Tinkerbelle Is Freed from Death Row and Flown to Safety in England Capping Off a Storybook Ending to Her Travails in Florida

"This cat struck up a relationship while we were there and we fell in love with it. So, it's the cat that we want to provide a home for."
-- Sue Watts

They are about as rare as hens' teeth but miracles still happen ever once in a while and fairy tales sometimes do indeed come true. For confirmation of that, cynics need to look no further than to pretty four-year-old Tinkerbelle. (See photo above.)

It was only last week that she was on death row at the SPCA's slaughterhouse in Lakeland, Florida. Since she had been imprisoned there for three weeks, the sand had pretty much run out of the hourglass as far as she was concerned and her death was imminent.

Just as condemned prisoners count off the minutes as they anxiously pray for an eleventh-hour telephone call from the governor that will stay their executions, Tinkerbelle also waited. Whether she was aware that the end was near is debatable, but she must have known that something was afoot and that it was not good.

Fortunately for her, the call did come through but it was not from the governor; in fact, it was not even from anyone in America. It came instead from Birmingham resident Sue Watts who belatedly had decided that she wanted to adopt the green-eyed, black and white moggy.

True to her word, she then ponied up the $3,000 that was required in order to spring the longhaired cat from death row and get her out of the country. With a new lease on life, Tinkerbelle flew off to asylum in Angleterre on August 28th.

"It's a sizable amount of money," Watts admitted to Fox-13 of Tampa on August 26th. (See "Stray Cat to Live Like Queen.") "Thank God for credit cards!"

The improbable chain of events that culminated in this storybook ending began in late July when Watts traveled to Davenport in order to attend the wedding of one of her nieces. (See photo below. Watts is on the extreme left.) One morning shortly after her arrival, she discovered Tinkerbelle camped out on the bonnet of her rental car and immediately fell in love with her.

She then took Tinkerbelle inside the house that she was renting and the cat made herself right at home. (See bottom photo.) "She was lost. She was hungry and she really needed some support and someone to take care of her," is how Watts described meeting Tinkerbelle for the first time to Bay News 9 in a telephone interview on August 27th. (See "Woman Spends $3,000 to Send Stray Cat to England.")

Inevitably, the nuptials came and went and Watts' allotted time in La Floride dwindled down to a few precious days. Because of Tinkerbelle's friendly disposition, Watts knew that she was a stray as opposed to a feral and therefore attempted to locate her previous caretaker.

When that proved to be unsuccessful, she dumped the cat at the SPCA's holding pen and reluctantly returned to Birmingham. Shockingly, she did that after having been informed by shelter officials that they systematically exterminate an astounding eighty per cent of the cats that enter their portals.

Of course, on its website the shelter sings an entirely different tune. "The SPCA... is committed to providing aid, comfort, and relief to abandoned or suffering animals, and to placing surrendered pets in safe, loving, and lifetime homes," the great liars proclaim.

Imprisoned in one of America's most notorious killing factories, Tinkerbelle's fortunes now had taken a precipitate turn for the worst. (See Cat Defender post of May 11, 2006 entitled "Mass Murderers at SPCA Are Operating an Auschwitz for Cats and Dogs in Lakeland, Florida.")

As for Watts, the distance that she had put between herself and Florida was not sufficient in order to get Tinkerbelle out of her mind. "We cried all the way to the airport, upset to think that despite all of our efforts, Tinkerbelle might not have a happy ever after," she told The News Chief of Winter Haven on August 28th. (See "Stray Cat in Polk Finding New Home with British Woman.")

There can be no doubt that Watts committed a grievous error by handing over Tinkerbelle to the knackers at the SPCA. Instead, she should have left the cat as she had found her because even life on the mean streets of Davenport is preferable to no life at all. Besides, some other kindhearted soul might have eventually given her sanctuary.

To her credit, however, she atoned for her earlier mistake by making that last-minute telephone call that saved Tinkerbelle from the hangman. "We love her, and we really didn't want to leave her future to chance," Watts told Fox-13 in the article cited supra.

A snag developed in Watts' plans on August 26th when an unidentified man contacted the SPCA claiming to be Tinkerbelle's previous owner. Because he was unable to substantiate his claim, the SPCA denied his suit and Watts was allowed to have the cat.


Tinkerbelle is now in quarantine in Birmingham where she will be forced to remain for the next six months before she will be allowed to go home with Watts. (See Cat Defender posts of August 11, 2008 and August 18, 2008 entitled, respectively, "Trapped Inside a Crate, Ginger Licks Up Condensation in Order to Survive a Nightmarish Sea Voyage from China to Nottinghamshire" and "Ronaldo Escapes Death after Retailer Coughs Up the Exorbitant Bounty That Quarantine Officials Had Placed on His Head.")

On the bright side, Watts probably will be permitted to visit her periodically during her confinement. "We can't wait to welcome her home once that's all over," she told The News Chief in the article cited supra.

"This cat struck up a relationship while we were there and we fell in love with it," she elaborated for Bay News 9. "So, it's the cat that we want to provide a home for."

Tinkerbelle hopefully will make it through quarantine without any problems and go on to have a full and happy life with Watts. The outlook is entirely different, however, for the tens of millions of American cats that fall into the evil clutches of shelters, veterinarians, and Animal Control.

For the overwhelming majority of them there are not any miracles, last-minute reprieves, and storybook endings. They instead receive only jabs of sodium pentobarbital to the heart followed by either incineration or a quick trip to the city dump.

Out of sight and out of mind, it is almost as if they had never been born. Worst still, the monsters responsible for these cold-blooded murders are beyond the reach of both the law and morality.

Consequently, they keep on committing their dastardly deeds year after year. (See Cat Defender post of September 14, 2006 entitled "Cat Killing Season Is in Full Swing All Across America as Shelters Ramp Up Their Mass Extermination 'Pogroms'.")

The killings will never cease until cat-lovers demand that the slaughterhouses be shuttered and that those responsible for the commission of these heinous crimes are put behind bars. Nathan Winograd, no-kill facilities, and sanctuaries are definitely having an impact but the stubborn fact remains that many more cats are killed each day than are saved.

Photos: Fox-13 (Tinkerbelle) and Sue Watts (wedding and Tinkerbelle taking a snooze).