August 25, 2004

While there isn't much "news" to pass along regarding The Cat House's involvement in taking in some of the Linden St. cats (that will likely unfold after CHS holds it's adoptathon), I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage everyone to support Capital Humane Society's Adoptathon this weekend. While we, of course, have LOTS of wonderful cats available, this weekend is the Linden Street Cat's BEST opportunity to get new homes, so I want to encourage all of you to spread the word about this weekend's Adoptathon. If you know anyone who has been thinking about getting a cat, or is starting to look, please suggest they go down to CHS this weekend and meet the Linden Street Cats. I have not spent much time with them, but they are a very mellow and good-natured group of kitties! Most of the health issues seem to be minor and treatable - ear mites, underweight, mild upper respiratory infections. Unfortunately, until they have time to get better nutrition and start to recover from these fairly minor ailments, they look a little "scruffy", which will unfortunately detract from how good-natured they are!

I've been told that CHS is planning on having about half (the most adoption-ready) spayed and neutered by this weekend, so for about $20, adopters can take home a wonderful, already altered kitty. That is an extremely good deal, even though these guys may have some minor initial health issues.

The Adoptathon will be held down at Capital Humane Society this weekend - Friday through Sunday - August 27th - 29th. For hours, directions and any other info, you can have potential adopters call them at 441-4488.

Also, while I don't personally have any information on their volunteer needs, I have heard that they need extra volunteers for at least another 2 weeks. I certainly encourage anyone who feels comfortable doing so, to volunteer their time down there as well. Anything we can do to help get these kitties in homes as soon as possible is definitely worthwhile.

As for The Cat House's participation, the progress on looking for additional "donated" space for a period of 6 months or so is slow going. I don't really have an update on that front just yet. And while Bob Downey did not ask us to work with them on this situation in this initial period, he did tell me that after the adoptathon kitties would be available for us to take. I wish 125 cats would find homes this weekend, and there would be "only" a dozen or so remaining that needed our help. But, we all know that is an unlikely scenario. With South Street, CHS adopted out about 20 cats that first weekend. So, promote this event as much as possible, and see if we can help them increase that number with word of mouth and volunteering our time.

Then, after this weekend, that's when our real challenges begin. How to accomodate as many cats as possible. Donations to CHS have been extremely high - over $9000 and tons and tons of food and litter. Hopefully, that level of community support will enable CHS to house these kitties a bit longer.

August 24, 2004

An announcement from Bob Downey about and adoption program should be coming out today, August 24th. After they try to adopt out as many as possible this upcoming weekend, we will then start to understand our level of participation in the situation.

A complaint was received by AC Tuesday evening for odor coming from 4120 Linden St. Initially, owners/occupants would not allow AC in. Eventually, LPD was brought in and AC found 145 (or 146, story varies) cats in a 12' x 13.5' room in the basement. In the time between AC's initial visit to bringing in additional AC and LPD officers, according to Weverka, it is likely the owners/occupants had begun cleaning the basement and hosed down the floor & removed litter boxes. The home owner is an elderly woman, but the owner of the cats is the daughter and son-in-law, who were living in the basement of the house. There were few, if any litter boxes or food bowls remaining when AC got down there, reported Weverka.

The story given to AC was that 5 years ago owners of the cats started with 4 cats, which they never spayed or neutered. The cats then reproduced over the 5 years unchecked, and resulted in 145 inbred cats. Whether or not that story is true, the cats all do look very similar (a la Adams Street, for those of you familiar with that situation). There are predominantly vans/bicolors (black and white or blue and white) and siamese/snowshoe mixes. There were so many cats that I'm sure I didn't remember each, but I don't recall a "brown tabby" in the bunch, or a single "red factor".

Healthwise, the cats are all underweight, have ear mites, upper resp. Also teeth/mouth are very bad on many cats. No checking has been done for FeLV yet. The cats appear to be VERY mild mannered. They, of course, are very scared, but are housed in groups of up to 10 in dog adoption cages, which are long and very tall. The cat's coats look like crap, but they are a gorgeous bunch - long and short hairs, many siamese/snowshoe mixes, some with a bit of a persian look, some a very burmese look (and some in that chocolate color).

There are pictures of the conditions, but AC will not release them, though they did let the media look at them (and stupidly, I did not take my camera to get even general pictures of the cats). AC made "compromises" (a quote from Jim Weverka) with the owner/occupants (similar to the Adams St. case) so that the cats would be signed over voluntarily. The significance of that is that, unlike South Street, if the owner voluntarily signs them over, then - apparently - AC can then turn them over to CHS and doesn't retain ownership (or cost, etc.) and they don't have to be held for extended periods because of potential "evidence" issues. They are then sole property of CHS, who then can make all the decisions regarding the cats independently of AC and the City. According to Weverka, the compromises involved return of the mother's dog (which was licensed), and not releasing the owner/occupant's names to the media. However, the media already have the name and address of the owner, and the names of the daughter and son-in-law. It appears that lesser charges may also have been part of the compromises, though that was unclear from the news conference. Weverka did not list neglect or cruelty in the list of charges, only things like unsanitary conditions, no licenses, no rabies vac, over the limit, no permit, etc. When asked how many charges of each, Weverka replied "at least one of each". When asked about neglect and cruelty charges, he replied that it would be up to the City Attorney to decide if "neglect" charges would be filed, but possibly. No mention of any possibility of cruelty charges.