Today, we continue yesterday’s article by Judi Basolo about an adoption from the Okefenokee Humane Society that went terribly wrong. This is the second of two parts. Read part 1 here.

Never expecting to find Eve in this unhealthy condition, both Jody and new kitten mom Terry announced Eve’s journey via Facebook and Catster.com, initially spreading the news that Eve was no longer at the high-kill Georgia shelter and would be flying soon to her forever home, even though the cost was exorbitant. Instantaneously, donations poured in to assist Eve in her journey in Minnesota.

“Almost $900 was raised within days,” Terry conveyed and all via the two social network pages the women maintain. And while compassionate comments flowed thru the internet – everybody was cheering Eve on to get healthy and then to get from the foster home to her “Furever” home, followers began a “Believe in Eve” campaign and word spread of the kitten’s unhealthy plight while donations continued to be given.

A generous donor even gave a travel voucher allowing a person to fly with Eve to Minnesota from North Carolina. Abundant travel advice, care, concern and donations continued to pour in via the social networks while global cheers were raised that Eve was heading to a loving home.

On January 2nd Eve was rushed to intensive care and close to midnight, the Vet declared her young lungs were filling with fluid while there was no chance for her recovery. This tiny handful of fur was not only semi-blind, could not walk, was malnourished, unable to eat on her own … and dying. The decision was made to put Eve out of misery – a decision that was not without repercussion as the news spread on Catster and Facebook.

Since that poignant evening, it’s been discovered that the Okefenokee Humane Society just may not be such a humane group. They’re not only abusing the animals, but may be abusing funds as well. News articles abound on the Internet regarding their last Executive Director, Lori Hartman, who reportedly was fired for charging $8,500 on the non-profit’s account. Most of the charges cannot be validated including a $2,500 charge for new flooring; the Shelter says they don’t have new flooring. According to Jody and Danny Butler who visited, the dogs were laying on dirt in pens, not on new flooring.

The organization has also been late with IRS payments and personal checks have been written to the Executive Director and her family members for bookkeeping services. According to records, she was dismissed in October 2009.

Ms Hartman is just one of the numerous past Directors of this shelter who have purportedly misappropriated funding or mismanaged operations. While the mishaps have caused shelter services to be cut intermittently, this also be causing permanent long-term damage to the animals who are housed or caged in inhumane conditions waiting patiently for adoptive homes.

A tiny semi-blind kitten has caused serious global discussions to surface: should the misdirection of funds or lack of appropriate direction warrant animals being forced to live within the in-humane conditions this or any purported humane shelter is offering – not advertising but definitely offering. The Facebook page for Okefenokee Humane Society is a dichotomy to their actual operation – showing posts attesting to their miraculous shelter, pets needing homes and unending rescues or even the weekly time stamped dates of future euthanizing.

They want to communicate, yet when one becomes a FAN of their page, and comments, the comments are hidden hence only the selected posts with positive comments are allowed to be shown on their Facebook page. People are questioning what they might they not want the world to know?

“I don’t know if they’re NOT doing the best they can do but they could obviously be doing better than they’re doing” comments Jody’s husband Danny who accompanied her on this horrific journey.

Sorrowfully, little Eve died right before New Years Day, but her short life was definitely not in vain nor was this 3 pound 7 months old kitten an unknown throughout the world – it’s a huge legacy for a small creature who couldn’t see or walk. And since her demise, it has surfaced that abundant reports are being filed, requesting investigations of Georgia’s Department of Agriculture into the Okefenokee Humane Society. The most common post: who ever heard of an Inhumane Humane Society?

It’s no new news that all animal shelters in the nation are at 100% occupancy in these taxing economic times and as pathetic as it is, it’s true – people are dropping their former furry family members on highway roadsides, stuffing them in mail boxes and yet many are surrendering their pets the proper way to the shelters. Albeit there is no excuse for inhumane treatment at a registered and licensed Humane Society that is approved to care for pets who’ve lost their homes and assuredly lost those they’ve given the unconditional love to. And now they’ve lost the right to decency and humane treatment.

These creatures whose lives are in turmoil to begin with, don’t deserve abusive conditions as interim housing, and somehow, decency should prevail while the animal rescue org Executive Directors and their respective Board members should be held socially responsible and legally liable for providing decent, clean, basic care – the care that connotes the word “Humane”.

What is the solution to monitor the Humane Societies of our nation, to alleviate these horrific conditions and pathetic situations that domestic and feral pets incur? These pets have no voice — so humans become their voices and people are speaking out on their behalf. A tsunami of supporters are on board riding the waves to help. The pets in the Okefenokee Humane Society are the family members who’ve lost their families, lost their hope, have no reason to give their unconditional love any longer, and their tiny hearts ache while ours should be aching for them.

Distraught over watching Eve’s four day demise, North Carolina resident and Jody’s husband, Danny Butler said “In my mind when you think of a Humane Society it has a better level than a pound – which means in three to four days the pet will be put down – a Humane Society means you’re getting a better level”. “IF there is wrong doing at Okefenokee Humane Society, then I want to see it corrected if that’s what happened”.

In hind sight, Eve should never have suffered for any amount of time, let alone all 7 months of her life in a cage at the Okefenokee Humane Society without anyone tending to her medical needs or noticing her increasing malnutrition. Most likely, she never received a warm “humane” hug.

When asked if they would you do this again, Jody laughingly said “We’re doing this again!” noting they’re currently trolling the transportation rescue railroad trying to adopt for someone, a 10 year blind male cat they’ve named “stEVEn”- in honor of Eve, The senior cat is now at a pound in Newnan Georgia and if all goes well they’ll get him safely into a “forever’” home and a humane life.

Join the BeliEVE in Eve group on Facebook.

ABOUT JUDI BASOLO: Judi is best known as the crazy cat lady mom to Guido the Italian Kitty (and Yolo and Baci, too). She’s a member of the Cat Writer’s Association and makes her home in San Francisco.

Today we have a guest submission by Judi Basolo in an exclusive report for The Cat’s Meow, describing the story of Eve — a special needs cat — and the rescue mission to get her out of the Okefenokee Humane Society and into a loving furever home. The story was followed closely by many of us on Catster and Facebook.

HUMANE Society? It’s Not Always a Pawsative Place

An article by Judi Basolo special to The Cat’s Meow

“The minute I saw the place, my heart just sank and I knew this wasn’t going to be good”, said Jody Butler, a strong willed and skilled rescue-work animal volunteer from North Carolina. “It was really extremely depressing! Dogs stuffed onto ‘South Georgia Soil’ dirt floored pens, a trailer for a make-shift office and I just didn’t get a good feeling. You could tell this Humane Society is short on donations – and if they do have money they’re surely not spending it!” Jody lamented.

Despite lack of a sign saying “Welcome to the Okefenokee Humane Society,” Jody conveyed that her dismal visit this past December 30th did begin with an exciting upbeat mission: to rescue a semi-blind 7-month-old kitten from this high-kill Humane Society in Waycross, Georgia.

Located in Southeast Georgia, Waycross is a town that prides itself for receiving four annual “ Distinguished Budget Presentation Awards” bestowed upon them for “the City’s compliance with national standards for governmental budgets,” according to their City website. However, it’s possible that the budget is not being shared with their Humane Society, or so it appeared to Jody on her journey to rescue the special needs kitten that was not for her own home.

Desirous of adding a blind cat to her flourishing feline family, Minnesota resident Terry Morinville (photo at right with Skeezix) posted on her Facebook page last October, “would like to give a home to a blind cat.” From there correspondence began, and Terry befriended Jody Butler, who with her husband Danny, has 12 special needs cats with leukemia, blindness, deafness and an array of conditions that the normal pet parent would not care to adopt. Jody understands special needs animals, being a long time rescue-work volunteer for the Blind Cat Rescue Sanctuary in St. Pauls, North Carolina.

Terry’s aspiration to adopt a blind cat is not unusual, as adopted pets with special needs number well into the hundreds of thousands in the U.S., a sizable but mere number amongst the 150 million cats and dogs owned by people in the country. It definitely takes a special pet parent to adopt and care for these special needs animals, and it’s a genuine gift that there are miraculous people adding to their families while giving the ‘in need’ animals a chance at a normal life.

Morinville is an extraordinary pet parent, and she and Jody have been through an amazing journey in a few short weeks — the destination definitely was not what either of them bargained for.

Not long after Terry and Jody began communicating about the blind cats, Jody emailed Terry that she had located a semi-blind kitten whom she named EVE, optimistically hoping to pick the kitten up around Christmas Eve. According to a string of emails with the new Executive Director, Ben, the kitten had resided her entire 7 months at the Okefenokee Humane Society. Sight unseen, Terry emailed back to Jody, “I WANT HER!”

On a frigid December 30th, the org’s Executive Director met Jody in the murky and muddy driveway of this purported Humane Society, inviting her into his “trailer house” temporary office. Later, he took her cat carrier while disappearing for a while, and eventually returning with the kitten in the carrier. “I never saw where the cats were housed as he did not extend an invitation to me to visit that part of the grounds” Jody said

When questioned about “where are the volunteers for this shelter,” Ben said to her “We have volunteers come in 2 to 3 days a week to take care of and work with the animals.” By the looks of the devastated grounds and inadequate shelter facility, one wonders who is caring for the animals any day of the week, as it is not fitting that animals in a Humane Society’s care be without food, water, or observation on a daily basis.

Baffled and hoping to find out about Eve’s medical history, Jody inquired as any adoptive parent would. The Director assured her they’d had Eve for 7 months, all her life, but when Jody asked for copies of the medical records and adoption papers, Ben had nothing to give her. “I have doubts over this,” Jody conveyed, “as he told me the former administration didn’t keep very good records — so he’s pushing their inadequacies onto the former administration while it appears not taking any proactive steps.” And apparently not understanding animal care at all.

Simultaneously disgusted and delighted to depart the purported Humane Society, just minutes after leaving the shelter Jody decided she’d open the door to the cat carrier and let Eve out in the car. She was startled to find the cat couldn’t walk out of the carrier. “You cannot tell me that this kitten was not sick at that place and that Ben didn’t recognize it when he went to get the cat from wherever he got her.”

When questioned by Jody, the Director emailed her saying “there was no notice this cat could not walk at the shelter and she seemed fine other than being blind.” Seemingly though, something was wrong and had not been noticed or perhaps did the Staff turn a blind eye to this situation with a semi-blind kitten?

Just a day prior to Jody’s arrival at the Okefenokee Humane Society, the kitten had been spayed, 7 months after living at the shelter with abundant other cats also not neutered nor spayed. Georgia state law requires that animals be spayed prior to adoption but Eve just wasn’t healthy enough prior to December 30th so they claim, to be spayed. Yet, she was deemed by outside Veterinarians to be in a catastrophic and declining state of health hours after her release from the shelter. In Georgia, animals routinely are not spayed until they have an adoptive home but one may question her being in a massive cat shelter with non spayed, non neutered cats – could this be adding to the feline population?

Jody’s Vet was adamant the Okefenokee Humane Society should have recognized the abundant health issues of the kitten. “All 3 vets I took her to said this kitten should have never been spayed because she was too malnourished”. One vet said she weighed 2.5 lbs and the other vet said 3 lbs at 7 months of age!

Infirmed and feeble, little Eve also had severe trouble breathing and couldn’t stand on her own and would fall over after fighting to breathe.” Jody went on and on with horrific stories of Eve’s pathetic unhealthy conditions -– a surprising situation she never contemplated en route to rescue this semi-blind kitten. Seemingly the blindness was the least of Eve’s problems and Eve ended up one night late in an emergency ward unable to breathe.

“Horrible horrible horrible” is how Jody describes seeing this minuscule feline suffer for the four days they had Eve. But little Eve was smothered with love, warm hands, kisses, hugs, caring voices and humane treatment – something she’d apparently never known in her life at the Okefenokee Humane Society. Back at the Vet in Savannah on Dec 30th, she couldn’t stand up on the desk. “The Vet didn’t even want to do blood work on her because he said she was too weak,” Jody relayed. That Vet kindly suggested getting her baby food, human food, a mini hot dog, whatever it would take to get food into her extremely malnourished underweight body – then they tried the food syringe. The vet was skeptical Eve would survive at all.

Continued tomorrow.

ABOUT JUDI BASOLO: Judi is best known as the crazy cat lady mom to Guido the Italian Kitty (and Yolo and Baci, too). She’s a member of the Cat Writer’s Association and makes her home in San Francisco.

Each day throughout the holiday season The Cat’s Meow is showcasing an adoptable cat seeking a home in time for the holidays.

Today’s featured cat is Jake, a blue-eyed Siamese Snowshoe mix who’s an extremely loving cat, left behind by an owner who moved to Taiwan. Jake’s in the Atlanta area.

Here’s Jake’s story:

JAKE – MALE – 10 YEARS OLD – BORN 11/25/1999

Jake is a great cat! He is loving, very much into being loved and touched. When you call his name he comes right to you. He is always happy to be next to you and enjoys attention. Jake loves to sleep with his human and is very devoted. He really is a great cat!

Jake’s owner has to move to Taiwan and has not been able to find a way to take his beloved cats with him. Jake is almost 10 years old, has been neutered and is declawed. He is in good health.

Jake is very attached to his sister, Midnight, so please take a look at her listing as well:

Midnight

Jake is in a foster home, so please call us about him. We only adopt within the metro Atlanta area.

ADOPTION INFORMATION:
PetFinder ID: 10703591
Happily Ever After Animal Sanctuary Inc.
Friends of Animals (Buckhead)
Atlanta, GA
404-403-2285

Learn more about Jake here.

• Click here to find an adoptable pet in your area.

As judged by the Cat Fanciers Association, this year’s top cat internationally is 8-month-old Kuorii Gorilla of Cuzzoe, who beat out 630 other cats to win Best in Show at this year’s CFA International Show in Atlanta.

This solid black Persian (who goes by “Gorilla” or “Little GoGo”) lives in North Carolina with his owners, Justin Pelletier and Eric Valencia. They say that GoGo follows them around like a dog and loves to climb into any free lap and dispense kisses.

According to the Cat Fanciers Association, the CFA International Cat Show is the largest international pedigreed cat show in the Western Hemisphere, showcasing the world’s finest pedigreed felines. Competition is keen as it brings together 750 of the finest pedigreed cats from the United States, Canada, Asia, Europe and South America to compete for prestigious titles.

If you’ve ever visited Dogster’s For the Love of Dog blog, you’re familiar with Bo, who’s just penned his first book, Bad to the Bone. In it, he describes life with his beleaguered feline roommate, Moose, and his humans, Dogster bloggers Horst and Lisa. We’re thrilled that the book has been officially released so that we can all get a dog’s eye view of Life with Bo.

Here’s the post from the For Love of Dog blog:

“You’ll laugh, you’ll howl, you’ll practically wag with pleasure….Bo is truly the voice of his doggy generation” – Dr. Marty Becker

“Witty commentary and hilarious observations.”—Dog Living

“A real treat. Bo is so distinctively adorable and funny, that no other dog will be able to follow in his pawsteps”- Tracie Hotchner

Let’s get this clear right away: I’m a dog.

I’m 1′10″ and weigh 63 lbs, and although I’m a mutt on the outside, I’m a purebred on the inside. My good nature comes from the Golden Retriever side of the family, while my stubbornness is clearly from my Chowchow bloodlines. I’ve got Rastafarian ears, a black tongue for licking, and paws that should be on a dog twice my size.

I type 60 words a minute.

My name is Bo, and this is my story.

From shelter dog reject to beloved pet and popular doggie blogger, Bo Hoefinger’s life has been anything but ordinary.

Join this incorrigible canine as he welcomes us into his life, complete with his wacky “parents,” a constipated feline housemate, and chipmunk warfare. Bad to the Bone is an unforgettable, laugh-out-loud tale of love and loyalty that reveals the true heart of a modern American family.

A frequent contributor to local fence post 12, Bo continues his nonprofit work with the Beneath the Fence Society. In his spare time he dabbles in knocking over garbage pails, barking uncontrollably, and generally being a helpful force around the house.

He lives in Atlanta.

Grab a copy of BAD TO THE BONE for yourself and then a few for your dog loving friends. Can you think of a better gift for a dog lover than a book written by a dog? The holidays will be here before you know it and Bo thinks every dog in America, and beyond, should wake up x-mas morning to find a copy of his book in their stocking. It also works well as a gift for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, Bo doesn’t discriminate against any breed or holiday.

Bo’s book is now available, you can order online at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, BooksaMillion.com, indieBound.org, borders.com, or your favorite retailer. Spread the word to all your pup pals so they can get themselves a copy of the first memoir written by a dog ever published in non-fiction.

A big thank you goes out to the fine folks at Dogster HQ’s for all their support and help. A note of gratitude to all the Dogsters out there who believed in us and wanted to see a book written through a dog’s eyes, it’s you guys that helped make this happen.

Thank you to all!

Bo, Horst and Lisa

Concats on the publication, and we’ll look for Bo on the New York Times bestseller list!

It’s not unusual for cats to want to go to school, but it is unusual for cats to graduate with high school diplomas. Oreo C. Collins has done just that, earning her sheepskin from Jefferson High School Online. Remarkable enough for a cat, but at two years old she is also the youngest ever to graduate from Jefferson.

Superachiever Oreo comes from the most humble of beginnings. Found in a roadside ditch when only a couple of weeks old, the Collins family of Macon, Georgia, adopted and nutured her.

Kelvin Collins, who is the president and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Central Georgia encouraged Oreo in her scholastic efforts by helping him investigate online diploma mills.

He helped Oreo sign up to work for her diploma online, and even paid the $200 tuition fee for her.

Oreo was a star pupil, earning mostly “A”s in her classes, including credits for an essay she wrote about her “life experiences.” Collins did provide some support in helping Oreo complete her coursework, help she probably wouldn’t have needed if she’d been born with opposable thumbs. It didn’t hurt that anytime Oreo missed a test question, the test provided a helpful hint at the answer.

Oreo was rewarded for her academic prowess with extra treats and a self-cleaning litter box.

Unfortunately, Oreo’s diploma is not the same as a GED diploma. GED tests cannot be taken online. Collins says that Oreo’s “degree” serves as a warning to those ready to buy worthless diplomas. “We (the BBB) do a lot of stories on these diploma mills, but a lot of times consumers really don’t get it until you show them an example of how they (the diplomas) aren’t worth much.”

Like many recent graduates, Oreo is unemployed and living with her family. But Collins insists that we need not worry about her future: “Like Oreo wrote in her test essay, she always lands on her feet.”

[LINK: msnbc.com]

68-year-old Betty Macaluso doesn’t wake to the sound of an alarm clock. Like many of us, she’s awakened by a hungry cat or two, who gently knead her arm when it’s time for their breakfast. Unlike many of us, she wouldn’t be able to hear the alarm clock even if it did ring; she’s deaf, and her cats are her ears.

She adopted Tom 2 (an orange and white tabby) and Tiger (a heavier gray and black tabby), both now about a year old, from PetSmart in Lawrenceville, Georgia, when they were 12 weeks old.

“They know I can’t hear,” Macaluso, 68, said through a sign language interpreter. “They hear for me.”

She remembers one morning when Tom 2 stood on her stomach, gazing intently at the ceiling above her bed. Over the course of the following week, he continues to stare at the same spot. She grabbed a flashlight and took a closer look, discovering a thin, round line of clay on her ceiling. She immediately called a pest control company. Tom 2 had spotted termites.

Macaluso said the exterminator was puzzled as to how she found termites in the wall, since she’s deaf and could not hear them. “I smiled and pointed to my Tom 2.”

He told her she was lucky to have a cat like Tom 2; she could have lost her home if he hadn’t detected the termites.

Tom 2 and Tiger also notice the flashing lights that signal the doorbell or video phone is ringing and alert their owner.

Since Macaluso can’t hear her cats when they meow, the two have already learned to paw at her leg to get her attention.

Macaluso’s parents were also deaf, and she grew up in a home with cats. She recalled one evening when she was sitting down with her mother on the swing on their porch, and their family cat began acting very strangely. They couldn’t figure out why.

About that time, the cat jumped a rattlesnake that was five feet from Macaluso and her mother, keeping them out of harm’s way.

“I will never … live without two cats because they always helped me by (hearing what I cannot).”

[LINK: Gwinnett Daily Post]

In Georgia, the Athens Area Humane Society will stop accepting feral cats next year, and local officials may turn to Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) to manage the thousands of wild cats that roam the city.

The society has a philosophical difference with the county with respect to the way in which they deal with feral cats. Executive Director Crystal Evans feels that keeping unadoptable feral cats — wild animals — in cages for a week before killing them is cruel and futile. “We would argue, for a truly feral animal, that’s inhumane,” she said. “These are cats that have had basically no human contact, so basically what you’re doing is scaring them to death for seven days and then killing them.”

Evans explains that the approximately 120 aggressive feral cats taken to the humane society each year occupy space that could be used for adoptable pets, forcing more cats to be euthanized and upsetting donors. They’re also a danger to employees, she adds.

This philosophical difference conflicts with the way in which the city of Athens would like the feral situation to be addressed, so the society is backing out of its $100,000 annual contract with the county.

Athens-Clarke officials now have a year to figure out how to control the feral cat population, estimated at 8,000 to 20,000.
They might turn to an organization like the Campus Cats, a volunteer group that traps feral cats, spays/neuters them, vaccinates them and returns them to the area in which they were trapped. Currently, TNR is illegal in Clarke County, but not on University of Georgia-owned land. Advocates are lobbying county commissioners to change the local law to permit it.

More and more local governments are allowing TNR, and a few, such as Jacksonville, Fla., are turning over feral cat management to TNR groups.

Legalizing TNR could be an uphill battle. TNR is not without its detractors and for every cat lover who feels that TNR is a humane practice that should be a legal alternative to trap-and-kill, another will argue that TNR does nothing to reduce feral populations and disrupts the environment.

TNR should be legal but not the sole means of managing feral cats, Athens-Clarke Commissioner Kelly Girtz says. “I don’t think anybody thinks of it as the silver bullet, the be-all end-all. It’s something that’s useful, but not in all circumstances.”

“The simple fact is neither is a perfect solution, but what we want to happen is for individuals to be able to choose,” Evans says.

[PHOTO CREDIT: David Manning, OnlineAthens]