
    other side, which we think is cat for trouble," Jack Espinosa, the
    office's director of information, said Thursday.
    
    Arroyo alerted authorities, saying, "There's a cat on the phone!"
    
    The call was traced to the Flying Cloud Mobile Home Park, where a
    deputy sheriff and a gardener found the cat lying next to a sofa in a
    different room of the trailer.
    
    "Apparently, it was ready to give up because it wasn't trying to free
    itself anymore," said Espinosa.
    
    Owner Gail Curtis, who wasn't home at the time, said Thursday that the
    "Late Show With David Letterman" had called to book Tipper as a guest.
    
    "Sure he's smart," she said.  But she added:  "We never trained him to
    use the phone.  He's playing with shoestring at the moment."  
      
                                                                

    Rush showed a clip of the cat on his show last week. She was a real
    cutie.
    
    Deb

    I loved the 911 playback: cat: meow, operator: what?
    
    It would be interesting to know what actually happened.  I guess
    the poor kitty got caught, freaked out, and activated the phone while
    trying to free himself from the flea collar.  He looked safe and
    sound (and flea-ridden - you could actually see the fleas) afterwards
    on tv.                             
    

    Re: .225
    
    Excellent story!
    
    Nancy

    Article copied from San Jose Mercury News, Tuesday, August 27, 1996
    (without permission, of course) :^)
    
    
    A HOW-TO FOR OWNERS OF JET-SET PETS
    
    Each year airlines transport more than 750,000 creatures -- large,
    small, endangered and poisonous -- for zoos, circuses, research labs
    and most of all, pet owners.
    
    According to one international airline, the number of flying dogs,
    cats, birds and the occasional iguana is growing by as much as 10 
    percent a year.
    
    Amtrak and interstate bus companies such as Greyhound do not permit
    pets, nor, with the rare exception of a costly kennel aboard the QE2,
    can you take your dog or cat on a cruise.  So if you don't want to haul
    Fido or Fluffy cross-country in the back of the station wagon, flying
    is the only way to go.
    
    But check with your carrier, because some smaller commuter lines don't
    permit pets either.
    
    Happily, the airlines have cleaned up their act since 1990, when almost
    every U.S. carrier was fined by the Department of Agriculture for
    violating procedures and endangering pet health.  In fact, caring for
    animal pasengers has become another aspect of customer service, though
    some airlines do it better than others.  Lufthansa, for instance, has a
    huge, immaculate pet center at its Frankfurt hub, with a dozen exercise
    runs and round-the-clock staffing.  Special animal transit rooms allow
    owners or staff to care for animals between connecting flights.
    
    More airlines handling pets
    
    But efforts are being made across the board.  American Airline's new
    employee training video was produced jointly with the ASPCA.  Northwest
    Airlines notifies passengers at their seats when a pet has been loaded
    onto the plane.  On other airlines, you can request such notification.
    
    Before deciding to take your pet anywhere, investigate the vaccination
    and quarantine rules that apply to your destination.  Regulations vary
    in different states and countries.
    
    Few travelers realize that Hawaii has a 120-day quarantine.  Great
    Britain's strict anti-rabies regulations include a 180-day quarantine,
    and Mexico requires that you bring an International Certificate of
    Vaccination to a consulate for an official OK before heading south of
    the border.
    
    The rules in France are more relaxed -- and more typical -- requiring a
    health certificate and proof of rabies inoculation. 
    
    For any type of domestic air travel -- coach or cargo -- you must
    present a current veterinary health certificate.  And in addition to
    normal vaccinations, including rabies, pets need protection from
    diseases endemic to the area you plan to visit.  Consult your
    veterinarian.
    
    Your dog or cat can travel with you in the passenger cabin if it is
    small enough to fit in a carrier placed under the seat in front of you. 
    But taking a pet as carry-on luggage and never telling the airline is
    not smart.
    
    Keep Fluffy in her cage
    
    Airlines require a reservation for under-the-seat pets.  That helps
    limit the number per flight and allows the airline to spread the load
    so animals aren't snarling or hissing at one another from neighboring
    rows. 
    
    In any case, a pet is not permitted out of its shipping cage during a
    flight, in accordance with FAA regulations.
    
    If the passenger cabin is already reserved for the maximum number of
    pets, or if an animal is too big or alone, it must travel in the cargo
    hold, a situation that usually creates more angst for the owner than
    for the pet.
    
    Today's cargo bays are pressurized and temperature-controlled.  Airline
    procedure requires that pets travel in a "comfort-zoned" section of the
    bay; that is, one that's ventilated and lighted.
    
    Check-in rules can be confusing.  If you and your pet are traveling
    together, the animal can be checked as accompanying baggage in the
    passenger terminal.  If the pet is traveling solo, you must go to the
    cargo check-in, which is often in a different building.
    
    If your pet is traveling to or from a tropical destination, book a
    late-afternoon or night flight.  In general, try to get a direct flight
    whenever possible to minimize potential delays.
    
    And how much is Fluffy's fare?  A pet traveling with you, even in the
    hold, costs the same as one accompanying you in the cabin:  $50.  If
    the pet travels solo, you'll be charged at the air freight rate.
    
    Preparing Fido for flight
    
    There are several things you can do to prepare your pet for takeoff to
    keep it calm.
    
    But experts caution against tranquilizers.  The ASPCA's guru of pet
    travel, Kathi Travers, opposes tranquilizing animals in anticipation of
    a flight because the drugs are three times more powerful at high
    altitudes, and if the animal has an adverse reaction, there's nobody in
    the cargo hold to notice or help.
    
    It's essential to condition your pet to its shipping cage or carrier by
    increasing its time spent inside, beginning at least two weeks before
    departure.
    
    Susan Butcher, four-time winner of the grueling trans-Alaska Iditarod
    Trail Sled Dog Race, flies or drives with as many as two dozen dogs. 
    She says her dogs feel so "at home" in their travel kennels, they
    prefer sleeping in them overnight on the road.
    
    Check out your pet's regular carrying cage; it may not meet current
    standards set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for domestic
    travel, or equally strict requirements from the International Air
    Transport Association.
    
    A cage must be large enough to allow the animal to stand up and turn
    around; if it isn't, at check-in the airline will require you to buy or
    rent the proper size from the airline.  Whether you use your cage or
    the airline's, line it with something to absorb an accident.
    
    Travers recommends freezing a dish of water and putting it in the cage;
    it won't splash empty during loading and will melt by the time Fido is
    thirsty.
    
    If the trip is longer than 12 hours, also tape a bag of dry food to the
    outside of the cage; attach feeding instructions so airline personnel
    on the ground will know what to do.
    
    Butcher recommends adding a favorite toy or piece of clothing bearing
    the scent of a family member to help comfort and pacify your pet in
    strange surroundings.
    
    Don't lock the cage; you want it to open easily in case of an
    emergency.
    
    Don't forget to label the cage or carrier with both your home and
    destination addresses.  Clearly identify your pet as well.  Your dog or
    cat should wear a collar with a tag that bears its name and your name.
    
    Finally, feed dogs and cats minimal food and water no less than two
    hours before scheduled departure, and exercise dogs as close as
    possible to takeoff time.
    
    
                                                            

    I've just been watching the news on Channel 2 (in San Francisco).
    They had a story on a cat that was severely abused.
    
    This cat either belonged to a homeless woman or lived in the same area 
    of the street as the homeless woman.  An extremely sick person set the 
    cat on fire and the fire burned off part of the tail and one leg.  Per 
    the director of the SF SPCA, kitty spent at least 10 days suffering with 
    these burns before being taken to the SPCA.  Someone brought the homeless 
    woman and the cat to the San Francisco SPCA today where the cat underwent 
    surgery to remove the remainder of the tail and leg.   
    
    The homeless woman suspects a homeless man who has threatened to harm
    the cat in the past.  Police will be arresting this man tomorrow and 
    will charge him with a felony...animal cruelty.
    
    Kitty will be okay.  The SPCA director described her as a very sweet 
    cat.  The SF SPCA will be caring for the cat until it recuperates and 
    learns to get around on 3 legs.  After that, they will place kitty in 
    a new, loving home.
    
    I could just scream.  I cannot begin to imagine what would possess a 
    person to inflict such horrible pain on another living creature.  
    
    
    Jan

    Same night.  11pm news on Channel 7 (also in San Francisco).  They
    present 2 cat stories.  One is the same story about the cat set on
    fire.  However, they do not show the closeup pictures of the cat in 
    recovery at the SPCA (which I'll admit were difficult to see).
    
    The cat's name is "Alley" and he is a siamese-type cat.  He was set
    on fire by someone using a blow torch.  If anyone is interested in 
    adopting Alley they should call 415-554-3010.  Apparently he will 
    be ready for adoption soon.
    
    
    The 2nd cat story was about a hero cat.  Whew!  Am I relieved it
    isn't another abuse story.  
    
    There's this guy who admits he was never much of a cat person.  He 
    had always thought cats were stupid.  While his wife was gone and he 
    was asleep one of their 2 cats knocked over a lit candle.  The candle 
    caught the mattress on fire.  The other cat, a 9 year old calico,
    started pawing/hitting the sleeping man until he opened his eyes.  
    
    When the man finally woke up he found the apartment filled with
    smoke.  Apparently he was able to put the fire out.  There didn't
    appear to be alot of damage to the apartment but they did show the 
    head board which had a nasty burn mark on it.  
    
    So, here's this guy sitting in his chair petting his "hero" cat and
    talking about his newfound respect for cats.  Apparently, the hero
    cat will be eating a lot of gourmet meals in the future. :^)
    
    Jan
        

I was going to reply. 

Then I read the blow torch. 

Now I'll just clean my breakfast out of the bin. 

    I didn't see that story, but channel 2 is very good about animal
    stories.  One of their anchors, Elaine Corral(sp?), seems to be an
    animal person.  The good news is the San Francisco SPCA is a very
    good, virtually no-kill shelter, due to the success of their spay and
    neuter efforts.  Here's major hugs for that poor kitty and a hope that
    the person who did that rots in jail forever.
    
    I saw the candle/hero cat story.  Can't imagine someone boneheaded
    enough to leave lit candles around unsupervised cats.  I wish he hadn't
    made a nasty remark about the cat who tipped the candle over.
    

    The spca has a note about Alley at http://www.sfspca.org/calendar.html:
    
    Abused and Torched Feline Recovering at The SF/SPCA
    
    Doctors at The San Francisco SPCA's Animal Hospital were on red-alert
    Tuesday when a severely burned male
    Siamese mix cat named Alley -- a cruelty case -- was rushed in for
    treatment.
    
    Alley's story was nightmarish: Someone had torched him. When the
    3-year-old cat arrived at The SF/SPCA, he was a
    shocking sight. Almost all of his tail was gone, and the third degree
    burns on his right thigh left a mass of raw, red
    flesh. Below that, the leg was charred down to the blackened bone.
    
    Just as horrifying, it's probable that Alley wandered around for as long
    as 10 days in excruciating pain before he came
    through our doors. "He's endured unimaginable suffering," says SF/SPCA
    President Richard Avanzino. "At last, he's
    receiving the expert medical care he so desperately needs." On
    Wednesday, Alley underwent 2 hours of surgery to
    amputate his leg and the rest of his tail. The SF/SPCA will pick up all
    costs for his hospital bills. Meanwhile, The
    Society is working with the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and
    Control, who is investigating the case.
    
    At other shelters Alley might have been euthanized, but The SF/SPCA
    will stick by him until he finds a caring owner.
    After intense monitoring for 2 weeks at The SF/SPCA Animal Hospital,
    Alley will go into foster care, and then
    become available for adoption. For more information on giving Alley a
    home, call The SF/SPCA at (415) 554-3000.
    
    

    I hope poor Alley is treated with royal pampering by his future owner. 
    I can't help but also ask, "What of the homeless woman who originally
    had the cat? Is she also being cared for in some fashion?"

    Leslie

    There was a followup on Alley on ch. 2 last night.  He seems like a
    lovely beigy, dark faced Siamese, and is recovering well.  Hundreds of
    people have called in wanting to adopt him.  The police have arrested
    someone who clains the cat was bitten by a dog, not burnt.  Sure.
                                 

    Channel 7 also did a followup.  Alley resembles a blue-point siamese
    and he's got the cutest little crinkled or curled whiskers.  I hope
    those are natural and not somehow connected with his injuries.  He 
    also has a very expressive little face.  It's a wonder this cat has
    kept what appears to be a really sweet disposition after his abuse.
    They say Alley will be ready to relocate to his new home in about a month.
    
    Jan

>got the cutest little crinkled or curled whiskers.  I hope
>    those are natural and not somehow connected with his injuries.

I dunno, Twinklebelle's got a cute wavy eyebrow, very becoming, 
very much aquired from sniffing candles. 

    Thats probably exactly what it is!

    
    	Notes like these make me sick! Actually, not the note but the
    crime itself.  Crime is bad but when it happens to the elderly,
    children and animals its horrible.  Please don't attack my opinion
    but I'm a firm believer in "An eye for an eye" type of law.
    					ok, I'm better now
    					Sue

Gee Sue,

You took the words right out of my mouth.

laura

    Yup...

    
    
    	Major bum out for me just before going to sleep last night, while
    	watching the news.
    
    	A pet store, somewhere in MA I think, caught fire.  Hundreds of
    	animals were lost, some being exotic birds and lizards.  They
    	were showing rescue workers holding oxygen masks to these little
    	tiny puppy faces......  =(
    
    

    
    The fire was horrible!  They did say this morning all the surviving
    animals were adopted by the rescue/fire personnel.
    	Also the kitten who was stuck in the tree in Lunenburg MA, has
    come down, the owners say they had many people volunteer to help.
    The kitten had been up there since Thursday and was finally found
    on Sat. morning.  Police, fire and animal control officers said
    they couldn't help and that the kitten would come down on its own.
    
    	Is it a myth that if a cat can climb up a tree that it can
    climb down?				Sue

    It's a myth.
    

    Someone once said to me "well have you ever seen a dead cat
    up in the tree"...and my response is "of course not...if he
    died...he'd fall out."
    
    Sandy

    
    re .267,.268
    
    Definitely a myth.  Cats can't turn their paws around so that their
    claws hold them back while descending.  They would have to back down,
    which they pretty much refuse to do.  Watch a squirrel descend a tree
    sometime and pay particular attention to the way they use their claws.
    A cat can't do that.
    
    len.
    

    Hmmm... not necessarily so ... I had a cat when I was a kid that used
    to climb our tree in our back yard all the time.  We lived up on the
    second floor and she loved to climb the tree and sit outside our
    kitchen window.  She always managed to get herself down.
    
    Holly
    

    Supposably, Norwegian Forest Cats climb down trees head first. I don't
    know if this is a myth. 
    
    Deb

    
    re .271 - cats get down out of trees all the time, either by backing
    down or jumping.  I've seen it done.  It's just not something they like
    to do, though cats are amazingly adaptable and I suppose some
    eventually get used to it.
    
    re .272 - there's nothing unique about the anatomy of the Norwegian
    Forest Cat that would make it any more possible for them to do this
    than any other breed.  The simple fact is that for a cat facing down,
    their claws are oriented the wrong way to catch in the bark. Think
    about how you move a cat's paw to remove their claws from something
    they've snared, and how cats use their paws to snare something in their
    claws.  So I strongly suspect this is a myth.  But I can easily imagine
    how such folklore might accrete around these cats, which, like the Maine
    Coons, may be the most perfect realization of the wild cat amongst the
    domesticated breeds.  
    
    len.
    

    I think I posted a note in here a long time ago, about my
    neighbors' cat who was up in a very tall tree for several days.  The
    fire dept, etc. refused to come out.  The neighbors were trying to
    find a "cherry picker" truck to hire, when the retarded boy
    who lived across the street got so worried about the cat that he
    tried to climb the tree, fell out, and broke his back.  Fortunately,
    he recovered without permanent damage, and the cat came down around
    that same time.
         

We used to have a black cat who was quite good at climbing trees. I
think she rather liked to do it. She'd go as high as 30 or 40 feet up
and would always be down in time for dinner. Our neighbors had a Great 
Pyrennes dog who'd wander by and chase our cat. Cat would run just fast 
enough to reach a tree (usually not the closest one, either) ahead of 
the huge, lumbering dog. I think it was a game for both of them.

	Snoozer, 9 months old, spends about 1/4 of her time in the trees
	on our property. She'll usually go up 30 - 40 feet, find a good
	perching branch, and settle in. I think she likes the idea that
	she's eye level with the bird population that flys around the
	back yard. She has yet to have a problem getting down. She
	comes most of the way down tail first, clinging to the bark
	with all fours. At about the 6 - 8 foot level, she tends to
	rotate head first and then jumps to the ground. It weird when
	I go on the deck at night and all I see are those haunting
	eyes looking at me from above.

	Red

>A pet store, somewhere in MA I think, caught fire.  Hundreds of
>    	animals were lost, some being exotic birds and lizards.  They
>    	were showing rescue workers holding oxygen masks to these little
>    	tiny puppy faces......  =(
 

Oh that is SOOOOO sad. 

I remember being in tears as a kid when an old lady I used to write to 
in Bristol where I used to live wrote to say how the animal rescue
centre was in cellar rooms and they had really bad weather with 
trees blowing down and flooding and the centre flooded and though people 
were trying to get down there to release the animals from cages you 
could hear the cries of these poor drowning kitties and puppies for 
a long long way around.  :-( In fact the memory has tears in my 
eyes now as being soo sooo sad that an attempt to help them had 
ultimately destroyed them :-(  not to mention I think it was a 
non-destruction policied centre. 

>   Is it a myth that if a cat can climb up a tree that it can
>    climb down?			

Claws are designed for up not down so they can't see where they're going 
coming down, not to mention panic often gets them there and terror keeps 
them there. 

>She always managed to get herself down.

Frequently with jumping I expect. 

> Title:  they say NFC's can climb down backward

I just knew they were special kitties, if I get another it's 
a NFC or a Turk. Van I'm sure!

>NFC's The simple fact is that for a cat facing down,
>    their claws are oriented the wrong way to catch in the bark.

It'd make sense if they had particularly strong dew claws though, 
they're kinda sideways, that could be enough to just about improve the 
ability to maybe run down a sloping tree. Only speculation though. 

> Title:  And Black Cats Are Bad Luck

It certainly used to be, if you were a black cat that is. 
Nearly all black cats, certainly over here, have some white
simply because so many of them were murdered for being bad 
luck omens or witches in shape shifted form in the past. 

Having white meant it was a just a cat after all and could be 
allowed to live. 


I'm in a desperately lovely kittie mood today since I had my first
"she's run away!" panic on Belle yesterday, 10am she goes for a play 
in the front garden, normally this lasts from 2 minutes to 1hr max. 
By 10pm I've been up and down the street and the back gardens, 
knocked on half the neighbours doors asking after her, got the owners 
of her boyfriend up the road all worried about her too - agreeing 
how she never goes far and have even rung the vets.  She turned up 
eventually, smelling a woody and dusty - I think she hid in the outhouses, 
the two west highland terriers up the terrace got out of their garden 
yesterday morning apparently so she probably just ran...

    Does anyone know if this really happened?  There was some concern
    in the rec.pets.cats.? group I found it in that it might be a scam.
    
    Jan
      
    
Path: ix.netcom.com!ix.netcom.com!howland.erols.net!newsxfer3.itd.umich.edu!portc01.blue.aol.com!audrey01.news.aol.com!not-for-mail
From: phorn46311@aol.com (PHorn46311)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.rescue
Subject: Cat MASSACRE in Iowa-please help the survivors!
Date: 12 Mar 1997 02:39:12 GMT
Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com
Lines: 22
Message-ID: <19970312023901.VAA02950@ladder01.news.aol.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ladder01.news.aol.com
X-Admin: news@aol.com

Subj:  HELP SAVE THE CATS! 
Date:  97-03-10 23:01:20 EST
From:  H0rn1ng         

ON 3/10/97, it was reported on the local news that NOAH'S ARK, a
non-profit organization in Fairfield, Iowa that takes in cats from the
pound that are in danger of being put to sleep, was broken into and about
20 cats were beaten to death and many more were seriously injured. I
called NOAH'S ARK and asked them how I could help, they said money, food,
etc.. would be appreciated.  They don't know what the future of NOAH'S ARK
will be and are trying to find good homes for the surviving cats.
    I am sending them money towards the veterinary bills for the surviving
cats and food. I wanted to help them more so I decided to post the
information here hoping that it would reach fellow cat lovers like me. If
you would  like to help save the cats I am including the address and phone
# of NOAH'S ARK. Make donations or adoption inquiries to:

NOAH'S ARK FOUNDATION
2174 KEY BLVD.
FAIRFIELD, IOWA 52556 
phone: (319)472-6080 
Director: David Sykes  
    

    
    
    	Haven't heard about it.  But if it *isn't* a scam, it's
    	sickening.............  =(
    

    If there's any question that this might be a scam, just call the
    Fairfield Iowa police station and ask. They would certainly have
    investigated if this is real.

    I rummaged around and found a message saying the survivors had been
    taken to the Iowa State's Vet School for treatment, so I found that
    on the web and sent an inquiry to the director's email address asking
    if it were true.
    

    Unfortunately, it is true.  I got email back from the director
    of the Iowa State Vet School:
    
    From: "Chris Brown" <cxbrown@iastate.edu>
    To: kolling@pa.dec.com
    Date: Wed, 12 Mar 1997 15:51:28 CST
    Subject: Re: Is this news report true?
    
    Thank you for your interest.  We have 3 of the injured cats here in
    the hospital.  Others are at various clincs.  We will probably be
    able to cover much of the cost of treatment and surgery, so donations
    to Noah's Ark would be the most appropriate.  Thanks  Chris Brown.
    Director VTH
    

    this is so sad.  I hope when they find the people who did this that
    they are given appropriate mental health treatments as well as whatever
    consequence the law demands.   (Of course my gut-level is far more
    radical in what I would like to do to them, but revenge should be left
    to Bast)
    
    meg

    
    Here's more on the Iowa cats.
    
    Jan
    
From: ghelmer@cs.iastate.edu (Guy Helmer)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.misc,rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: Save the Survivors of the Massacre! Please Help Us!
Date: 12 Mar 1997 15:06:17 GMT
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
Lines: 58

lhpavlov@ix.netcom.com (Lisa Pavlov) writes:

>In <19970311174500.MAA04041@ladder01.news.aol.com> h0rn1ng@aol.com (H0rn1ng)
>writes: 
>>
>>Subj:  HELP SAVE THE CATS! 
>>Date:  97-03-10 23:01:20 EST
>>From:  H0rn1ng         
>>
>>ON 3/10/97, we saw on the local news that NOAH'S ARK, a non-profit
>>organization in Fairfield, Iowa that takes in cats from the pound that are
>>in danger of being put to sleep, was broken into and 20 cats were beaten
>>to death and many more were seriously injured for no reason at all. 
>>Nothing was stolen.  I called NOAH'S ARK and asked them how I could help,
>>they said money, food, etc.. would be appreciated. They don't know what
>>the future of NOAH'S ARK will be and are trying to find good homes for the
>>surviving cats.
>>    I am sending them money towards the vet. bills for the surviving cats
>>and food. I wanted to help them more so I decided to post the information
>>here hoping that it would reach fellow cat lovers like me. If you would 
>>like to help save the cats. I am including the address and phone # of
>>NOAH'S ARK. Make donations to:
>>NOAH'S ARK FOUNDATION
>>2174 KEY BLVD.
>>FAIRFIELD, IOWA 52556
>>or
>>Noah's Ark
>>PO Box748
>>Fairfield, Iowa,52556
>>or
>>phone: (319)472-6080 
>>Director: David Sykes  

>Thanks for posting this...this is the first I'm seeing of this, I'm
>assuming this is legit.?!  This is horrifying.  I'm planning to send a
>check but also hope that law enforcement in Fairfield is aggressively
>pursueing this and that the prosecutors will nail these perps!!
>Do you know how many surviving cats there are?

Yes, this is legit.  News reports said the injured but surviving
kitties were brought to Iowa State's Vet School for treatment; it
seemed like there were five to ten injured survivers, but I'm not sure
they gave an exact number.  I also hope law enforcement is working
aggressively on this!

An interview with one of the shelter workers said that they are having
problems with the otherwise unharmed kitties that were traumatized by
what happened (many kitties are scared to death and are hiding); the
shelter director gave chilling details of the crime scene. :-(

I gave my two furry friends (Spencer and Yasha Too) special pats last
night after hearing about this...

>Lisa Pavlov, http://pages.prodigy.com/village/, lisahp@aol.com
--
Guy Helmer, Computer Science Grad Student, Iowa State - ghelmer@cs.iastate.edu
http://www.cs.iastate.edu/~ghelmer
FreeBSD: When you care enough to run the very best :-)

    

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From: adorn@iastate.edu (Cheshire Cat)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.anecdotes,rec.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.misc,rec.pets.cats.rescue,rec.pets.cats.community
Subject: help Noah's Ark Cats
Date: 13 Mar 1997 18:38:16 GMT
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa USA
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I tried posting this earlier today, but it doesn't seem to have worked so
please accept my apologies if this appears twice. I do think it is
important, however.

You've probalby heard/read by now about the Noah's Ark cats in Fairfield,
Iowa that were brutally beaten, some to death. Three of the badly injured,
but alive cats are now at ISU vet clinic. THey are being treated for
extensive injuries. One had to have her jaw wired/repaired. One may face
amputation of a leg due to multiple fractures and possible nerve damage. The
third is just barely hanging on with skull and jaw fractures.

Please send any donations to:

The Companion Animal Fund
Iowa STate University
College OF VEterinary Medicine
Ames, IA 50011

Be sure to state that it is for the Noah's Ark cats. And please pray for
these cats, the others being treated elsewhere, those still surviving at the
shelter and of course, those that did not survive.

I visited the ISU cats yesterday when I dropped my own cat off for bloodwork
so I know that this is legitimate. I understand that people have had trouble
contacting the shelter directly. Perhaps that is due to the fact that the
shelter has shut down during this tragedy. I do know of one person who has
contacted the shelter, but I have not tried myself. 

Please consider donating. THese cats are getting serious and extensive medical
 care. But be assured they are also getting plentey of TLC from both
students and staff at the ISU clinics.

Thanks,


-- 
Andrea
aka Cheshire Cat

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From: h0rn1ng@aol.com (H0rn1ng)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Subject: :-(   Shelter Closes after Massacre  :-(
Date: 13 Mar 1997 23:44:12 GMT
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Due to requests here is an article from today's paper.   The news is not
getting better but worse:



Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette
Thursday, March 13, 1997

By: Cindy Hadish, Gazette Staff Writer

A rural Fairfield animal shelter, devastated by the bludgeoning deaths of
15 cats, will reopen if enough community help is received, its director
said.

Noah's Ark Animal Foundation temporarily closed after cats were killed and
injured.

No arrests had been made as of late last night, according to the Jefferson
County Sheriff's Office.  A $4000 reward has been offered for information
leading to arrests and convictions.

David Sykes, a founding director of the shelter, said volunteers had been
stretched financially and physically, even before the incident.

It takes about $45,000 annually to operate the non-profit animal shelter. 
That covers rent, utilities, food and veterinarian bills.

Sykes said the shelter, which has dogs as well as cats, has received a
;few thousand dollars in donations since the incident, which happened
sometime between 7:45 p.m. Friday and 8:30 a.m. Sunday.

Donations, Sykes said, are "very encouraging."  Even so, Sykes said more
hands-on help will be needed.  He has called for community meetings--the
first of which will be tonight--to evaluate the shelter's future.

Donations received so far will go toward rehabilitating the remaining
animals.

Four cats are back from the vet's office with casts on their broken legs. 
A fifth has shoulder complications.

Three others are at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Iowa State
University: one with a leg that needs to be amputated; one that may lose
its sight due to severe head injuries; and one with a possible broken jaw
and other injuries.

Sykes said conflicting reports about the numbers of cats killed was due to
some cats that were missing.  The body count is 15, he said.

About a dozen disappeared, but four or five of those have been found on
the shelter's grounds and appear to be traumatized.

Thirty to 40 animals, mostly cats, still need homes, Sykes said.  Call
Noah's Ark at (515) 472-6080 for more information.

    I found this embedded in a posting and hope I extracted
    it correctly;  there was a lot of html stuff.  I visited their
    web site (link below).  There are pictures of lovely kitties :-(
    No news on the site about this situation, no doubt no one has
    been up to updating it.  The UPDATE section below after the last
    signature is hers, not mine, and there was no address given for
    the sheriff, county attorney, etc.
    
    From           Laura Ann Faltin Noahsark@fairfield.com
    
    Thanks to everyone of you who have responded personally about our
    recent tragedy at our shelter in Fairfield, Iowa.; The animal
    protection community has been shaken as a result of this terrible
    incident and people from all over have mobilized to try to bring
    justice to a situation which we all feel is beyond our comprehension.
    
    To give you an update----the state Humane organization in Iowa posted
    a $1,000 reward offered for any information leading to the arrest and
    conviction of the perpetrators, also the Humane Society of the US
    contributed an additional $1,500, bringing the total to $2,500 and
    we do now know who did it!  It was 2 or 3 demented high school kids
    who admitted it to someone while drunk at a party and we have a sworn
    statement from two witnesses to that effect. They will hopefully be
    charged within the next days and then the next step will be for us all
    to put pressure upon our local County Attorneys office because he is
    the one responsible for actually pressing those charges and taking the
    matter to court. In the past, animal abuse issues have not received
    the attention that they deserve, but this has now received national
    attention, so hopefully he will be forced to do it properly, but we
    don't want to assume anything!! Will keep you all informed about when
    we should start to write or call him.  For everyone who has called our
    Sheriff or Mayor, thank you, that number is 515 472-4146 (Sheriff)
    and 515-472-6193.
    
    We also are in great need of funds to help care for the remaining
    animals at the shelter, and to pay for the hospitalization and surgery
    of the cats that were critically injured but still alive. They are at
    the Veterinary Hospital in Ames, Iowa being treated for multiple
    injuries and fractures--it is thought they will pull through, but
    their condition was very serious.  All donations are tax-deductible
    and to all of you have already sent funds, please receive our most
    heartfelt thanks. Please send to PO Box 748, Fairfield, IA 52556 our
    phone is 515-472-6080. For all of you on AOL who have been to Rainbow
    Bridge and lit your candles for those that passed away--thank you.
    There will be a large service at Noah's Ark tonight for them also led
    by St. Gabriels Church. Anyone is welcome to come if you are in the
    area. Please visit our website for more updates and details in the
    days to come.
    
    Laura Ann Sykes (Faltin) http://www.noahsark.org
    
    UPDATE
    
    The Local Sherriff's department is saying they don't have enough
    evidence right now to nail these kids, even though everybody in town
    says they know who did it and every teacher at the highschool also
    says they know. Turns out one of the kids families is fairly prominent
    and friends with the Sheriff, you know how that goes. They got 75
    calls yesterday alone saying what's going on with this case, but still
    they need to feel the heat from outside, so please people, let's turn
    it up OK? Thanks again for your help.
    

    p.s.   You might want to wait a day or so if you're thinking about
    sending Laura email.  There's some sort of message loop which I assume
    they'll clear up shortly:
    
    The original message was received at Mon, 17 Mar 1997 17:36:44 -0600
    (CST)
    from root@jackson.fairfield.com [206.26.90.8]
    
       ----- Transcript of session follows -----
    553 jefferson.fairfield.com. config error: mail loops back to me (MX
    problem?)
    
    --RAA03631.858641805/news.lisco.com
    Content-Type: message/delivery-status
    
    Reporting-MTA: dns; news.lisco.com
    Received-From-MTA: DNS; jackson.fairfield.com
    Arrival-Date: Mon, 17 Mar 1997 17:36:44 -0600 (CST)
    
    --RAA03631.858641805/news.lisco.com
    Content-Type: message/rfc822
    
    Return-Path: kolling@pa.dec.com
    Received: from jackson.fairfield.com (root@jackson.fairfield.com
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    p.p.s.  Well, surprisingly enough my email got thru even though
    I got that loop response back.
    

This is so horrible!

I swear for all my not beleiving in violence if those 
sick brats are going to not be charged I'd be thinking of 
a water babies style be-done-by-as-you-did. But of course 
I'm miles away and couldn't do anything even if my emotions
got the better of my reason one day and I wouldn't ever 
encourage anyone else - but oh it's nice to imagine the
kids (I'm sure there's little difference between the thugs
that get away with being protected as children over here and 
over there! mostly only a year max. short of being an adult and 
cocky about it.) getting all the bones in their bodies slowly 
smashed up too.   One of the horrible bits  is it could happen 
anywhere (except maybe round here where rescue animals are kept 
a couple at a time in volunteers homes because there aren't 
any rescue centers.


I guess I'd better send a mail, if being national is helping 
lets hope international support helps even more, don't supose 
the sheriffs office has anything advanced like a mail address?

Might even ring the tv station for the south UK and ask if they 
are going to cover it/get in footage - after all we're meant to 
be a nation obsessed with our pets... 

    I sent email to WHDH Channel 7 news in Boston giving them details and
    asking if they planned on covering the story. We'll see.
    
    Steve

Mail with info sent to meridian tv news department. 
I'll let you know if it gets UK coverage - then 
maybe someone can let someone it'll make a difference 
to know that people are watching what's done about 
this!

    So I just called them direct. 1-800-280-8477 if anyone's interested.
    I had to leave voice mail for one of the anchors so we'll see what
    happens. At this point, I don't think they could do much more than
    carry a story from one of the affiliates in that area, but that's sure
    better than nothing. I "did" talk to one live person that transfered me
    to the news person, and he was a little disinterested until I mentioned
    that other states were interested and that the US humane society was
    involved. That kind of perked him up a bit.
    
    Time will tell.

    There is a web site set up for Noah's Ark.  Apparently they have 
    mailing addresses where you can send you comments and there are 
    petitions that can be signed.  I haven't looked at the page yet but 
    I believe the intention is to send these petitions and the mail to 
    the appropriate people to help get the perpetrators of this animal 
    abuse prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
    
    The url is http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8603/social1.html

    More information on how the Noah's Ark case.
    
    Jan
    
    
    Date: Wed, 26 Mar 1997 19:21:04 -0600
    From: lisaviolet@catlover.com
    Subject: Update, Noah's Ark Tragedy
    Newsgroups:
    rec.pets,rec.pets.cats,alt.animals.feline,rec.pets.cats.rescue
    Message-ID: <859425399.6845@dejanews.com>
    Organization: Deja News Usenet Posting Service
    Lines: 30
    Xref: ix.netcom.com rec.pets:65962 rec.pets.cats.rescue:167
    
    The latest news on this is that the juvenile will be tried as an adult.
    Yay!!!
    
    If you haven't sent your comments yet, please do so.  The mailing
    addresses are available at 
    
    http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8603/social1.html
    
    If you would like to just fill out a form (available at the above site)
    and submit it to me, I will print it out and forward it for you.  And 
    if you haven't signed Madlyn's petition, please do that while you are 
    there.
    
    Thank you very much.  We need to send a message that this behaviour is 
    not acceptable by any means.
    
    Its too bad that you can't beat compassion into anyone.  Will these 
    young men ever realize that what they did was morally wrong?  They 
    make me sick.
    
    Remember, please send a letter.  Every one counts.  They DO add up and 
    we WILL be heard.
    
    Thank you for caring,
    
    lisaviolet
    visit lisaviolet's cathouse
    how do they cope with all of those cats?
    http://www.geocities.com/~lisaviolet

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From: Laura Sykes <noahsark@franklin.fairfield.com>
To: "'So why put two ends on to start with ?  '" <jc@uvo.dec.com>
Subject: RE: another message of support and good wishes.  
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 1997 01:45:18 -0600
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Thank you so much for your recent correspondence and your concern and =
compassion for our shelter and animals.  We have been through a very =
troubling and traumatic experience which has shaken everyone in our =
community to their very foundation, and have received letters and cards =
from all over the country and the world from animal lovers who cannot =
conceive, let alone accept this kind of a terrible brutality happening =
to a sanctuary, where dear, sweet animals are protected and loved.  I =
cannot begin to express the pain and tremendous loss that we have =
experienced over this, but I'm sure you can imagine. =20

	Most of the animals who were injured and survived have been adopted out =
into very good homes.  Dedicated animal lovers responded from all over =
the state and came to adopt the injured and traumatized cats who were =
left behind in the wake of this tragedy.  We are attempting to recover =
from this experience, to heal ourselves and our companion animals so =
that we can continue our live-saving work at Noah's Ark.  Right now we =
are requesting donations to help pay for the veterinary bills that were =
incurred for the sick and injured cats and to help the shelter stabilize =
itself during this crisis.  Our address is PO Box 748, Fairfield, IA =
52556, our phone is (515) 472-6080.

	Many of you have asked what more you can do to help.   The criminals =
(high school students) who carried out this brutal act have been caught =
and charged with 3rd degree felonies.  They could receive up to 12 years =
in prison or $14,000 in fines, however this is now up to the County =
Attorneys office to prosecute effectively.  We urge everyone to please =
write to him explaining your feelings about this violent act against =
these animals and urge him to prosecute them to the fullest extent of =
the law.  You may wish to point out that crimes of this sort are just =
steps away from homicides and other serious forms of violence against =
humans and should be taken very seriously.  The more input and pressure =
that he receives the more likely he will be to do his job effectively =
without caving into some out of court settlement.   Write to John =
Morrissey, 109 N. Court St., Fairfield, IA 52556, send copies to Scott =
Schoeder and Mike Brown at this same address, or fax your letter to =
(515) 472-8151.  It is no longer necessary to call or write to the local =
Sheriff.  Letters to the editor of the Fairfield Ledger newspaper would =
also be much appreciated, expressing your concern and feelings about =
what has happened.  They are receiving letters from our community =
complaining that too much is being made of this and that the kids should =
serve a jail sentence!  Write to Editor, The Fairfield Ledger, PO Box =
171, Fairfield, IA 52556.

Laura Faltin
Director



----------

    
    
    	Whoa.  The last name of the County Attorney is spooky!
    	
    	Maybe my having the same last name will add some impact
    	to my letter.
    
    	

    
    A cat was tossed into the busy Boston triffice last night.  They think
    the cat was already injured when it was tossed into the traffice.  A
    motorist stopped to try and save the kitty, but with all the traffice
    she was unable to, with our herself getting hurt.  She did call 911 and
    the animal rescue came right out and they got the cat.
    
    The cat is alive but is hurt, she is at angle memorial in Boston right
    now.  She is a very cute calico :-)
    
    A award has been offered to anyone who has info on who did this.
    
    The cat will go up for adption when she has healed.
    
    Louisa

    
    
    
    	AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
    
    
    	What is *wrong* with some people??!!!
    
    	I'm glad to hear the kitty survived.  She must have a few of
    	her nine lives left to have survived that.
    
    	Stuff like this just infuriates the **** out of me!
    
    

    sick sick people....and the older I get the more worried I
    get that there are more sick people out there then normal people.
    
    Thank God the kitty is alive....I have heard horror stories
    of some of the unwanted/stray cats in Boston....makes you sick to
    your stomach!!
    
    Sandy 

This makes me feel very sick indeed.  If they find the person that did it, 
they should throw them out into traffic to see what it feels like.

Totally disgusted with people like that,
Laura

    	Well, here's a good story for a change....
    
    http://www.cnn.com/US/9705/07/fringe/nurturing.cats/
    
    Sherry

    
    
    	That's so *cute* !!
    

    For the web-impaired :-) some Mom Cats are fostering puppies
    whose Mom Dog wasn't interested in them.  Major cute picture.
    

How lovely!!!!!!!!!


When Whitley (a cool tabby I used to have the honour to live with) 
was clipped by a car just after having kittens (*ok but cracked 
ribs so no nursing). 

Spliff (the black and white feral converted to house cat who 
lived with us too) who'd had kittens (by the same father we suspect 
as there were dark long haired kittens in both litters) half a day 
earlier than Whitley tried to help out.  

Spliff was a small girl anyway though and 7 kittens 
was just more than the allocated number of nipples so it got
a bit hectic and eventually I took over (not that I have more 
than 6 nipples either :-)   ) but before that, for the day or so 
Spliff tried for, Bella the collie doberman cross dog who shared the 
3 bed terrace with all of us, used to help Spliff on kitten 
management, she'd gently flip them into place with her nose when 
kittens were confusedly trying to suckle off Spliffs back and 
used to cuddle with them.  She was awfully nervous when the 
pair of long furred terrorists went for her paws though... 
virtually ballet danced on her points she did. 

    
    okay, did you here the story out of Grafton, MA today?  Now that is
    horrible, I hope they put this person away for life.  It's so bad, I
    don't think I can type it.
    
    lou

    for those of us who haven't heard the news - what happened?
    
    Gita

    Here is the article....sick sick sick.           
     
                    Associated Press, 05/13/97 07:19 
    
                     GRAFTON, Mass. (AP) - The decaying bodies of
                     at least 20 cats were found in a spare bedroom of a
                     condominium, and police have charged the owner
                     with cruelty to animals and failure to provide
                     adequate care for animals. 
    
                     Officers said the carcasses appeared to have been
                     there for at least five months. 
    
                     Police Detective William Ward told the Telegram &
                     Gazette of Worcester that three undernourished
                     cats, a dog, turtle and some fish also found in the
                     condominium were placed with a family friend. 
    
                     Judy Lamar, 53, owner of the condominium on
                     Providence Road, was charged Monday in
                     Westboro District Court and is scheduled to return
                     later this month to answer the charges. 
    
                     Police discovered the dead and living animals last
                     Friday after a man noticed a strong odor while
                     walking his dog past the condominium and called
                     police. 
    
                     Lamar was not home when police entered the
                     condominium. She returned Sunday. 
    
                     Ward said the dead animals may have starved.
                     Police did not speculate on why the bodies were
                     kept in the home. 
    
                     The Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of
                     Cruelty to Animals is helping care for the survivors. 

    
    
    	Excuse me while I puke...........
    

    It was on TV this morning. This sick B*TCH had a fan going in the
    window to get rid of the smell. The guy that called the police said
    that some of the cats had decayed INTO the rug.
    
    To top it all off, this women is a PEDIATRICIAN at Umass Medical.
    Anyone care to have her treat your kids?????
    
    GOD, this makes me to angry...............

    A Pediatircian...yikes she must make pretty good money then because
    I had assumed she was this poor person who was trying to do good
    and save the cats from a life on the street and then just got
    overwhelmed.
    
     Was anything said about "why she had so many cats and why she
    couldn't feed them???"

> Title:  Hanging isn't good enough


Medical treatment more like... she was LIVING in that 
environment... that's very very very ill... 

It's also assuming they starved there... some confused
and ill people get attached to dead creatures like
they're soft toys or something... 


But either way it's potentially pretty horrific... 
just I'm not sure about damning her for something 
that could have had no intention of harm and just 
be a throw back on society etc... 

 

    ....major ucks!....
    
    One - I can't understand how anyone could have animals and treat them
    like that (my guys can weedle food out of me without much effort).
    
    two - How could anyone live like that? if it smells bad enough for
    someone on the outside to notice.... we have enough problems dealing
    with a dirty litter box smell.
    
    major ucks!! and this is a doctor?  wouldn't get near me - wonder what
    her patients think of her (even before this happened)
    
    
    On a lighter note - I just started listening to the book on tape "The
    cat who went abroad", it's a sequal to "The cat who went to Paris". I
    had not read either, but am completely enjoying this book. I have a
    long commute and have started listening to books - and this one has me
    chuckling and laughing outright most of the time. I'll provide a better
    review once I've finished it.
    
    janetb.

    What follows are two different articles on the same story.  One gives
    a little more background than the other.  I think you'll find them
    amusing.
    
    Jan
    
From: nottelling@you.com (PD)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.misc
Subject: Cat foils burglary attempt
Date: 27 May 1997 16:00:35 GMT
Organization: none
Lines: 32
Message-ID: <nottelling-2705971103170001@crchm562.rich.bnr.ca>
NNTP-Posting-Host: crchm562.rich.bnr.ca

Here's a nice cat story....

  The following appears courtesy of Reuters news wire:

SAN DIEGO, Calif. (Reuter) - Jake, an aging but feisty tomcat, was hailed
as a hero Friday for thwarting a burglary attempt at his mistress' home in
San Diego. 

The ailing, 18-year-old orange and white feline leaped at the suspect,
landed on his shoulder and clawed his back and both arms, San Diego Police
Det. James Dixon said. 

He said the suspect, Juan Mendoza-Guzman, a Mexican national who had
worked as a locksmith, allegedly broke into the apartment of a 33-year-old
woman Thursday night by picking the lock to her door. 

When he tried to unhook the video cassette recorder, a watch on top of the
VCR began beeping. Apparently fearing the woman would wake up, he crept
into her bedroom, Dixon said. 

``The next thing he knew, the cat jumped on his right shoulder and
scratched him on his lower back and both arms. I'm sure the cat startled
the guy and he yelled out,'' the detective said. 

The suspect's shout awakened the woman, but Mendoza-Guzman put his hand
over her mouth and told her not to scream. The victim then bit his finger
and screamed loudly, causing the suspect to flee, Dixon said. 

Mendoza-Guzman was arrested soon after, given first aid for his scratches
and charged with burglary. 

Dixon said the woman had asked that her name not be disclosed.

    Here's another version of the cat foils burglar story.
    
    Jan
    
From: lisaviolet <lisaviolet@catlover.com>
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats.misc
Subject: Re: Cat foils burglary attempt
Date: Tue, 27 May 1997 14:54:14 -0700
Organization: lisaviolet's cathouse

Here's the URL of another cat story

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/8603/amazing.html

And here's the story from the San Diego Union Tribune.

Kelly Thornton 
STAFF WRITER 

23-May-1997 Friday 

Move over Fido: Jake, an 18-year-old but still-feisty cat, attacked an
intruder yesterday morning, saving the day and probably the VCR. 

"I'm so proud of him! He's awesome," said the cat's 33-year-old owner,
who plucked Jake from the streets of Chicago when she was a teen and Jake
was a kitten. The cat now requires daily intravenous treatment for his failing
kidneys. "In cat years, he's 100 years old. Our vet can't believe he's
still alive." 

Jake was napping on the pillow beside his owner at 2:22 a.m. when
someone quietly broke into her apartment on Carroll Canyon Road in Mira Mesa.
Then the woman's wristwatch alarm sounded, police said. 

The intruder went to her room, put his hand over her mouth and told her
not to scream, police said. 

"Jake lunged at him," said the woman, who didn't want to be identified.
"Of course I started screaming bloody murder and I bit him as hard as I
could." 

The intruder ran out of the apartment but a neighbor changing a baby's
diaper heard the screams, stepped outside and recognized the intruder as
a neighbor. 

Police arrived and surrounded the nearby apartment of Juan Carlos Mendoza
    Guzman, 23, who was arrested on suspicion of residential burglary as he
tried to run out the back door, said police spokesman Bill Robinson. 

The cat's owner later identified Mendoza as the man in her apartment.
"The detectives said he had scratches all over his shoulders and arms," she
said. 

Jake was basking in his owner's gratitude yesterday. And reliving his
youth. "When he was young, he was feisty," she said. "Now he has his
moments." .