A Devoted Röbelerin Adamantly Refuses to Enter an Altersheim Until She Has Successfully Secured a New Guardian for Her Beloved Felix

Although Old and Sickly, Karin Tietz Would Not Abandon Felix

"Ich gehe erst ins Heim, wenn ich weiß, dass Felix gut untergebracht ist."
-- Karin Tietz

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all," celebrated American author and inspirational speaker Dale Carnegie once observed. Indeed, success does not always smile on the strongest and swiftest but rather on those who are the most determined.

For instance, Karin Tietz of tiny Röbel on the west bank of the Müritzsee in Mecklenburg- Vorpommern, one-hundred-forty-six kilometers north of Berlin, recently woke up to find herself in the crosshairs of a dilemma. At seventy-seven, time was fast running out on her and, adding insult to injury, arthritis was making it increasingly painful for her to even get around her apartment, let alone to venture out into the world.

Compounding an already difficult situation, her husband was long dead and she was all alone in the world with the notable exception of her beloved ten-year-old brown, gray, and black resident feline, Felix. It might not be an exaggeration to state that he had become her shining light and raison d'être.

"Das sind schöne Momente," is how that she described their time together to the Nordkurier of Neubrandenburg, sixty-seven kilometers northeast of Röbel, jon May 3rd. (See "Ohne Heim für Kater kein Heim für Seniorin.")

By that time, however, the "schöne Momente" had become numbered. Not only was she experiencing difficulties in caring for herself but her debilitating arthritis was making it extremely painful for her to even bend down and feed Felix as well as to empty his litter box.

All was not lost, however, in that she had the resources in order to retain the services of an unidentified nursing service which was dispatching caregivers to look in on her three to four times a day and thus to assist her with the minutiae of everyday living. One of those outpatient nurses, Katrin Jacobs, was affiliated with Müritzer für Tiere of Waren, twenty-three kilometers north of Röbel, and she therefore also gladly fed and otherwise looked after Felix.

A place had been readied for Tietz at an unidentified Altersheim but, like all such warehouses for the aged and infirm, cats were strictly verboten. That in turn left the fast-fading Tietz in a totally untenable position.

"Ich gehe erst ins Heim, wenn ich weiß, dass Felix gut untergebracht ist," the gutherzig Röbelerin defiantly vowed to the Nordkurier.

Sometimes good intentions and a desire to do the right thing end up floundering on the rocky shores of hard reality. In her case, for example, she was attempting to pull off a near-impossible task with the clock fast running out on her.

Given that the vast majority of would-be adopters want kittens, the demand for elderly cats is almost nil. Furthermore, Müritzer für Tiere has experienced difficulties in rehoming even cats as young as one year of age.

It therefore was not surprising that the mere fact that Felix is in excellent health and has a life expectancy of eight to ten years counted for almost nothing with all the loudmouthed phonies who like to shout their abiding love for the species from the rooftops but whenever they happen to stumble across a real-life cat in extremis their hearts turn to stone faster than a snowball melts in July. (See Cat Defender post of May 27, 2016 entitled "Snubbed by an Ignorant, Tasteless, and Uncaring Public for the Past Twenty-One Years, Tilly Has Forged an Alternative Existence of Relative Contentment at a Sanctuary in the Black Country.")

True aficionados of the species, however, march to the beat of an entirely different drummer. For them, a cat's appearance, age, breed, health, and temperament are every bit as irrelevant as are all other accidents of nature and history. Unfortunately, given the ingrained prejudices and selfishness of mankind, the prospects for elderly cats such as Felix are unlikely to improve.

Tietz briefly considered surrendering him to Tierschutzverein Waren in Malchow, twenty kilometers northwest of Röbel, but its shelter was full and it therefore could not accept him even if she had been willing to have gone through with that expedient. As things turned out, that was a bit of Glück im Unglück for Felix in that he likely never would have made it out of there alive.

Even those elderly cats that end up in those truly rare shelters that respect their right to live have a difficult time of adjusting to a regimen of life behind bars, an almost endless parade of foster mothers, and multiple failed adoptions. (See Cat Defender posts of August 31, 2017, March 12, 2018, and July 29, 2019 entitled, respectively, "With His Previous Owner Long Dead and Nobody Seemingly Willing to Give Him a Second Chance at Life, Old and Ailing Harvey Has Been Sentenced to Rot at a Shelter in Yorkshire," "Much Like a Nightmare That Stubbornly Refuses to End, Harvey Continues to be Shuttled from One Home to Another at the Expense of His Health and Well-Being," and "Repeatedly Shunned, Maligned, and Bandied About from One Place to Another, Harvey Is Now Engaged in the Most Important Battle of His Life.")

The obvious solution would have been for one of Tietz's relatives to have taken in Felix but that apparently was not an option. Either she does not have any close living relations or they were unwilling to assume the care of Felix. It is, after all, pretty much a foregone conclusion that individuals who are so uncaring as to dump their parents and siblings in Altersheims could care less about what becomes of their cats.

May quickly gave way to June without any solution to Felix's desperate plight on the horizon. Jacobs and Müritzer für Tiere stubbornly refused, however, to let go of Tietz's dream that Felix be placed in a private residence that was sans any young children.

Like Melanie Gottschalk of the Kilianstädten section of Schöneck in Hesse, Jacobs belatedly came to the realization that about the only individuals who care about old cats are the elderly themselves and she accordingly was able through due diligence to identify five individuals who had expressed an interest in adopting Felix. (See Cat Defender post of March 26, 2018 entitled "A Dedicated and Compassionate Kilianstädterin Has Found at Least a Partial Solution to the Tragic Plight of alte und obdachlos Katzen.")

The particulars have not been spelled out in print but sometime in late June Tietz's love and devotion for Felix coupled with Jacobs' hard work paid a huge dividend when Felix was adopted by an elderly woman in Malchin, fifty-two kilometers north of Röbel. That happy dénouement could not possibly have come at a more propitious time in that Tietz's already precarious health soon thereafter gave out altogether on her.

She accordingly had to be hospitalized and never again was able to make it back to the apartment that she and Felix had shared for so many happy years. (See the Nordkurier, July 2, 2019, "Happy End für Kater Felix aus Röbel.")

Felix Gets a Hug from Katrin Jacobs as Karin Tietz Looks on from the Rear

So in the end everything turned out about as well as could have been expected under the circumstances. Even so it is nonetheless heartbreakingly sad that Tietz had to part with her beloved cat and that is especially the case given that she has so little left. It likewise is equally tearful that Felix has been deprived of an owner who unquestionably loved him very dearly.

On the other hand, it is downright scary to even so much as contemplate what might have happened to him if it had not been for the unstinting efforts waged on his behalf by Jacobs and Müritizer für Tiere. With all due respect to Carnegie, determination alone is not always sufficient; rather, to succeed one often requires the invaluable assistance rendered so freely by kindhearted strangers.

An analogous drama was played out earlier this year in Basel when Lucy F. became ill and was forced to enter a hospital. Although she was supposed to have been away from home for only a few days, her condition worsened and she instead was transferred directly to an old folks' home.

As a result, she never again so much as laid eyes on her beloved eleven-year-old black beauty Susi that she had left behind. Unlike with Felix, there was not any Katrin Jacobs to look after her and as a consequence what happened to her was tragic if not indeed criminal.

Specifically, every individual and organization that had been entrusted with caring for her failed to lift so much as a lousy finger in order to save her. First of all, Lucy F.'s unidentified guardian apparently did absolutely nothing for her.

The public welfare office, Amt für Beistandschaften und Erwachsenenschutz (ABES), at first wanted to kill her but in the end settled for outsourcing her care to a private nursing service, Betreuungs und Pflegeservice (BPS Basel). That agency apparently did feed Susi once a day for several months but how much and what quality of food that its representatives supplied her with has not been disclosed.

As was the case with Tierschutzverein Waren, the local shelter, Tierschutz bieder Basel, likewise wanted no part of her. Even the owner of the building, its superintendent, doormen, maintenance personnel, deliverymen, and residents refused to intervene on her behalf.

Susi therefore was cruelly condemned to tough it out all by her lonesome in Lucy F.'s apartment from either late January or early February until June 4th when BPS Basel finally got around to delivering her to Tierhilfe Regio Basel (TRB) in Allschill, 4.3 kilometers south of Basel. Rushed to Daniel Stauffer of Kleintierpraxis in Reihen, 7.5 kilometers northeast of Basel, she was diagnosed to be so severely emaciated and dehydrated that she did not even have the strength to stand on her four legs.

If that had been all that ailed her, Stauffer and his staff might have been able to have pulled her through but, unfortunately, she was suffering from even worse maladies. For example, she was running a high temperature, plagued by an undisclosed infection, and her white blood cells were dramatically elevated. Worst of all, she was suffering from an untreated case of Feline Hyperthyroidism.

TRB and Stauffer did what they could for her but she succumbed to the ravages of unspeakable neglect on June 7th. "Das ganze stellt meines Erachtens einen schweren Verstoß gegen das Tierschutzgesetz dar," Stuaffer swore in the wake of her demise.

Nicole Rudin of TRB, who has asked the authorities to investigate Susi's death, succinctly summed up the profound neglect that Susi had been forced to endure. "Seit Februar war die Katze allein in der Wohnung an der Bärenfelserstraße," she explained. "Niemand wolle die Verantwortung übernehmen."

Loneliness and isolation sans doute also contributed to the deterioration of Susi's health. "Sicher hat Susi die alte Dame vermisst," Rudin observed. "Vermutlich war sie nie viel allein vorher, und plötzlich wurde ihr nur einmal pro Tag Futter hingestellt."

Although it should not have been necessary, Rudin felt compelled under the circumstances to point out the obvious. "Tiere haben wie wir Gefühle," she declared for all those who still have ears to hear, eyes to see, and minds to think. "Eine solche Einsamkeit ist schrecklich." (See Cat Defender post of July 13, 2019 entitled "Susi Is Knowingly Left All Alone in an Empty Apartment to Slowly Die of Starvation and Untreated Hyperthyroidism after Her Owner Is Confined to an Old Folks' Home.")

Regrettably, cats such as Felix who are able to survive the loss of their owners are an exception to the rule in that the vast majority of those that end up in that predicament either die of abject neglect, like Susi, or are systematically slaughtered by those individuals and institutions that are supposed to be looking after their welfare. Above all, elderly owners cannot depend upon strangers to take care of their beloved cats once they are gone; on the contrary, it is imperative that they make provisions for their continued care while they are still above ground themselves and in that regard the assistance of an able-bodied attorney is paramount.

Nothing further has appeared online regard Tietz. Suffice it to say that losing both Felix and her home have not been easy on her. She also has been forced to adjust to life at the Altersheim as well as her deteriorating health.

Although she has described Felix as a timid cat, Tietz is nonetheless confident that he will be able to adjust to a new guardian and surroundings. Nevertheless, doing so will not be all that easy for a cat his age.

Perhaps an even bigger concern is the long shadow cast over his future by a glaring paradox inherent in his adoption process. Namely, given that only the elderly are willing to adopt old cats like him there is not any guarantee that the Malchinerin will outlive him.

If her health should suddenly deteriorate, Felix very well could find himself back in the same boat. The only palliative for such an eventuality would be an existing agreement, hopefully one that is legally binding, that would mandate that Müritizer für Tiere retake possession of him and judiciously respect his right to live as it endeavors to place him in yet still another home.

The odds do not look particularly promising at the moment but there nevertheless is at least a slim chance that there is yet still another chapter to be written in this great love story. "...ich dem ich Felix vielleicht auch mal besuchen kann," Tietz speculated to the Nordkurier on May 3rd.

If The Fates should be in an obliging mood, her arthritis might just abate long enough for her to summon the strength in order to journey Malchin for such a joyful, no matter how brief, reunion. If nothing else, it is a thought for her to hang on to as her days dwindle down to a precious few and the elderly, both humans and cats, need some Vernunft in order to continue their decidedly uphill struggles.

Photos: Susann Salzmann of the Nordkurier.

No Respect for Life: Early Graves and Crippling Injuries Are All That Cats Who Dare to Set Foot in the Street Can Expect from the Bloodthirsty Motoring Public

 PCAT Was Killed by a Motorist in October of  2012

"When I see a cat in the street, I accelerate. Stray cats have no business in the street. So bang! I accelerate!"
-- Stéphane Gendron 

The recent crippling of a handsome and vivacious tuxedo named Eli by a hit-and-run motorist in Connecticut is yet still another rather poignant reminder of just how lethal the roads have become for cats. (See Cat Defender post of August 8, 2019 entitled "Hounded Down and Nearly Killed by a Hit-and-Run Motorist, Eli Desperately Needs Additional Surgeries in Order to Fully Restore His Previous Level of Mobility.")

Although it is truly wonderful that he survived and, hopefully, will soon be receiving the treatment that he requires in order to once again be able to move around without pain, that positive outcome is tempered by the sobering realization that he is nonetheless an extremely rare exception to the rule. Au contraire, the vast majority of kittens and cats that motorists draw a bead on, stomp down hard on the accelerator, and turn the wheel over in order to mow down do not survive and even the handful of them that do seldom, if ever, receive the topnotch emergency veterinary treatment that they so desperately need and richly deserve.     

Although a cat's socio-economic status should not make any difference, it is not merely those that are homeless that these licensed to kill mass murderers of the motorways go after but also those that have doting owners at home. Even those that have achieved international acclaim are not safe from their evil designs.

For example in October of 2012, Plymouth College of Art in Devonshire unforgivably allowed its beautiful PCAT to be run down and killed by a hit-and-run driver. (See Cat Defender post of November 21, 2012 entitled "Officials at Plymouth College of Art Should Be Charged with Gross Negligence and Animal Cruelty in the Tragic Death of the School's Longtime Resident Feline, PCAT.")

Later on September 8, 2014, Peat of the Glenturret Distillery near Crieff in Perth and Kinress was killed by another hit-and-run assassin. His premature death was made all the sadder given that he was only six months old and had been on the job as the booze merchant's mascot since only July. (See Cat Defender post of April 17, 2017 entitled "As Peat Tragically Found Out, Alcohol and Cats Are Such a Bad Mix That Even Working at a Distillery Can Be Deadly.")

Mr. Cheeky Was Catnapped, Dumped, Then Killed by a Motorist in 2017 

Neither cruelly cooping up cats indoors all the time nor providing them with enclosed gardens are foolproof alternatives in that, no matter how conscientious their owners may be, they still find ways of escaping. They also are sometimes catnapped and later dumped in the street with disastrous repercussions.

For example, both Fletcher of Bramley Crescent in Southampton, Hampshire, and Mr. Cheeky of Hove in East Sussex were killed by hit-and-run motorists after their abductors dumped them in the street. (See Cat Defender posts of November 16, 2007 and February 8, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Fletcher, One of the Cats Abducted from Bramley Crescent, Is Killed by a Motorist in Corhampton" and "The Long and Hopelessly Frustrating Search for the Kidnapped Mr. Cheeky Ends Tragically Underneath the Wheels of a Hit-and-Run Motorist.")

Even those that are fortunate enough to come away from such unprovoked attacks with their lives often wind up losing legs and, like Eli, suffering broken pelvises and dislocated hips. (See Cat Defender posts of October 16, 2007, April 29, 2010, October 30, 2010, November 13, 2010, November 17, 2010, January 5, 2011, May 2, 2012, November 10, 2014, and October 13, 2016 entitled, respectively, "Tourists from Michigan Save the Life of a Critically Ill Oregon Cat Named Marmalade," "Long Suffering River Finally Finds a Home after Having Been Run Over by a Motorist and Nearly Drowned," "A Drunken Bum Is Foiled in a Macabre Plot to Make a Meal Out of Kittens, Nirvana and Karma, That He Allegedly Ran Down Earlier with His Truck," "Gunned Down by an Assassin and Then Mowed Down by a Hit-and-Run Driver, Big Bob Loses a Leg but Survives and Now Is Looking for a Home," "Pregnant, Abandoned, and Deliberately Almost Killed by a Hit-and-Run Driver, Sugar Crawls Back to Her Subterranean Abode In Order to Feed Her Kittens," "Freya, the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Resident Feline, Cheats Death Once Again When She Survives Being Run Down and Injured by a Motorist but Her Good Luck Cannot Last for Much Longer," and "Bart Has Courageously Overcome Being Run Down by a Hit-and-Run Motorist and Subsequently Buried Alive by His Owner but Another Dark Cloud Is Looming over His Future.")

In a particularly gruesome attack, a two-year-old brownish-gray tom named Roo from Lower Windsor Township in the Keystone State was mowed down by a hit-and-run motorist on February 16, 2007. He also most likely had been knocked unconscious because the profuse loss of blood that he had suffered had combined with the frigid temperatures outside in order to bind his injured front legs to the ice.

Discovered by a kindhearted woman who promptly notified the York SPCA, warm water was used in order to extricate his legs but even then his right front paw had to be amputated and it was feared at the time that he also might lose his broken left leg as well. (See Cat Defender post of March 5, 2007 entitled "Run Down by a Motorist and Frozen to the Ice by His Own Blood, Roo Is Saved by a Caring Woman.")

Whenever they are not actually running down cats themselves, many motorists content themselves with tossing them out the windows of their speeding chariots and in doing so they are anything but particular as to where their victims land. For instance, they unload them inside tunnels, on busy freeways, country roads, overpasses, city streets, and bridges.

Such barbaric behavior thus affords their fellow lords of the public thoroughfares an opportunity to share in their merrymaking by doing their killing for them. (See Cat Defender posts of August 14, 2006, January 14, 2008, August 28, 2008, February 21, 2009, July 2, 2009, September 12, 2009, May 30, 2013, and January 10, 2014 entitled, respectively, "Austrian Officials Close a Busy Alpine Tunnel in Order to Rescue a Kitten That Was Cruelly Abandoned by a Motorist," "Freeway Miraculously Survives Being Tossed Out the Window of a Truck on Busy I-95 in South Florida," "In Memoriam: Trooper Survives Being Thrown from a Speeding Automobile Only to Later Die on the Operating Table," "A Daring Rescue in the Sky Spares the Life of a Cat That Was Dumped on an Overpass in Houston," "Three-Week-Old Lucky Is Rescued by a Staten Island Judge after She Was Tossed Out the Window of a Pickup Truck on Hylan Boulevard," "Luzie Sustains a Broken Hip and a Bloody Mouth Before She Is Successfully Rescued from the Busy Elbtunnel," "Stone-Broke, Homeless, and All Alone at the Crossroads of the World, Disaster Is Snatched from Harm's Way by a Representative of the Walking Dead," and "A Texas Judge Idiotically Allows Pastor Rick Bartlett to Get Away with Stealing and Killing Moody but a Civil Court May Yet Hold Him Accountable.")

Roo with Melissa Smith of the York SPCA

Such reprehensible conduct not only kills and cripples countless cats each year but it occasionally also jeopardizes the lives of the Good Samaritans who attempt to rescue them. For instance in late June of 2009, twenty-eight-year-old Rachel Honeycutt nearly lost her life when she stopped in order to rescue a pair of kittens in Cobb County, Georgia.

"I got out to save the kittens," she later affirmed. "Somebody was putting them in the middle of the East-West Connector."

If she had so much as thought that motorists would slow down and go around her, she was badly mistaken in that it did not take long for one of them to blindside her and to keep on going. As a result, she was knocked seventy-five in the air and when she landed she was on the other side of the roadway and unconscious.

Taken to a nearby hospital, she was diagnosed to have sustained a shattered pelvis as well as brain and organ damage. She was in a coma and on life-support for weeks but, incredibly, she not only lived but she did so without so much as a twinge of either regret or malice in her beautiful and noble soul.

"I can't believe I'm okay," she said as soon as she had regained the faculty of speech. "Everybody I've helped has helped me so much in a situation that brings it all around. Everything you give you get back."

Notwithstanding all of that, her long and tortuous road back to the land of the living was not an easy one to trod. In addition to her severe injuries, she also was saddled with sky-high medical bills, a citation from the gendarmes for leaving her car, and she also came perilously close to losing her house. (See Cat Defender post of August 10, 2009 entitled "A Georgia Woman Is Struck and Nearly Killed by a Motorist while Attempting to Rescue a Pair of Kittens That Had Been Dumped in the Middle of a Busy Highway.")

Rachel Honeycutt Was Nearly Killed by a Motorist while Rescuing Kittens

Then there are other motorists who hate cats so much that they endeavor to make doubly certain that they meet their Waterloos. They do so by dumping them on bridges whereby if they are not immediately run down and killed on the spot they are either knocked or frightened into the drink below where they drown. (See Cat Defender posts of July 6, 2009 and August 12, 2010 entitled, respectively, "Miracle Survives a Drowning Attempt on the McClugage Bridge and Later Hitchhikes a Ride to Safety Underneath the Car of a Compassionate Motorist" and "Gia and Mr. T. Survive Attempts Made on Their Lives after They Are Abandoned on Busy Bridges During Inclement Weather.")

Still other motorists dispense with abandoning them on bridges and instead imprison them in cages that they weigh down with large rocks before tossing them into the water. (See Cat Defender posts of January 13, 2006 and May 20, 2008 entitled, respectively, "Montana Firefighters Rescue a 'Lucky' Calico Cat Who Was Caged and Purposefully Thrown into an Icy River" and "Malice Aforethought: an Upstate New York Cat Is Saved from a Watery Grave by a Dead Tree and a Passerby; a New Hampshire Cat Is Not Nearly So Fortunate.")

In an especially graphic example of just how emboldened these monsters have become of late, a female kitten named Splatt was thrown off of a bridge in Charleston, South Carolina, on July 18, 2010. Luckily for her, she landed in Clouter Creek just as boaters Dennis and Karen Allen were sailing past and they were able to pluck her from the water. (See Cat Defender post of August 9, 2010 entitled "Sunday Afternoon Boaters Pluck Splatt Out of Clouter Creek after She Is Thrown Off of the Mark Clark Expressway Bridge in Charleston.")

The principal reason that the wholesale maiming and killing of cats as well as the dumping of them in traffic continues unabated is traceable to the law enforcement community's ingrained hatred of the species. For instance, some cops not only intentionally run them down with their cruisers but seemingly jump at every available opportunity to finish off those that already have been injured by hit-and-run motorists.

The very thought of ever doing the right thing, such as transporting an injured cat to a veterinarian for emergency treatment, never seems to so much as cross their warped gourds. Rather, the only thing that an injured cat signifies to them is another golden opportunity to either discharge their service revolvers or to get out their night sticks. (See Cat Defender post of June 18, 2015 and March 22, 2012 entitled, respectively, "Harry Is Run Down and Killed by a Pair of Derbyshire Police Officers Who Then Steal and Dispose of His Body in an Amateurish Attempt to Cover up Their Heinous Crime" and "In Another Outrageous Miscarriage of Justice, Rogue Cop Jonathan N. Snoddy Is Let Off with a $50 Fine for Savagely Bludgeoning to Death an Injured Cat.")

In spite of their antipathy for cats, cops are not above nakedly exploiting them as station house mascots. Even under those seemingly benign circumstances they are such derelict guardians that they allow them to be killed by motorists as well as stolen. (See Cat Defender posts of March 18, 2009 and May 29, 2007 entitled, respectively, "Eco, Who for Years Was a Mainstay at a Small Massachusetts Police Department, Is Run Down and Killed by a Motorist" and "Corporal Cuffs, a Beloved Station House Mascot, Is Abducted Right Under Cops' Noses.")

Splat Was Saved from a Watery Grave by Dennis and Karen Allen

Some district attorneys likewise use cats like they use the toilet. For example, in early 2006 a previously homeless kitten named Fred was recruited by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes to go undercover.

He was so successful at acting out the part that he had been assigned that Hynes was able to nab twenty-eight-year-old Steven Vassall of Kingsborough Community College for practicing veterinary medicine without a license. Afterwards he was adopted by Assistant Brooklyn Attorney Carol Moran who callously allowed a hit-and-run motorist to kill him outside her Howard Beach residence on August 10, 2006.

Little Fred will accordingly forever be fifteen months old. (See Cat Defender posts of February 14, 2006 and August 17, 2006 entitled, respectively, "Special Agent Fred the Cat Goes Undercover in Order to Help Nab a Quack Vet in a Brooklyn Sting Operation" and "Brave Little Fred the Undercover Cat Has His Short, Tragic Life Snuffed Out by a Hit-and-Run Driver in Queens.")

When it comes to protecting feline lives, the political classes are another complete washout. Since cats neither vote nor make campaign contributions, they long age dismissed them as nonentities.

Closely related to the crimes that motorists perpetuate against cats are those that are committed against the species by the operators of farm machinery. Combine operators in particular exact a heavy toll from them each harvest season.

For example, in late July of 2009 a combine operator in Alaidon Township, Michigan, ran down a black male kitten with a white underbelly named Howard and in the process cut off his front paws. Like just about all motorists he, too, left him in a ditch to die. (See Cat Defender posts of August 20, 2009 and November 24, 2009 entitled, respectively, "A Combine Operator Severs Howard's Front Paws and Leaves Him in a Ditch to Die but He Is Saved at the Last Minute by a Pair of Compassionate Lads" and "Howard the Combine Kitty Is Adopted by the Lads Who Saved Him from a Sure and Certain Death in a Ditch Alongside a Michigan Wheat Field.")

 Fred Was Killed by a Motorist on August 10, 2006

Along about that same time but half a world away a black cat named Oscar lost both of his rear paws to a hit-and-run combine operator in the parish of Grouville in the Bailiwick of Jersey. (See Cat Defender post of November 20, 2010 entitled "Celebrated as the World's First Bionic Cat, Oscar Now Has Been Turned into a Guinea Pig with a Very Uncertain Future.")

Motorists additionally inflict considerable grief upon cats simply through callousness and indifference. For instance, very few of them even so much as bother to check their engines and undercarriages for their presence before starting out on cold mornings.

Their thoughtlessness is all the more unpardonable given that it is well understood that warm motors attract hypothermic cats like a magnet. (See Cat Defender posts of January 5, 2006 and March 16, 2013 entitled, respectively, "A 'Miracle' Cat Survives a Seventy-Mile Trip Down the New Jersey Turnpike by Clinging to the Drive Shaft of an SUV" and "Mausi Is Saved from a Potentially Violent Death on the Fast and Furious Autobahn Thanks to the Dramatic Intervention of a Münchner Couple.")

The operators of not only passenger cars but especially delivery trucks and vans inadvertently cause innumerable cats all sorts of distress through their unwillingness to check their vehicles for stowaways. These unfortunate cats thus become involuntarily and, usually permanently, separated from their families and at the mercy of their unwitting transporters and shelters. (See Cat Defender posts of November 6, 2006, December 12, 2007,  April 18, 2010, June 25, 2014, and April 26, 2018 entitled, respectively, "Trapped in a Van for Five Days, a Texas Cat Named Neo Is Finally Freed in Colorado," "Bored with Conditions at Home, Carlsberg Stows Away on a Beer Lorry for the Adventure of a Lifetime," "Ally's Last Ride Lands Her in a Death Trap Set by an Uncaring and Irresponsible Supermarket Chain and a Bargain Basement Shelter," "Poussey Overcomes a Surprise Boat Ride to Dover, a Stint on Death Row, and Being Bandied About Like the Flying Dutchman in Order to Finally Make It Home to La Havre," and "Schneewittchen Gets Accidentally Trapped in a Lorry and Winds Up in Wien but in Doing So She Brought Along with Her Considerably More Than Just Her Pretty Face.")

The motoring public additionally poisons to death countless cats each year through its abject failure to properly handle antifreeze and its indiscriminate spreading of deadly chemicals on both roadways and pedestrian walkways in order to melt ice and snow.  (See Cat Defender posts of July 2, 2007 and March 25, 2011 entitled, respectively, "Cats Are Being Poisoned with Antifreeze in San Francisco but Animal Control Refuses to Take the Killings Seriously" and "Compassionate Construction Workers Interrupt Their Busy Day in Order to Rescue Chabot-Matrix from a Stream in Maine.")

A Combine Operator Cut Off Howard's Front Paws and Left Him to Die

Far from being completely guileless in some of these types of totally preventable deaths, some owners actually help to facilitate them through their failure to take responsibility for their cats' safety. For instance, some of them allow their beloved companions to cross dangerous intersections in order to reach bus stops. (See Cat Defender posts of April 19, 2007 and January 25, 2012 entitled, respectively, "Bus-Hopping Mccavity Earns High Praise from His Fellow Commuters for Being the 'Perfect Passenger' " and "The Innocence of the Lambs: Unaware of the Dangers That Threaten His Very Existence, Dodger Charms Commuters on the Bridport to Charmouth Line.")

In one particularly tragic incident, a beautiful twelve-year-old longhaired tuxedo named Casper from Plymouth in Devonshire was killed by a hit-and-run taxi driver on January 14, 2010 while crossing the street in order to get to the bus stop. His premature death was made all the more inexcusable in that his elderly owner, health care worker Susan Finden, knew the grave dangers that she was exposing him to by turning him loose to ride the buses by his lonesome.

"...he has no road sense whatsoever," she candidly acknowledged several months prior to his death. "He just runs across the road to the bus stop."

Not surprisingly, she was singing an entirely different tune in the wake of his demise. "I never dreamt I'd miss an animal so much as I miss him," she admitted. "He was lovely and loved people so much. He was such a different character."

He is now just a memory although it is conceivable that his image may still adorn some of First Bus's chariots.  (See Cat Defender posts of August 27, 2009 and January 30, 2010 entitled, respectively, "Casper Treats Himself to an Unescorted Tour Around Plymouth Each Morning Courtesy of the Number Three Bus" and "Casper Is Run Down and Killed by a Hit-and-Run Taxi Driver While Crossing the Street in Order to Get to the Bus Stop.")

Since getting to and from train depots can be every bit as dangerous as walking to bus stations, those owners who allow their companions to ride the rails unaccompanied are likewise exposing them to the machinations of motorists.  (See Cat Defender posts of June 7, 2007 and January 31, 2014 entitled, respectively, "Rascal Hops on a Freight Train in South Bend and Unwittingly Winds Up in Chattanooga" and "A Northumbrian Shrink Lays Claim to the Title of Being the World's Most Irresponsible Cat Owner by Turning Loose Jasper to Roam the Perilous Tyne and Wear Metro for Weeks on End.")

Casper Was Run Down and Killed by a Taxi Driver on January 14, 2010

The worst rotters in the woodpile, however, are those owners who, although well aware that their cats like to play in the busy streets, yet stubbornly refuse to take any remedial measures to dissuade them otherwise.  (See Cat Defender posts of December 5, 2006, September 17, 2012, October 7, 2016, March 29, 2017, and September 20, 2018 entitled, respectively, "Milo, Who Visits the Vet by Her Lonesome,  Is Named Old Blighty's 'Most Adventurous Cat,'" "Contrary to the Neighborhood Scuttlebutt, Krümel Is Alive and Well, at Least for the Time Being, at the Hotel Garni Herold," "Declared Dead and Prematurely Interred, Gus Gets the Last Laugh for Now but the Next Time Around He May Not Be Quite So Lucky, Especially if His Inattentive Owner Does Not Start Taking Better Care of Him," "Archie Is Knowingly Allowed to Sleep Smack-Dab in the Middle of a Busy Thoroughfare by His Derelict Owners Who Are Content with Merely Tracking His Movements by Satellite" and "Pirate Pleasantly Surprises the Thespians at the Bush Theatre by Turning Up after a Six-Month Absence but He Is Far from Being Out of the Woods Just Yet.")

As dreadful, distressing, and seemingly hopeless as the situation appears to be, a few tentative baby steps have been taken in recent years in order to rectify matters. For example in Norwalk, Bobette Moore and Gary Caufield successfully lobbied local politicians back in 2007 to follow the example set by the Japanese on remote Iriomote and thus to erect a cat crossing sign at Erna Avenue. (See Cat Defender post of November 27, 2006 entitled "After Surviving on Its Own for at Least Two Million Years, a Rare Japanese Wildcat Faces Its Toughest Battle Yet.")

"It appears to have made a big difference," Bruce Kolwicz of the city's Department of Public Works said at that time. "It's not really enforceable, but it's working and that's what really matters."

Even though he is to be commended for constructing and erecting the sign, he is dead wrong to argue that the city is powerless to protect the lives of cats. For instance, since all municipalities employ school crossing guards they do not have a valid excuse for not hiring others to work at cat crossings.

In fact, the only reason that Kolwicz and Norwalk are unwilling to do so is that they do not believe that feline lives are worth protecting. (See Cat Defender post of January 26, 2007 entitled "Cat Activists Succeed in Getting a Connecticut Town to Erect a Cat Crossing Sign.")

Bobette Moore and Gary Caufield in Front of Their Cat Crossing Sign

Certain residential communities in both England and Deutschland have successfully agitated for reduced speed limits as a way of cutting down on the number of cats being killed on their streets. (See the Sheffield Telegraph, April 17, 2012, "'Speeding Motorist Killed Our Pet Cat' Says Sheffield Man.")

As far as it is known, however, their American counterparts have declined to follow suit. On the contrary, just about all denizens of the land of the dollar bill and assault rifles fervently believe that they not only have a god-given right to run down cats but pedestrians as well.

For as long as it can be remembered, motorists in England have been required under penalty of law to report every dog that they kill but not cats. Earlier this year that gaping and outrageously discriminatory loophole in the law was closed and now motorists who fail to inform veterinarians of the cats that they run down could face a fine of up to £20,000.

Given that Scotland Yard has recently refused to go after the Croydon Cat Killer as well as the attackers of Mr. Solly, it would be nothing short of shocking if it and its fellow police forces across the country could be prevailed upon to stir so much as a muscle in order to enforce this new edict.  (See Yahoo News, May 16, 2019, "New Laws Could Mean Drivers Face Massive Fine (sic) for Running over Cats," The Guardian, September 20, 2018, "'Croydon Cat Killer' Hunt Ends after Three-Year Investigation," and The Evening Standard, September 21, 2018, "Croydon Cat Killer: Outraged Pet Owners and Animal Charities Insist Killer Is 'Still Out There' Despite Police Saying No Evidence of Any Human Involvement," and Cat Defender post of December 18, 2018 entitled "The Brutal Attackers of Mr. Solly Walk in a Lark All Because the Rotters at Scotland Yard Were Too Bone-Lazy, Derelict, and Ailurophobic to Even Examine the Evidence Supplied Them by His Distraught Owner.")

Cats Matter of London has had considerably more success in convincing several local councils to scan the corpses of cats killed by motorists for microchips so that their owners can be notified of their deaths and their remains returned to them. That is far from being an insignificant development in that the charity estimates that motorists across England run down a cat every two and one-half minutes. (See the BBC, February 3, 2018, "'Hope' for Rule Change to Check Found Pets for Microchips.")

As things now stand, street sweepers and private citizens remove their bodies and casually toss them into the trash and even those that are left unattended can decompose beyond recognition in a day or two if exposed to the torrid summer sun. Under either scenario, the victims' owners are deprived of not only being able to reclaim them for burial but of even ever knowing what had happened to them. Any measure of closure that might be hoped for under such trying circumstances is therefore reduced to an utter impossibility.

Stéphane Gendron Loves Nothing Better Than to Run Down and Kill Cats

Since societies all around the world are so dead set against criminalizing the running down of cats, it is therefore incumbent upon their owners to keep them out of traffic. They can still be allowed outdoors in enclosed gardens and sometimes in quiet residential and rural areas that are far removed from major thoroughfares and speeding motorists.

Regrettably that is about the extent of the liberty that they can safely be allowed to enjoy. None of that, however, is of any benefit whatsoever to homeless cats such as Eli and those that belong to managed colonies since they do not have anyone to look out for their safety.

It additionally is important to bear in mind that owners who turn their cats loose in traffic are playing directly into the hands of cat-killing monsters such as Stéphane Gendron who formerly served not only as mayor of Huntingdon, Quebec, but also worked as a talking head on the radio. "When I see a cat in the street, I accelerate. Stray cats have no business in the street," he once told his radio audience according to the July 13, 2013 edition of The Globe and Mail of Toronto. (See "Quebec Mayor in Cat Scandal Under Investigation by Animal Rights Activists.") "So bang! I accelerate!"

Not only is he a serial cat killer, but he also derives immense joy from the commission of his dastardly deeds. "The other day, I backed up on one; it was a newborn. I'm sure he didn't feel a thing," The Huffington Post reported him as informing his listeners on July 13, 2013. (See Stéphane Gendron Killed Kittens with Truck, He Admits on Radio Show.") "The pickup truck ran on it like nothing. I was so happy, yes! One less."

Even those owners who do not have all that much regard for the safety of their cats, perhaps ought to think twice about making it possible for planetary filth like Gendron to continue to carry out their despicable crimes. An even scarier thought is that this world is chock-full of individuals who think and behave just like him and wherever there is either a street, farm, or motorway they are sure to be on the prowl for new victims.

Photos: Facebook (PCAT and Mr. Cheeky), Bill Bowden of the York Daily Record (Roo with Smith), WXIA-TV of Atlanta (Honeycutt), The Sun News of Myrtle Beach (Splat with the Allens), Joel Cairo of Newsday (Fred), Ingram County Animal Control and Shelter (Howard), The Sun of London (Casper), the Connecticut Post (cat crossing sign), and the Globe and Mail (Gendron).

Hounded Down and Nearly Killed by a Hit-and-Run Motorist, Eli Desperately Needs Additional Surgeries in Order to Fully Restore His Previous Level of Mobility

Eli Is Bravely Soldiering On Despite All the Pain and Sorrow

"He plays more than any cat we've had. He is a real lover of life!"
-- Yvonne Reelick of the Better Days Rescue Fund

Eli is extremely fortunate to still be alive. Sometime recently, presumably in either late winter or early spring, he was run down by a hit-and-run motorist and left for dead.

Since he also was homeless, he did not have a guardian to turn to for help even if he had been able to have made it back home with his broken pelvis and dislocated hip. The nature of his injuries also tend to suggest that he was struck from either the side or the rear.

The mere fact that he survived is a pretty good indication that he was racing for the safety of the shoulder of the road and had just about made it when he was struck; otherwise the motorist surely would have left tire marks all over his tiny little head. Like all incidents of this sort, there can be little doubt that the assault was a premeditated one on the part of an individual who gets his (these cretins are almost exclusively males) perverted jollies by running down helpless kittens and cats. (See Cat Defender post of June 25, 2015 entitled "Kayden Is Run Down Three Times in Succession by a Van Driver in Yet Still Another Graphic Example of How So Many Motorists Intentionally Kill Cats.")

So debilitating were Eli's injuries that it is doubtful that he was able to move at all save for using his front paws in order to drag the remainder of his body along behind him. Even so, the pain associated with doing that much could not possibly have been anything other than excruciating.

Radiographs of Eli's Broken Pelvis and Dislocated Hip

Under such hellish circumstances, procuring food and water would have been almost impossible tasks. Locating shelter in order to escape the elements and the avoidance of both human and animal predators would have been equally challenging. Mercifully, he had the bon sens thereafter to have stayed out of the roads.

How long that he was forced to persevere in such a state has not been disclosed but the good news is that his plight eventually did come, one way or the other, to the attention of an unidentified Good Samaritan who was able to trap him. The mere fact that a trap was required in order to corral him is a pretty good indication that he still possessed a modicum of both mobility and strength.

That in turn could possibly also imply that he was rescued not too long after he was attacked. Although some homeless cats have been known to survive these types of assaults without the assistance of either Good Samaritans or veterinarians, they usually are left crippled for life.

They bravely attempt to carry on as best they can by limping around in pain but it is doubtful that they live for very long. Sooner or later either their injuries, the horrific pain, or a vicious dog usually end up killing them.

Eli Has Adjusted to Life Indoors...

What occurred next is far from clear but the Good Samaritan apparently took Eli to an unidentified veterinarian where screws and plates were inserted in order to repair his broken bones and to save his injured leg. That turned out to have been the second life-saving break that the young tuxedo with a white face and a cute black nose and chin received in that it is almost unheard of for any practitioner to treat an injured cat unless either he or she is paid in advance and handsomely at that.

Merely rescuing injured and dying cats is, accordingly, woefully insufficient; rather, caring individuals also must be willing to pay the Shylocks of the veterinary medical profession their customary pounds of flesh as well.  (See Cat Defender posts of July 16, 2010 and March 19, 2014 entitled, respectively, "Tossed Out the Window of a Car Like an Empty Beer Can, an Injured Chattanooga Kitten Is Left to Die after at Least Two Veterinarians Refused to Treat It" and "The Cheap and Greedy Moral Degenerates at PennVet Extend Their Warmest Christmas Greetings to an Impecunious, but Preeminently Treatable, Cat Via a Jab of Sodium Pentobarbital.")

Following treatment, the Good Samaritan made arrangements for Eli to be taken in by the Better Days Rescue Fund in Roxbury, sixty-six kilometers northwest of Norwalk. On its web site, the charity declares that its mission is "to bring better days to abandoned cats and kittens through direct rescue, TNR, and education."

At Better Days, Eli has a little bit of the best of two worlds in that he has access to a warm bed inside the sanctuary's "cat habitat" as well as its fenced-in grounds outside. How much use he is able to make of the latter is unclear considering the extent of his injuries and the discomfort associated with walking.

Despite having had his life tossed upside down, he seems to have adjusted surprisingly well to the sanctuary. "He is incredibly cute, a real goofball!" Better Days' Yvonne Reelick confided to the Connecticut Post of Norwalk on July 1st. (See "Rescued Cat Needs More Surgery to Continue Road to Recovery.") "He has already found a girlfriend at the sanctuary and is fitting right in."

... but He Still Loves the Great Outdoors

Well, that certainly is not the least bit surprising considering that he is such a handsome devil on top of being a natural-born snake charmer. Why, with him now in residence every female at the facility surely must feel that her virtue is being put to the test.

Moreover, the evil and damage so unjustly inflicted upon him by the savage race does not appear to have diminished his enthusiasm for life. "He plays more than any cat we've had," Reelick recently declared on Better Days' web site. "He is a real lover of life!"

After most likely having spent just about all of his life on his own, Eli is quite understandably rather fearful and distrustful of Reelick and staffers at the sanctuary and as a result he is going to require considerable socialization before he can be put up for adoption. "We are hoping to be his friend one day soon," she declares on her web site.

In that regard, Eli would appear to have wound up at the right place in that although Better Days began about a dozen years ago as a more or less typical feline rescue operation, since then it has morphed into one that concentrates upon those that have special needs and are homeless. "I learned pretty quickly how to work with the feral cats and (to) provide them the care they need without traumatizing them," Reelick told the Connecticut Post. "I have a soft spot for feral and special-needs cats who were dealt a pretty bad hand in life, but they have an amazing tenacity and a strong will to survive."

Like so many other rescuers and practitioners of TNR, she also has come to the belated realization that there are few undertakings in life that are quite as fulfilling as working with abandoned and forgotten cats. "Feral cats don't trust easily but when they decide you're okay, it's a wonderful reward for the hard work," she told the Connecticut Post. "We are the land of misfit toys and we love each and every personality that joins us."

 Eli, left, Needs Money for Treatment and Rehabilitation

It is not necessarily one of the species' more admirable virtues, but it is well-known that its members can be bribed and Reelick already has exploited that character flaw to the hilt in order to bend Eli to her will. "He certainly appreciates treats," she freely acknowledges on her organization's web site.

He additionally seems not to have any problem with living indoors. "Eli loves the comfort of the couch just like all cats," she adds on her web site.

He is, however, going to require additional surgeries and extensive rehabilitation in order to restore the level of mobility that he previously enjoyed. Unfortunately for him, the money to cover the cost of that treatment is not currently available.

Anyone who therefore would be willing to financially help him to get back on his feet is encouraged to contact Better Days at either Post Office Box 116, Roxbury, Connecticut 06783 USA or online at www.betterdaysrescuefund.org.

Photos: Better Days.