Catzilla Sez ... "Speak Out!" Jan 00 - Jun 00 Essays ~ Pawprints and Purrs, Inc.

"Those who cannot think for themselves are emotionally unequipped to spend time alone." ~ Anonymous

June, 2000 Where Has All the Common Sense Gone?
... Or, Is There Such a Thing as Common Sense?

What's the deal with people and their pets? Why aren't they overly concerned when their pet acts strange or has an apparent health problem? Why do they jump online, spend precious time hunting down a web site that is about cats or other animals, then more time in locating the email address of the webmaster and then sit back to write a long email about the problems their pet is having? Or track down an animal message board and post a "What do I do?" message? Well, DUUHHH ... call your vet or better yet, take your pet to the vet, Dumbass! How hard is that to figure out, for crying out loud???

A pet should be treated as a member of the family. If your child had been outdoors all day long during a summer month, came inside late that same evening dizzy and staggering around, would you take the time to find a web site or message board and pen a missive about these symptoms and then sit there waiting for Lord knows how long for the webmaster to get to your email? Or wait for another poster to read the message board and stumble upon your post with the straight-forward advice to take, no, to rush your child to the doctor? Or how about this one - your very young child has wet the bed because you've kept her confined in tiny cramped quarters all her life. If your child has another "wetting" accident, your husband has threatened to kick her out of the house, so what can you do? Ahhh, it's your cat, not your child. Silly me! THAT makes a difference!

Once more: A pet should be treated as a member of the family.

But the mind-boggling doesn't stop here. The author of the email or message board post has to try the old emotional blackmail bit to really reach your compassionate side: "If you don't give me a good answer about my cat, my husband is gonna kick her out," (Honeychile, since you brought your spouse into this conversation, I'll tell you what to do: Kick that husband of yours out of the house and your lives forever.) or, "I love my cat, but if you don't solve this peeing problem for me, I'll be forced to euthanize her."

What are these people possibly thinking? Obviously they have no respect for the animal who is giving back a lifetime of unconditional love for a comfortable bed, food and vet care.

Upon receipt of these types of emails or reading of such scare tactics on message boards, I see nothing but blinding, searing-hot red anger. How dare someone put the monkey on my back because of his/her own stupidity and lack of common sense. How dare someone abandon his pet because my advice may not be the answer he wants to hear. How dare someone KILL his pet because I may not give him a simple solution to stop his pet from urinating inappropriately!

Sheeesh, how much effort does it take to pick up the phone and ask a vet a question? Why is the pet always at fault? "Binky pees to get back at me!!!!!" So what the hell is being done, or not being done, to the pet for him to act this way, O Clueless Wonder?

Surely there can't be an emotional, behavioral, physical or health problem when an animal "misbehaves", is there? How much effort does it take to scoop up a dazed animal and rush him to the vet? How much effort does it take to call a vet or an animal behaviorist about misbehavior? And why must blackmail be used in an effort to extract a response or sway the answer the person is wanting to hear from the one to whom the email or message post is directed?

It doesn't take a college education or even a high school diploma to use the brain one came with at birth. The brain doesn't come with instructions for its use. Knocking off the cobwebs of the mind will actually make it function better - now that's an interesting and novel concept, isn't it? The problem is the lack of initiative to use the mind and apply its results to the situation at hand.

May, 2000 Who Are We - Concerned Animal People or Animal Rights Propagandists?

What is it about an individual, or group of individuals, who put forth effort to bring the plight of cats and other animals to the attention of the Internet community that negatively sets off those who aren't involved with animals ... or even from those who claim to love animals? Why is there such unbridled hostility, such venomous anger, such raw hatred directed to those who attempt to speak out for living beings who are defenseless and mute?

Until this past February, Craig was an over-the-road driver. Craig remains in the trucking industry in a different capacity now. Because he and I are individuals who aren't joined at the hip, he has his interests and I have mine. While I haunt the cat and animal message boards in my spare time, he was a frequent poster in a certain forum on the truck.net board because, after all, our very financial existence is derived from the trucking industry. You notice I say Craig was a frequent poster in a certain forum - keep that in mind as you read this essay.

He had joined the message board a year before our move back to Louisiana. As I say, he was very active on that board in one forum. And because he temporarily shut down his humor web site due to the fact that he had no time left each week to devote to updating the site and responding to email while on the road, he placed in his profile my URL so others could visit and get to know who and what he is since so much of our lives are focused on animals, especially cats.

I'd noticed some traffic coming from that trucking board, not much - one or two visitors every few days. However, one afternoon this past spring after I came back from running errands, I checked the status of my visitors and nearly fell from my chair in amazement. In less than three hours, the time I'd been gone from the house, I'd had well over 150 visitors. In the past three plus years I've had a web presence, I've been damn fortunate to have 150 visitors in one day. I rushed to track the source of these visitors for I couldn't imagine what type of link would produce such traffic. According to my web tracker, the link was coming from my URL in Craig's profile.

Later that evening, after we'd had our supper and had settled down to our respective computers, my mailbox rang. An email from Craig told me to visit a post at that trucking board. Someone had posted a question and in the post had referred to himself as being a member of a minority. The first poster to respond had made a derogatory racial comment to the original poster. Craig had responded in turn asking that the question be answered and no comments be made regarding race. Following Craig's post was something like 178 posts spewing all sorts of profanity and racial slurs AND comments about Craig being "an animal rights propagandist" due to my URL link in his profile - a link that had been there for nearly a year with no comment whatsoever or much traffic to even consider as being any traffic.

What started the influx of low-life into my site was that a single poster who had gone into a couple of my pages after viewing the above mentioned post Craig had written. In a holier-than-thou post, he quoted from my motto, twisting the words to his liking about how Craig and I "put animals before humans." At the time I was running as my Campaign of the Month the Alaska's Iditarod Race, which he also commented upon. He said how he thinks "a lot of my pets", but that Craig "and his wife wants people to boycott Alaska because of some damn dogs", that "animals are animals and should be treated like animals, not as people" and "these damn animal people that think animals should have people rights just prove how screwed up this world has become."

Tell me, what deranged mentality produces these kind of comments? Really now, do the comments make any sense to the sane? I clearly, very clearly state on my motto that "I care enough to do - to act - in an attempt to change the attitude toward animals in this country and abroad, and through my actions, I will continue to speak out for all animals, demanding the justice and rights all sentient beings deserve." Does this ignorant bastard have a clue as to what the word sentient means? Does the fool own a dictionary? If he does, does he know how to look up a junior high vocabulary word? Neither Craig nor I pretend or attempt to be animal welfarists or animal rights activists because we both have a qualm in our hearts with each group of people. This doesn't mean that we don't support some - indeed, many - of the efforts of either group; we also support one animal sanctuary of our choice, heavily advocate animal issues and welfare, and do all we can in our personal and Internet lives for animals as our finances and time permit.

That board's policy is to close a topic should a post get out of hand. I couldn't believe that this topic wasn't closed just on the highly heated bigotry and racial slurs alone. The moderator sat back on his pompous ass and, in my opinion, fully supported and enjoyed the raging flaming and intense hatred expressed by the racially and anti-animal incited posters. Needless to say, Craig is no longer a poster in that particular forum on that board.

Yet I'm still seeking an intelligent answer to my questions: What is it about an individual, or group of individuals, who put forth effort to bring the plight of cats and other animals to the attention of the Internet community that negatively sets off those who aren't involved with animals ... or even from those who claim to love animals? Why is there such unbridled hostility, such venomous anger, such raw hatred directed to those who attempt to speak out for living beings who are defenseless and mute?

April, 2000 Louisiana Vets - Animal Care or Big Bucks?

Earlier this month, I got involved in trying to help arrange transportation for a tiny 5 week old male kitten which had been taken from a handful of kids in South Louisiana. These boys thought the kitten would be an ideal softball. And then we wonder why kids shoot up schools and kill each other in "play."

For a few days, in the meantime, between this little fellow and worrying about his transportation to Ohio, I'd been plugging away at trying to find help for my ferals.

Oh hell, if things get any better, I may have to hire someone to help me enjoy it. Just one damn brick wall after another.

Our shelter is a kill shelter (as is most in Louisiana - although one no-kill is struggling to get on its feet in the Monroe area, New Iberia has one, and the only other is in LaPlace, but is closing its doors May 1st). The ACO in Shreveport had told me there is no longer a local Humane Society chapter in the city of Shreveport. That floored me, but I took the ACO's word for it. Then I asked him about our Animal Welfare, Inc. organization. "Oh, that group has been gone for a good many years," he answered. "Well, it was still here in 1995," I told him. "Then that must have been the last year it was in operation," he shot back.

So I've been getting desperate in trying to find a vet to assist me with my ferals. And I need to get away from the vet I've used the past 23+ years. With the attitude that ferals "are more trouble than they are worth," I don't want him seeing the Kiddens again. Next thing you know, he'll be telling me to put down Cuddles because she's been piddling outside the litter box in recent months. I don't trust him enough any more to believe if he's truly thinking of her quality of life or if he's tired of hearing me say that she's piddling inappropriately.

The first Monday of April, I got on the phone at 8:00 a.m. Off and on that morning I called thirteen more vets in the Shreveport area. Oh man, do we have the vets in this town! I had been trying to find one close to my residence, naturally. The man and wife team up in Arkansas that ACA gave me as a feral referral two weeks ago, have NOT contacted me though I've made two long-distance calls to them begging for vet information in SW Arkansas - so much for the Friends of Ferals Network with this party in El Dorado, AR.

I even called one E. Texas vet that for eons I've heard nothing but the highest of recommendations. Now this E. Texas vet's office is just an example of what I'm running into - "Could you tell me if your clinic has a feral program or works with feral caretakers?" and the reply was "Is a feral some kind of horse?" Most typically is the question to my question, "Could you fill me in, what is a feral?" So I patiently explain and then I get, "Oh no, we look after real cats." Honestly, two different techs from two different vet offices said those very words to me in the same day. After the second one said that, I point blank asked her if veterinarians around here were in the business for the sake of animals or strictly money. She haughtily told me that "MY vet doesn't take on charity cases." Charity??? "I'm speaking of house cats your clients have dumped, who are in dire need of health care and someone who'll give a rat's ass about them." I slammed the phone down and just put my head down on my table and cried in frustration and anger.

Finally I found one that told me they don't handle them, but there's a vet north of town that deals with a lot of exotics. "Ferals are NOT exotics - they are domesticated cats reverted to a wild state because the asshole people you vets deal with abandon them when they tire of them!" I practically screamed at her. "Oh, but she does deal with ferals, too." Yeah right, I'm thinking, you're trying to save face because you probably thought a feral is a horse, too, you stupid woman.

But jeeez, I was at the bottom of the barrel and I was willing to call anyone or try anything. I'm not looking for a vet to just spay and neuter these ferals Craig and I are caring for. I'm looking for one who will also ear mark and vaccinate for rabies, or if later down the road we suspect diseases, vaccinate for those. It's the latter - the ear marking and the vaccinations - that the vets around here don't want to discount for ferals, no matter how large the colony. Hell, I pleaded with my own vet to give me a measley 5% discount after the 5th cat, or even the 8th cat I bring in. He replied, "Ferals are more trouble than house cats so I'll have to charge more for ferals than I would for a house cat."

I'm off track here. Anyway, I called this vet nearly 35 miles north of our home. I nearly fell out when I went through my spiel and the woman said yes, this vet will take my ferals. Knowing this is an "exotic" vet's office, I asked her did she understand that I said f-e-r-a-l and not s-e-r-v-a-l, that this is very important that she understands that they are NOT one and the same. She claimed she did understand. I told her she was the first vet's office within 90 miles that I didn't have to spend 10 minutes explaining what a feral is, only to be told they don't deal with them. She actually appeared shocked to hear how other local vets have reacted to my inquiries.

But I hit a gold mine of information. Firstly, though, this vet WILL see ferals, WILL ear mark and vaccinate and WILL give a 15% discount off after seeing the 3rd cat. Secondly, I asked what happened to our chapter of HS. "Oh," she said, "Lemme look up the phone number. You'll get an answering machine, but someone will call you right back." HUH?? So I scrambled for my notebook to write down the number furiously thinking if she thinks the HS chapter is still here, what about Animal Welfare. So I asked. "Hang on," she replied, "I have that number in the other office. We just talked to the founder yesterday." Surprise! And AC had told me ...

Later that afternoon, a volunteer called from the HS chapter - who also runs the adoptive dog/cat column in our local newspaper on Wednesdays. When I told Jeri that AC in Shreveport told me that the HS and Animal Welfare don't exist any longer, she howled. There is obviously some very, very bad blood between AC, the HS chapter and Animal Welfare in this area.

According to Animal Welfare's founder, Gloria, to whom I've spoken with at length this week, the vets in Louisiana do NOT want a low-cost spay/neuter program for Louisianans in this area. In fact, one courageous vet attempted to open one in a neighboring town. The other area vets ganged up on him, shutting him down BEFORE he ever opened his doors to the public. And this is truly a sad, sad statement for Louisiana - that Louisiana cats are suffering terribly and dying slow, horrific deaths because vets here believe that money is more important than empathy for animals, especially toward feral cats. I know one thing, I've got my work cut out for me. This wonderful "hunting state" has convinced its residents that cats are nothing and deserve less than nothing in life. I'm gonna help change that damn attitude, or die trying.

May 25 Update: In defense of my vet who stated these things in March, we have worked out a compromise. It's not the best of arrangements, but he is assisting us in the care of our ferals. I can live with our agreement. The bottom line is that he is now working with us in giving these cats proper veterinary care at a small discount and honoring spay/neuter vouchers from our local organization, Animal Welfare, Inc. Has he dealt with others who said they wanted to help cats in our area, but didn't follow through? Has he been burned with non-payment from others in similar circumstances? I don't know, for I didn't ask any questions as to why he's willing to help - I simply took his offer and ran with it. I'm eternally grateful that he's helping our ferals as much as he's agreed to do. It's much more than the cats had before he came up with this arrangement. Furthermore, he worked diligently to save our precious little Spook the last weeks of April and the first of May. Sadly, she couldn't fight the horrible liver disease; her liver just couldn't cope with the toxins which had accummulated in her system. He kept her pain-free and comfortable through the end of her life.

March, 2000 He Was Forgotten ...

Our neighborhood is over-run with ferals. Once, some twenty years ago when my parents first bought this place where Craig and I now live, one never saw a cat or dog unless the animal was in his own yard. Somewhere down through the years, some irresponsible person(s) decided it was "uncool" to spay/neuter or for some ungodly excuse, got rid of their cat by dumping him or her out here in the quiet rurals. And so, the feral population has grown tremendously.

Craig and I do what we can knowing if we feed them, they become our responsibility. We continue to reach deep into our pockets for food and vet care for these unwanted, unloved cats and their offspring. Here in the Deep South, kitten season has been upon us for a full month, so we know the cats who haven't yet been trapped, spayed, neutered, vaccinated, and released will be bringing more kittens soon to our food and water dishes. But it's something we MUST do - we cannot and will not watch these cats and kittens starve to death or die off frightened and alone with horrible, deadly diseases. It's our neighborhood: we pride ourselves in our property and we care enough about animals that we'll do more than our share to help control the feral population.

One little cat we've been feeding I'd dubbed RedBoy. He had been a shy, but cunning little man. He ran like a streak of greased lightning - he watched us from a great distance when we put out the food and water, but never had let us get within 20 yards of him. But patience and determination are the backbone of all feral cat workers. Without those two qualities in one's character, one won't last a first kitten season.

In the last two months, RedBoy had been slowly slipping closer to the feeding area, getting closer and closer in our presence. He gradually began to trust us. And in the end, trust of humans is what killed this beautiful, golden-eyed orange and white young cat. A cat who should have had years and years of good food, proper shelter, routine vet visits, plenty of catnip and toys, and much, much love.

Today, March 6, when I went to the mailbox after the postman had run, I found him on his side in the right-a-way of our property. He had been thrown into the drainage ditch, his battered little body badly beaten and broken. Somehow, somewhere, he trusted someone to get close enough to him to be beaten to death.

Craig was at work; the little cat had to be buried. I couldn't let him lay out in our yard waiting for Craig to arrive home late this evening. I don't know how I managed to dig his grave and get him properly buried with a few spoken words of love and little endearments he will never, never hear, but somehow I did. I only know now that RedBoy's at the Rainbow Bridge where there's no evil, cruel bastard to inflict pain and horrendous death on innocent cats; cats who never asked to be born into this world of self-serving humans.

Note - March 13: I wish to express my appreciation and thanks to the internet community who has read of RedBoy, taking the time to email me with words of consolation. You will never know just how your emails and cards have touched me. Thank you so much for your prayers and the thoughtfulness each of you have shown; but most of all, thanks for caring about a frightened, forgotten little feral who deserved a better life in our world. I'd also like to thank a very, very special lady and long-time friend, Franny Syufy for letting me borrow for RedBoy's memorial, her image of an orange kitty which looks so much like him. I hope that you stop by Franny's site to read a deeply moving article she wrote after learning of his brutal death. Thank you, Franny, for the love and support you have given Craig and me during the anguishing ordeal of RedBoy's loss.

February, 2000 THINK Before You Email for Assistance

I subscribe (or should I say, as of this morning, I subscribed) to a number of animal rescue lists. My reasoning to have subscribed to so many in the first place, is to assist in notifying other interested parties within the Internet animal rescue hub. As a feral cat caretaker and rescuer, I have a good many contacts, plus through my three-plus year old web site, have met others who can and will gladly help out as well.

Therefore, I subscribed to a dozen or more animal rescue lists - cats, dogs and small pets such as rabbits, gerbils, guinea pigs and the like. Let me tell you up front, this has been one of the most stressful and biggest headaches I've attempted to tackle in as many years. One would think that it's a simple, fast and accurate way to make sure a homeless animal has an opportunity to be placed in a caring, happy home. A plea for assistance via email is faster than tracking down phone numbers and worrying about the expense of long-distance calls or dropping the plea in letter form through the postal service.

Well, it's not simple, fast or accurate. People will send out a plea for help and then not check their email for a couple of days. Now what kind of irresponsible behavior is this, knowing they just sent out an urgent email to help an animal on death row with limited days or hours???

Oh, wait ... it gets better. Check out the emails requesting help: On a daily basis, I've received emails without phone numbers, without location of the person involved - much less the whereabouts of the homeless animal - without a description of the animal (i.e., spayed/neutered, gender, age, weight, disposition, diseased or not and so forth and so on), without ... well, you get the drift. And about not giving the animal's location ... How can the person sending the urgent message possibly think a person sitting down in Louisiana can immediately assist a person with a homeless cat out in California if that tidbit of location info isn't provided? Hello? ... not everybody lives in the same area, in the same state - hell, even in the same country that your email may be reaching, so for God's sake, give the location of the animal. Duh ...

In the meantime, every damn list I belong to has been cross-posted with the original poorly written request for help, involving many who want to help, or else they wouldn't be subscribed to these "subscription only" lists.

So begins the emailing to the original addressee with questions. Half the time, my personal email is either ignored or a reply comes back with only a fraction of the imperative questions answered, hence creating the generation of even more email. Valuable time is wasted - precious time the homeless animal is desperately watching go swooshing past while humans play see-saw with his life.

If the original poster will give precise, accurate information in the request for assistance email, the homeless animal will have a much better chance of being placed in an adoptive or foster home, rescue center, or no-kill shelter. Until then, the recipients of the poorly written email have wasted valuable time in behalf of the animal they may be eager to help.

And in the bitter disappointing end, the ones who are trying to help, are left in a state of frustration and are sickened at heart because they just might have been able to save a homeless animal, but didn't and couldn't - simply because there was no worthwhile information to assist in saving the animal.

January, 2000 Life in Cyberspace...

I subscribe to an animal welfare newsletter that - lately - has been nagging me to "discuss with my family members" why it's a good idea to give up meat.

A lot of these animal welfare campaigns just get hold of the wrong end of the stick, in my opinion. (Or, IMHO.) Frankly, I think their energy would be better spent nagging the vegetarian food industry into making food people might actually want to eat, because that's where the problem is.

The good news is that there are a number of food companies that make these things for vegetarians. The bad news is that most groceries do not stock them and most of the ones you can find taste horrible anyway.

Why does the vegetarian food industry assume that because I don't want to eat meat, I also want strange rices (those that aren't the standard white or brown), exotic spices robbed from the rain forests, various herbal twigs and leaves, whole wheat, and some unidentifiable odd vegetable in my food? I don't want lots of seeds and bark and rinds in my dinner, and I don't want it flavored with some mystery spice that tastes like a cedar closet. I don't necessarily need for it to be organically grown; however, I do want it salt-free, sugar-free, and preservative-free - all with one minor adjustment: no meat. I just don't want to eat animals; I'm not interested in living like a 60s hippy. Even the 60s hippies have pretty much given that up. (I suspect that once they stopped taking the drugs, they realized the food sucked.)

So here's what I say: instead of nagging me to discuss vegetarianism with my family members, how about writing to the pertinent manufacturers below that you can find at any grocery and getting them to make the following:

Swanson pot pies without the chicken. Just take out the chicken, period. Don't add hedge clippings, wheat berries, tofu, or exotic spices stripped from the rain forest. Just take out the chicken.
The Kid's Cuisine fried chicken dinner, except substitute deep-fried vegetables for the chicken. Normal vegetables, not some exotic fou-fou vegetable no one's ever heard of. (Nobody has ever heard of them because they don't taste good. If they were any good, the word-of-mouth would have gotten out about them by now.) Don't change the brownie, the sprinkles, the mashed potatoes, the butter-sauce corn, and especially do not tamper with the unhealthy high-fat crispy breading. Just leave out the chicken.
Budget Gourmet Light's Mandarin Chicken, minus the chicken. Don't switch to strange rices, and don't screw up the plum sauce by adding whatever that nasty spice is that all you vegetarian food companies are so very, very fond of. (If I ever figure out what it is I'm going to start a campaign to have it banned by the FDA.) Just take out the chicken.
Lean Pockets, any kind, without the meat. Don't add the hideous fake non-dairy cheese, don't switch to a bread that's so full of whole-wheat "goodness" you could use it as a weapon, and don't toss in buckets of that runny mushy yellow vegetable that's full of seeds (some kind of squash?) - nobody likes that vegetable, why don't you food industry people get that? Do you see grocery stores having trouble keeping that vegetable in stock? Are your non-vegetarian customers writing to complain that you don't put enough of that vegetable in their dinners? Well then! Just leave out the meat.

And that is a campaign that might actually persuade people to go vegetarian.