Cat Survives 9-Week Lockup in Windowseat
In Column One in the L.A. Times, Kim Murphy wrote about recently finding her nearly-dead cat hidden in a window seat nine weeks after going missing. Mostly a happy ending, although the cat may be left with long-term neurological damage.
Kim prefaces Bess’ story with a telling of the unfortunate ends her other cats have met: TWO cats at different times fell to their deaths from balconies. One was hit by a bus. Another survived being run through the dryer. At one point, the Animal Welfare Society in London would not approve her application to adopt a cat, ostensibly because she lived on a bus route. (Read the Column for the context.)
Which brings us to Bess:
Bess disappeared Sept. 28.
We were having a barbecue that night, with lots of loud music and friends and kids and a rambunctious dog. The next morning, when no one could find Bess, we feared the worst.
…We printed up posters and tacked them around the neighborhood. We knocked on doors, walked up and down streets calling her name, placed her toys and my daughter’s nightgown in the yard to entice her with familiar smells.
Eventually, even the children admitted she wasn’t coming home.
On Nov. 30 … we had another blowout party. I made chicken tacos, my neighbor’s boyfriend made pitchers of margaritas; we built a fire on the deck and smoked cigars under the stars. Afterward, I stood in the kitchen doing dishes while my friend Kris and her daughter, Sophie, talked in the living room.
There was something in Kris’ voice when she called my name that felt like walking into a freezer. “What?” I asked.
“Kim,” she said again. “Come here.”
I walked slowly into the living room. Then I heard it: a low, weak, persistent “meow” coming from inside the window seat, a bench with a hinged door, that Kris and Sophie had opened up.
A small part of me celebrated before I even got across the room. The rest of me melted in horror. It had been nearly nine weeks since Bess disappeared, probably sneaking into the open window seat when no one was watching. Nine weeks locked in a box, without food and water, or even much air. What was left? What was meowing?
As a war correspondent, I have been trained to put my emotions aside in times of danger, assess the situation and act quickly. This I tried to do. I scooped up the tiny bundle of ragtag fur that was Bess — leaking a clear, viscous fluid — and carried her to the kitchen. I grabbed the turkey baster, filled it with water and tried to inject it into her mouth, which was gaping and unresponsive except for the weak howl that came out every few seconds.
I grabbed the phone and called my brother, who is a veterinarian in Bremerton, about half an hour away. He gave me directions to the nearest emergency clinic. Wrapping Bess in a large towel, I climbed into Kris’ car and we sped off.
I spent all that night at Bess’ side as the doctor and technicians pumped an IV sugar solution into her veins and offered her a small plate of food. Like a mad creature, Bess lunged and bit everything in sight, including my finger, and nearly broke her teeth on the spoon as I helped push the food toward her mouth.
She weighed just 4.7 pounds. Her blood was heavy with salt. As morning dawned, she began having seizures — a signal of possible brain damage from the dehydration or a phenomenon known as “refeeding syndrome,” a potentially fatal metabolic crisis seen in the survivors of World War II concentration camps that can occur when victims of starvation are fed too quickly.
For the next few days, we visited Bess every evening. She was blind. She could barely raise her head, which was oddly bowed toward the ground in a classic sign of thiamine and potassium deficiency. She continued to have what the doctors chillingly described as “neurological events.”
Slowly, however, she got better. After four days, when the vet bills were approaching $3,000, we brought her home. [Read the whole column here.]
So, I finished reading this, was feeling all warm and fuzzy and happy that Bess was okay, and then I started thinking that the Animal Welfare Society in London might have been wise not to allow Kim to adopt a cat. Just like humans who love kids but have no parental skills, Kim may be a cat lover, but it sounds like she comes up a little short in the caregiving department when it comes to cats. (Not one, but TWO of her cats fell to their deaths from balconies?)
Let’s see… loud party with a rambunctious dog. How about checking all the hidey places in the house where a terrified cat might go for refuge, including (am I the only one who thinks this is a no-brainer?) — the window seat.
What do you think? A series of unfortunate events for a jinxed cat lover, or someone who seriously needs to learn how to properly care for and protect her feline charges?
If I had a cat go missing, I would search every inch of the house. How could she not hear a cat in the window seat. When I originally read this, it made me wonder if someone at the party thought it would be funny to shut the poor cat in there. Also, if I had a cat fall off a balcony, I would make darn sure no other cats could ever get on to it again. I feel terribly sad for poor Bess, but feel that her owner needs to drastically change or stop keeping cats.
That “owner” needs to have a serious wake-up call, and it seems Bess’ plight wasn’t enough! Definitely she should not be allowed to have any more cats, or any more pets in general!
Hello Skeezy, It’s very hard and so sad to hear that a cat owner didn’t search their home a lot better. Are those people deaf? We feel people like these ones shouldn’t own any pets. This is truly an irresponsible group of owners. We hope that the poor animal doesn’t suffer any permanent damages, but we doubt it. This story was a real shocker. Your good pal, bosco.
This woman should never have another pet, EVER. It is heartbreaking to think of the horrors her pets have been through.
It is shocking that this woman recounts this story as if she were the hero! wow. Can you imagine ignoring poor Bess’s cries until a neighbor came over? Something’s very wrong. I hope her children are safe.
worried,
Snoop Dogg
How sad. Reading the entire article by Kim, statements such — “my dimwit Persian” and “the latest in a line of cats I’ve picked up in my travels as a foreign correspondent” — tell a lot about her, in my opinion.
I think most of us grow and evolve, most likely learning through experience about caring for cats. Our first cat may not have been as well cared for as our next cat, and so on. How many cats has she had now? I hope Kim has learned something from this, but I sadly doubt it. It’s as if it’s another cute story to tell about her bad luck with cats. That’s the part I resent.
How about the next time she has a blowout party, lock the cats in a room where they can’t escape and no one can get to them? Or board them somewhere they’re safe? She must be an intelligent woman but needs to use her brain when it comes to protecting the cats she professes to love. My vote goes for this option: Kim is “someone who seriously needs to learn how to properly care for and protect her feline charges.”
Kim is blessed to have Bess. Does she deserve Bess, though?
Skeezy,
This is just heartbreaking and unbelievable. This woman is a danger to cats! I too would tear the house apart looking for my furbabies. She thinks because she spent $3,000 that this absolves her from guilt. I shudder to think of poor Bess being left in her care. She doesn’t deserve that poor kitty or any kitty for that matter.
I read the above article with much dismay and horror, and although the author seemed to find the whole event to be rather amusing, I find it distasteful to make light of events in which cats (or any living beings) meet a tragic demise or near-demise.
Had Bess been a child, the witty author would have been arrested for negligence and would have had the child removed from her custody, probably permanently.
Evidently, no one saw fit to contact the animal humane society to have them evaluate the horror poor Bess has suffered.
If our heroic author should feel the need to adopt more pets in the future, perhaps she should consider a pet rock, even she couldn’t damage one of those…or could she?
My human realizes that as a meeze I have a tendency to sit inside things and wait until they open a door and then meow as loudly as possible (for being too silly not search their first). However, when I got hungry I am absolutely certain that I would have hollared my meow off until someone got me out! Not to mention that the Woman would have been searching and crying and calling for me.
How do you not hear a cat in the window seat?!
Our hearts were not warmed by this story and while it was a miracle for the cat I am having a hard time with compassion for the human
Some people should not have pets.This story is too sad but unfortunately there are many who treat their pets with disdain.We need to report this sort of behavior to The Humane Society.Hopefully these pets can find better deserving homes.
*Sigh
I am with the “no more pets for her” group. I had one cat find his way out of a window once, pushed the screen out, I guarantee you it wont happen twice! The 12 hours it took to find Chester changed me forever. I am now so paranoid about their safety I make the other twofers around me nuts. No windows open more than a crack, nothing left on counters unattended for a minute, no knives allowed in dish drainer and a zillion other rules. How could all the trauma her cats have endured not have impacted this woman?
that bean has no more sense than a bag of hammers. it’s a miracle her kidbean managed to live to the age of the one pictured. and to write this article as it were an amusing anecdote, and she were poor bess’s saviour? AGHHHHHH! our mom’s eyes leaked fur a day after reading this, an’ is still awful glum. we are all in favor of throwing kim off a balcony (twice) and then locking her in a window seat. permanently. really.
mom got so upset an’ mad after typin’ the above entry fur us, that she fired this off to the darn woman:</i:
YOU feel blessed? You darn well oughta feel ashamed. BESS is the one who is blessed, and NOT by you, but by G*d. It would be a sin if you EVER get another pet. They’re not just “things” that “come and go”, to be “picked up”. They’re living beings with minds and feelings who live, feel happiness, and suffer–just like humans.
The thing that sticks in my craw is that you wrote this in an attempt at levity. I can hardly thing of anything more pitiful.
Irately yours, (still, two days after first reading the article),
Cheryl C. Pierce
Springfield, MO
Just last night my mom went into a panic when she couldn’t find me. We live in a tiny apt. and I was inside. None of the doors or windows had not been opened since mom had seen me last but she kept looking for me until she found me in the closet.
So, mom can’t believe it didn’t occur to some one to look in the window seat. Or that they didn’t hear the cat. The friend heard the meow of a very weak and sick cat. How did these idiots not hear her before!
So, we agree that this twit should not have any more cats! And the entire family should have their hearing checked.
Hisses to that woman,
Luci
PART 3: SHE REPLIED!!! GO TO http://nels-ed-nitro-xing.blogspot.com to see what she said!!!!
For Bess sake I hope the momma did learn this time. Pleez!!!! This is one of the reason mom could not continue being a vet tech. She has a bunch of stories like these. She don’t want to bring them up but some people, are not meant to have pets. Maybe they should have classes in school for animal care for the young ones. They have child care in H.S. how about pet care?
Wow! I cannot believe that this woman *still* has cats! I know that bad things can happen to our furry family members & sometimes on more than one occassion, but good grief many of those things she mentioned seemed fairly avoidable.
My mom is a total worry wart & also has very strict rules for all the humans in the family, even if they are only there to visit a short time. Everyone knows not to let any of us outside or they will be dealing with her.
Mom is also careful of things on the counter, like pots, pans & knives & even some of our toys. Some of the family thinks she’s beyond anal because of it but she doesn’t care. We are her furkids & she frets & fusses over us, just another way of showing her love for us.
No to pets for this person. Balconies, busses, dryers and now this. Not a responsible pet owner. Let her have parties instead of pets
What an airhead. Her response to missouri meowers email shows she has learned nothing and is totally clueless about cats.
I cannot say all the things going through my head right now because none of them are nice and at least one of them involves punching that woman in the boobies…and I know that’s not very gentlemanly of me. But we all know, I’m not gentleman…
And perhaps this a telling comment, as well:
After four days, when the vet bills were approaching $3,000, we brought her home.
It almost sounds as if the $3,000 bill was the motivating factor for bring Bess home. I know it might be nitpicking, but this particular owner is a journalist and is supposed to know what they are doing with words. If $ wasn’t the deciding factor she would have written something more like “After four days we were able to bring her home. The vet bill was nearly $3,000.” Placing the money as an after-thought would show it’s importance to the writer. Ms. Murphy put the $ up front in her writing which seems to indicate that the vet bill was of primary importance to getting Bess home.
I hate to be judgmental, but this sort of story makes it hard not to be.
I’ll simply pass on what mom’s thinking:
Being booksmart doesn’t make you “streetsmart” or give you common sense.
The term “genius” means the capacity to learn, to problem solve. Being able to thump a thesaurus doesn’t give one understanding or empathy or humanity. She did not learn, cannot learn, or refuses to learn from the past.
This woman proves the sad fact that you can have an education yet still be stupid as Hell.
[...] Cat Survives 9-Week Lockup in Windowseat [...]
I agree completely. Kim Murphy sounds like a bimbo. She should not be allowed to own pets, and perhaps her children should be removed from her custody as well. Shame on the LA Times for providing her a forum for her stupidity and excuses. Instead, they might have provided a column with details on proper, responsible pet care. How much more helpful that would have been.
[...] Rebecca Davis Winters in Cat Survives 9-Week Lockup in Windowseat meows “I agree…” 5 hours 18 minutes ago [...]
I have my hidey places too and I can be very quiet even though I’m a meezer. Mom (and her friends) did not stop searching until I came out again on my own. No exaggeration, Mom almost didn’t go to her own (human) mom’s funeral because I hid. The only secret left in her apartment and her apartment building is where I hid. If I’m stuck somewhere I call, like any normal cat would do. How could she not have heard? How could she have been so irresponsible? And she claims to love her pets??? It defies the imagination as to what that poor cat went through. The death of the first cat would have been an accident, the death of the second cat was a crime and the near death of the third is absolutely unforgiveable. This is not a heart-warming story. Was this her warped idea of a story that might make good copy? Kim Murphy should bear in mind that if that pet was child she would have been locked up by now.
Holy cow, what an idiot. Not every journalist is this stupid or clueless; I’ve been one for close to two decades, and the worst one of my cats has suffered was a day and a half of a blocked urethra before I determined he was sick enough to go to the vet (and I didn’t know WHAT was wrong with him at the time, precisely).
I agree with the people who question whether she should even have children. I suspect, however, that since it would be a *felony* to let a missing kid be shrugged off without a thorough search of the immediate area, maybe they are getting proper care. Ugh.
I have read and reread this article many times and as I did the first time, I continue to find it at once sad, happy, horrifying and heartwarming. I clipped it out the Seattle Times and kept it, and have since printed the article from the Times’ website a few times and have sent the article to friends and family who are also cat lovers. What I did not feel, not then, not now, was the anger directed at the author and Bess’ owner, Kim Murphy. It didn’t occur to me too blame her, I was just so happy to hear the cat was found and that her health improving. Even after reading all the comments, mostly negative towards Kim, I still didn’t get it. Of the comments concerning not hearing the cat, well, I assume if she heard the cat she would have rescued her sooner. Not checking the window box? I’m not sure I would have thought about checking it either. As for all the past kitty tragedies, I don’t like to even think of the beautiful cats I’ve buried and cried over in the past 30 years. And every single disappearance or death was a complete accident. Granted, most of my cats have been adopted, older than six months, and having acquired a taste for the outdoors, nearly impossible to keep indoors, and their untimely ends usually had to do with the road and a automobile. But Bess’ mishap could have happened to any cat, while the owner was distracted with a lively party and guests. I guess what shocked me more than anything was the very judgmental nature of most of the comments. I don’t spend much time on the Internet and after reading all the vitriol I expect I will spend even less. I feel a little foolish at my naive assumption that most people are kind at heart.
THIS PERSON SHOULD NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER HAVE ANOTHER CAT!! iF I LOST A CAT, i WOULD SEARCH EVER SINGLE NOOK, CRANNY, CREVESE, CORNER, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT! i WOULD NOT SLEEP UNTIL IT WAS FOUND!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM!? ITS AN ANIMAL FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!
AFTER READING THIS, I AGRRE WITH EVERYONE ELSE WHO HAS POSTED A COMMENT.THIS PERSON SHOULD NEVER EVER HAVE ANOTHER CAT!! IF I LOST A CAT, I WOULD SEARCH EVER SINGLE NOOK, CRANNY, CREVESE, CORNER, WHATEVER YOU WANT TO CALL IT! HOW IN THE WORLD DID SHE NOT HEAR IT TOO!? THAT WOMAN IS JUST A DIMWITTED, PINHEAD IDIOT! I WOULD NOT SLEEP IF I LOST A CAT UNTIL IT WAS FOUND!! WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS WOMAN!? AND AFTER ALL THE OTHER INCIDENTS HER SO CALLED “PETS”, I AM SUPRISED SHE HAS NOT YET BEEN BANNED FROM GETTING ANY MORE PETS! SHE SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAVE CHILDREN! ANIMALS ARE LIVING THINGS TOO YOU KNOW! WELL OBVIOSLY, SHE DOESNT KNOW THAT EITHER! APPARENTLY, SHE HAS NO SENSE AT ALL! ITS AN ANIMAL FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!