Ocala.com Bloggers
- Broken News
- Bill Thompson
- Digital Editor
- Eric Barnes
- Frame 37
- Ocala.com Multimedia
- Marion Politics
- Newsroom
- Observations
- Naseem S. Miller
- OcalaDay
- Joe Byrnes
- Read My E-Mail
- Allen Parson
- Running Wide Open
- Joe Vanhoose
- Speaking of Business...
- Dr. Philip R. Geist
- The Bowling Blog
- Debbie Whitten
- The Green Zone
- Dave Rhea
- The Sports Blog
- Gregory Broome
- What is that?
- Newsroom
 |
Search Blogs
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Blog Archives
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A second chance at a better life
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Location: Blogs Now We're Talking |
 |
| Posted by: Joe Byrnes |
4/19/2007 7:16 AM |
The small, white-and-ginger kitty in cage S17 sat as proper as a porcelain statue, with his head tilted forward, his eyes half closed and his tail curling like a spring vine at his front paws.
And he had come from a scene of such ugliness - the wretched, feces-encrusted Florida Highlands home of Jonathan Terpstra, where investigators saw perhaps hundreds of cats, some of them wild, some dead, some barely alive. By Tuesday, the county recovered 90 live cats but euthanized most of them. They were sick, feral or otherwise unadoptable.
When Multimedia Editor Doug Engle and I visited the Marion County Animal Center on Monday, at least 24 were on the path to possible adoption. We found a quiet band of tattered survivors, looking more like kittens than cats, in their metal cages.
Christy Jergens, the center's animal program coordinator, was our guide, and she kept showing us disturbing pictures on the back of her digital camera - her heart-wrenching documentation of maimed, hairless and starving cats. She had helped process the 64 brought in Friday, and that was a horrible experience.
"The animals are complete innocents in a situation like this," she said. "They didn't have a say in who their owner was or who was giving them care."
The two dozen included a beautiful calico cat - with a bare patch on her left flank - and lots of black-and-white short hairs. The only kitten in the bunch - weighing 1 pound at 7 months - was a black-and-white fellow with huge orange eyes and a smudge on its nose like Charlie Chaplin's mustache.
These are the few, I thought, that might have a second chance at life.
I hope they find good homes, but whoever may adopt them will need to be especially patient. There's no telling what scars - illnesses, bad habits and behavioral quirks - will remain or surface from their horrific past.
Rescued cats don't necessarily have difficulties, Animal Center Director Jill Lancon said. "Some come out and make wonderful pets and have absolutely no problems."
These 24 may have trouble bonding with humans, she said, and, as they had never seen a litter box, they may have difficulty with house training.
Though I'm a dog owner, I have had wonderful luck with cats. As a boy, I claimed a striped warrior maiden named Keondra, and then the family I married into came with an affectionate tomcat named Bogart.
For all that, a cat is a gamble. Will he grow up to cuddle under your chin at night and purr loudly in your lap? Or will he attack your sleeping head?
For the cats, I guess, it's a gamble, too. Will they find a caring family to love them, feed them, take them to the vet and otherwise cater to their catty ways?
There at the Animal Center I was reminded of another facet of responsible pet ownership: getting your pet spayed or neutered.
Last Friday, when 64 cats were brought in from Terpstra's house, another 58 animals - cats, dogs and horses - also arrived at the center. The statistics indicated most of them will be euthanized.
Last year, 14,519 animals were taken in - 7,159 canines, 7,019 felines and 341 other animals, like horses, goats and hamsters.
Of those, 3,358 were adopted. At the same time, animals were euthanized at the rate of 190 a week, including 3,273 cats, 2,530 kittens, 3,008 dogs and 983 puppies.
By getting our pets spayed or neutered, we are doing our part, not just to rescue one suffering animal but to help prevent the suffering and death of dozens.
Joe Byrnes may be reached at joe@ocala.com, ocala.com/blogs or (352) 867-4112.
|
|
| Permalink |
Trackback |
Comments (1)
Add Comment
|
Re: A second chance at a better life |
By Joe2 on
4/19/2007 3:14 PM |
| A truly sad deal. You captured that so well. |
|
|
|
|
|