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10/27/09
A tiny tuxie kitten who was clinging by his claws to his 9th and final life was rescued from a frigid Long Island storm drain this week.
A passerby heard his faint mews and investigated, locating him beneath a drainage grate in a parking lot. She called the Humane Society, and was lucky enough to talk to a volunteer who happened to be the wife of Oceanside Fire Chief Tim Biscay. The Biscays raced to the scene as the chief called his ladder company for assistance.
“We have a lot of tools, and deep down, most of the guys here are real animal lovers,” said Biscay, who has performed several cat rescues.
The firefighters tried to coax the shivering tuxie from its perch inside a pipe but he was too frightened to move. Then they “spooked” it with a fire extinguisher and the kitten leaped into the arms of firefighter Matt Martin.
“The poor little thing was pale and shaking — he was probably hypothermic,” said Biscay.
The kitten was taken to the Hilton Animal Hospital. “He was definitely hypothermic,” said Dr. Jeffrey Strom. “But he’s eaten and is in a warming cage, and he seems to be brightening up.” The kitten, nicknamed “Storm” spent the night in the warming cage. The next morning he was admitted to the Long Beach Humane Society for adoption.
He didn’t have to wait long. Two hours later, he was adopted by the mother-in-law of the original good Samaritan who alerted authorities to his predicament. How’s that for a happy ending?
[LINK: New York Post]
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10/24/09
In a rural area outside of Council Bluffs, Iowa, this week, Oreo the Cat saved a five-year-old boy from a possible kidnapping:
It’s unimaginable. A mother finds a stranger, standing over her sleeping son. The boy’s mother tells Channel 6 News it happened to her Wednesday evening.
The family lives in rural Pottawattamie County, southeast of Council Bluffs. The 26 year-old mother, Becca, asked that her last name not be used, as the family is still concerned for its safety.
“Scared,” she said. “I don’t want to be home by myself.” She said the ordeal began shortly before 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. She had settled her nearly five year-old son in a recliner to watch a movie. Then, she got in the tub with her three year-old.
That’s when something strange happened. Her cat, Oreo, wandered in to the bathroom. “I’m like why is the outside cat in the house?” The cat, she said, was acting strangely.
“I hurried up, got dressed and I came out in the kitchen. And a guy was standing over my five year-old son, just staring at him.”
Her son was sleeping in the chair. “And I yelled at him,” Becca said. “And I told him that if he didn’t get out of the house, I was going to call 911. He came running towards me and hit me in the head.”
She said she grabbed the closest possible weapon off the kitchen floor, her son’s plastic baseball bat. “I hit him in the head with the bat. And he took off, out the door. I don’t know where he went.” She never saw a car.
“If he was after me, he would have come in the bathroom. So, I’m wondering if he’s a child molester or something.”
Sheriff Jeff Danker said the motives are unclear. “It seemed like he was focused on the child, so it is a real concern.”
He calls the case “unusual,” especially in that part of the county where there’s no easy access to homes by sidewalks. “The investigators are going to be canvassing the area and doing what they can to follow up on this.”
Becca used to feel comfortable leaving the door unlocked, but not anymore. “Just because it’s country, you feel like you’re safe. And it’s not safe anywhere.”
She called her cat her “hero.” Ironically, she rescued him more than eight years ago. Now, it seems, Oreo has returned the favor by saving her son.
“I was just scared to death, because if the cat hadn’t come in, he could have taken off with him or hurt him, or do something.” The boy slept through the whole thing, and his little brother didn’t see anything.
The Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s department is looking for a man around 40 years-old. He’s described as having dark hair, hazel eyes and a tattoo on the back of his neck. He’s about 6’1” and weighs around 200 pounds.
Becca said he was wearing blue jeans, a purple shirt and tennis shoes when she saw him. Anyone with information should call (712) 890-2200.
[LINK: wowt.com]
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10/10/09
Cody the Cat is safe at home after a cross-country adventure that started in a Dallas UPS truck and ended in Chicago.
The adventuresome blue-eyed tuxie was accidentally packed and sealed in a packing box by his owner, Marie Webster, who runs a company which supplies materials to chiropractic offices. She was taping up a large box when Cody, sensing the opportunity for an excellent adventure, snuck inside.
“We arranged the foam and then we walked off [to] find a label … so I’m thinking he must have gotten in there then,” said Webster. “I’m sure he was completely panicked.”
She and her daughter searched frantically for Cody for the next few days.
On Wednesday, Brett St. Aubin, the director of a chiropractic clinic outside of Chicago, received the package of home traction units.
“We opened it up and we found cat hair on the merchandise,” the chiropractor said. “And [then] I saw the cat. I quickly closed the box back up.”
Cody’s collar had come off during the trip, so it took a few minutes to sort everything out. They pulled him from the box and initiated petting therapy.
“He was in shock, but well-behaved,” St. Aubin said.
Upon emptying the box they found his collar, and they immediately called Webster.
“He said ‘Are you the owner of Cody the cat?’ I said, ‘Yes I am,’” Webster said. “I started screaming. He said, ‘We’re in Illinois.’ I’m like, ‘What?’”
Plans were made to transport Cody back to Texas. St. Aubin took Cody to an animal hospital to get him checked out.
“He was just a little bit in shock,” said Brenda Brown, certified veterinary technician at the hospital. “We actually kept him here overnight, and he was eating and drinking normally. He definitely appeared to be in good spirits.”
Cody received the distinguished honor of “Patient of the Month” from St. Aubin before a courier whisked him to the airport.
“Everybody was just outstanding in helping me get this cat back,” Webster said.
[LINK: nwherald.com]
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09/29/09
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09/15/09
[PHOTO: tinypic.com]
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09/08/09
This last guy is all whiskers!
Don’t forget! You can leave a comment on this post for an entry in The Cat’s Meow’s giveaway of a custom oil painting of your cat by Linden Alley.
[PHOTO CREDITS: edopter.com; rockytheguttercat.com; stuffonmycat.com; courierpostonline.com; flickr; flickr; rockytheguttercat.com; flickr]
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07/08/09
The ashes of former first cat, Socks Clinton, have been scattered in the rose garden at the Governor’s Mansion (see  photo, below right) in Arkansas. The ceremony was attended by Linda Dixon of the Clinton Presidential Library and first lady Ginger Beebe, who read a poem she wrote in honor the famous tuxie.
On a porch just outside the kitchen, a plaque was erected to honor Socks, the Clinton’s family cat. The plaque notes that Socks was first cat of Arkansas from 1991 to 1993 and first cat of the United States from 1993 to 2001. “When (the Clintons) lived at the mansion that’s where Socks hung out, on the back porch there,” said Ron Maxwell, administrator of the mansion.
The Clintons adopted Socks when they were living at the Governor’s Mansion in 1991. Socks moved with the family to the White House when Bill Clinton was elected president. When the Clintons left the White House, Socks went to live with the Clinton’s secretary, Betty Currie, at her home in Maryland, a move that left many cat lovers furious with the Clintons.
Last year, Socks was diagnosed with cancer, and was euthanized on February 20th of this year. Reportedly, after Socks’ death, Betty Currie said she felt, “awful, awful, awful.”
The small urn in which the ashes were contained was later taken to the Clinton Presidential Library.
Maxwell said the ashes were scattered after a small ceremony attended by a few people, including Linda Dixon of the Clinton Presidential Library and first lady Ginger Beebe, who read a poem she wrote in honor the cat.
[LINK: NWA Online]
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07/03/09
Inspired, perhaps, by The Cat’s Meow’s “Road Trip” series, a plucky tuxie kitten miraculously survived a drive from Maine to New Hampshire this week inside the engine compartment of a car into which he’d climbed.
Firefighters rescued him from under the hood of a car parked at a local hospital. By all accounts, a patient from Kennebunk, Maine, drove to Dover, New Hampshire with the kitty hanging out next to the engine.
 Kenney — named by the Cocheco Valley Humane Society staff to honor his hometown — caught the attention of people in a passing car, according to Deputy Fire Chief Eric Hagman.
“The cat climbed out of that car and ran over and climbed up another car,” the chief said. “The second car was owned by an employee of the hospital, so she came out and unlocked the car and popped the hood and that let the crew reach into where the cat was hiding” near the engine.
Animal Control was summoned, and before long, Kenney was a vibrating lump of purr in the arms of Elisabeth Shuter, the shelter’s medical manager.
“He’s just as comfortable in your arms as he can be,” she said.
Kenney’s whiskers were singed, but otherwise appeared to be none the worse for his adventure. The Humane Society’s staff expected that the 10-week, two-pound cutie would be adopted soon after their doors opened for business at 11.
“We’re going to have at least 20 people at the door” after people see his picture in the newspaper, she said, confident he’ll be a “purrrr-fect fit” for the right home.
[LINK/PHOTOS: WMUR.com and Fosters.com]
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06/26/09
A sweet tuxie mom in Illinois has embraced the challenge of mothering three puppies and a kitten who is not her own:
Cats and dogs are supposed to be mortal enemies, but it seems a mother’s love can overlook the interspecies differences.
A black cat with white paws is nursing two puppies so young their eyes aren’t even open yet and another 3-week-old adopted kitten.
The cat, which doesn’t have a name, was brought in to Rock Island County Animal Care and Control with her own litter of kittens. Some of the kittens died and the remaining ones were weaned when the young kitten arrived at the shelter.
Shelter staff put the black kitten in with the mom and she took to it right away. But when the puppies were found in Moline late last week, there weren’t any nursing dogs to serve as a foster mom to the delicate pups.
“We didn’t know what we were going to do,” said Sam DeYoung, operations director of Animal Care and Control. “They didn’t have their eyes open, they were 1-week-old, so we decided to try putting them with the momma cat, and they latched on and away they went.”
The cat takes her mothering duties seriously, letting anyone who puts a hand in her crate know that these are her babies and they are not to be touched.
The kitten is more than twice the size of the puppies, whose cries for milk are barely audible. They climb all over each other, vying for a better spot to feed from. It’s too early to tell what breed the puppies are, but shelter staff can tell by their tiny size that they are a small-breed dog.
“She’s just an all-around supermom,” said Laurel Harmening, animal caretaker at the shelter. “She just loves being a mom.”
The shelter is overrun with cats and kittens right now and finding foster homes that can bottle feed kittens and puppies every three hours is a challenge. So the cat is saving two foster homes by nursing the kitten and puppies, as well as delivering nutrients and immunities that they can’t get from formula.
The kitten will stay with the cat until it is weaned, and the puppies will stay with their unlikely foster mom for about two weeks before going to a foster home. DeYoung said anyone interested in adopting the animals should wait about eight weeks before contacting the shelter, because it will take that long to get all the animals altered and vaccinated.
You can view a video here.
Rock Island Animal Care and Control
4001 78th Avenue
Moline IL 61265
Phone: (309) 558-DOGS (3647)
[LINK/PHOTO: Quad City Times]
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06/05/09
In what must have been a gut-wrenching experience for his rescuers, a cat who was stuck in a tree for a week in Warwick City Park (RI) takes a 40-ft plunge to avoid being picked up in a cherry picker:
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