Bodhi Desperately Needs to Move on to the Next Chapter in His Life but, Like a Millstone Around His Neck, the Abuse That He Suffered while Homeless on the Street Is Holding Him Back

 The Mean Streets of York Were Not Kind to Bodhi 

"Bodhi is a special little cat."
-- the RSPCA's York Animal Home

Running out on a cat is a god-awful thing to do under any circumstances. The only positive thing that can be said about such a heartless act is that it is still preferable to handing it over to either Animal Control, a shelter, or a veterinarian where the vast majority of them are liquidated shortly after arrival.

Nevertheless, life on the street can be, and usually is, hell for a footloose cat. Even those that are fortunate enough to eventually end up at shelters that are something other than thinly disguised slaughterhouses are already carrying around with them so much baggage that they are often unable to readily avail themselves of the opportunities, no matter how few and far between, that are presented to them.

This baggage can consist of physical abuse meted out to them by past owners, dogs, the public, and even other cats. As it most often is the case with cats and humans alike, physical abuse is usually accompanied by psychological damage in terms of a, quite justifiable, lingering fear of past abusers.

For instance, at the RSPCA's York Animal Home in the city of the same name, thirty-five kilometers northeast of Leeds in North Yorkshire, there is a five-year-old white tom with a black and white face, and a black tail named Bodhi ("awakening" or "enlightenment" in Hindi) who is attempting to come to terms with his troubled past and thus to get on with the remainder of his life. He has been at the shelter since at least sometime in June if not indeed longer and, as far as it is known, he still does not have any prospects.

Not much has been disclosed about his past other than that when he arrived he was in a "terrible condition." In particular, he was covered in wounds that the shelter believes were inflicted by other cats.

How that staffers were able to have made that determination has not been explained in that dogs, birds of prey, foxes, other wildlife and, above all, humans also attack cats. In fact, his ingrained fear of humans would tend to suggest that they were responsible for a good measure of the abuse meted out to him.

"Bodhi is a special little cat," a staffer at the charity told The Press of York on July 3rd. (See "Could You Give a Home to Ex-Street Cat Bodhi?") "He is looking for a home with extra special adopters who will take a chance on an ex-street cat who has been left with anxiety around humans due to the abuse he suffered while living on the streets."

What exactly staffers are doing in order to help him come to terms with his anxieties has not been detailed, but whatever the tactics they so far have proven insufficient. "He has come on so much since he first arrived at the RSPCA rescue centre, but sadly he still has a long way to go," the staffer continued to The Press.

According to its web site, the shelter cares for around fifty-four cats with that number expanding to seventy-two during kitten season, an equal number of canines, nineteen rabbits, and an undisclosed number of birds and "small furries." Under such crowded and stressful conditions, it is remarkable that staffers have been able to have made any progress at all with Bodhi.

Bodhi Has Been Languishing in a Cage for Months

"We feel he will improve so much quicker in a home environment," the staffer speculated to The Press. Malheureusement, the citizens of York and surrounding areas are not cooperating in that none of them has been willing to offer him a home so far.

A large part of the difficulty lies in the fact that the shelter is stipulating that he needs to be an indoor cat and that automatically rules out placing him in a managed colony. Secondly, he needs a home sans children and other pets.

Thirdly, would-be adopters need to be knowledgeable about previously homeless cats and willing to continue the rehabilitation process already begun by the shelter. Fourthly, the shelter is stipulating that Bodhi initially be provided with "a secure spare room" in order to hang out in until he feels more comfortable around his new owner.

"This may take up to six months to happen so they will need to be in it for the long haul," the staffer added to The Press. "Adopters will need lots of time and patience with Bodhi and understand the traumas he has suffered when he was living on the street."

Realistically speaking, the shelter is in all probability asking too much of the public in that most individuals do not have any interest in adopting abused cats any more than they do old ones. (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.")

That is far from being the end of the world, however, in that the shelter has other arrows in its quiver. Specifically, it might want to look into the possibility of placing Bodhi in foster care while it continues to search fulltime for a permanent home for him. 

For example, both Yorkshire Cat Rescue in Keighley, West Yorkshire, and Blue Cross's Rehoming Centre in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, have recorded some successes by utilizing fosterers in order to prepare cats for eventual adoption. (See Cat Defender posts of August 5, 2022 and July 15, 2022 entitled, respectively, "Igor Has Had a Difficult and Troubled Life but He Is Doing Everything in His Power in Order to Enjoy Each and Every Moment of What Very Well Could Be His Final Summer" and "Intentionally Blinded in Her Right Eye and Justifiably Scared to Death of People, Candy Cane Is Saved by the Combined Efforts of a Fosterer, a Shelter, and Her New Guardians.")

Almost anything that might help him to overcome his shyness and distrust of humans could make all the difference in the world. Besides, occasionally a fosterer will become so attached to a cat that he or she will eventually adopt it.

On the other hand, such an approach has been known to lead to some cats being bandied about from one foster home to another, subjected to one failed adoption after another and, worst of all, repeatedly returned to a cage at a shelter. (See Cat Defender posts of August 31, 2017, March 12, 2018, July 29, 2019, and October 27, 2020 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," "Repeatedly Shunned, Maligned, and Bandied About from One Place to Another, Harvey Is Now Engaged in the Most Important Battle of His Life," and "Noble and Courageous Harvey Who So Desperately Wanted to Go on Living Is Instead Unforgivably Betrayed and Killed Off by His Foster Mother and Yorkshire Cat Rescue.")

Bodhi Is Waiting Patiently for the Arrival of His White Knight

Considering that Bodhi is a mature cat, it might be worthwhile for the York Animal Home to explore the possibility of placing him with a pensioner. Of course, such an individual would need to have some familiarity with homeless cats as well as the prerequisite patience in order to work with him until he has conquered his anxieties. (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.")

"Staff at the centre believe he will make a great pet if someone will take a chance on him," the staffer predicted to The Press. Whereas that is unquestionably true, that does not in any way alter the reality that Bodhi's life rests in the hands of staffers at the shelter.

They accordingly must be willing to continue to invest the time, effort, and money in him in order to rehabilitate him and to secure a proper home for him. Above all, they must never weary of the herculean task before them, give up, and throw in the towel on him.

He is a handsome cat who has been put through Hell but that in no way alters the fact that his life is preeminently worth saving and that he richly deserves another chance at life and happiness. It most assuredly is not his fault that The Fates have been unkind to him.

Although the York Animal Home maintains on its web site that it is "sponsored by and works in partnership with the RSPCA," it nevertheless insists that it is not only independent of it but primarily self-supporting. That is important only in so far as it refrains from committing the same despicable crimes against cats and their owners that the RSPCA has perpetrated for years. (See Cat Defender posts of June 5, 2007 and October 23, 2010 entitled, respectively, "The RSPCA's Unlawful Seizure and Senseless Killing of Mork Leaves His Sister, Mindy, Brokenhearted and His Caretakers Devastated" and "The RSPCA Steals and Executes Nightshift Who Was His Elderly Caretaker's Last Surviving Link to Her Dead Husband," Daily Mail articles dated December 30, 2012, November 6, 2014, March 28, 2016, and August 14, 2016 and entitled, respectively, "Revealed: RSPCA Destroys Half of the Animals That It Rescues -- Yet Thousands Are Completely Healthy," "RSPCA Forced to Apologize for Wrongly Putting Down Cat Belonging to Family It Accused of Cruelty in Bungled Prosecution," "RSPCA Killed a Cat for Having Long Hair -- Then Tried to Prosecute Owners for Cruelty," and "RSPCA Is at It Again! Cat Saved Then Put to Sleep," plus The Chronicle of Chester, August 11, 2016, "Distraught Saltney Family (sic) Blast RSPCA after Their Cat Was Put Down.")

Even on those very rare occasions when the charity even so much as bothers to stir itself in order to prosecute cases of cruelty to cats, it does so with a wet noodle. (See Cat Defender posts of March 9, 2012, March 13, 2012, and August 31, 2015 entitled, respectively, "An Amateur Ornithologist Guns Down Hartley with an Air Rifle, Feigns Remorse, and Then Cheats Justice by Begging and Lying," "The Sick Wife Defense Works Like a Charm for Cunning Patrick Doyle after He Traps a Cat and Then Shoots It with an Air Rifle while Still in Its Cage," and "Beaten and Entombed Above Ground for Several Weeks, a Forever Nameless Cat from Colchester Is Finished Off by the RSPCA which Refuses to Even Investigate Her Death," plus the Daily Mail, August 10, 2022, "Man, Forty-Four, Who Trapped and Poisoned His Neighbours' Cats Is Handed Suspended Jail Term in Landmark Case.") 

Clearly, when it comes to respecting the right of all cats and kittens to live and punishing their abusers and killers, the RSPCA's name is mud and it accordingly would be much better for its own reputation if the York Animal Home were to sever all ties to it. It additionally might want to consider dramatically reducing its exorbitant £120 adoption fee.

It surely is more than capable of improvising an alternative fundraising scheme that does not involve holding cats for ransom. Besides, with so many individuals abandoning cats right and left, it is difficult to imagine that the charity is going to be able to adopt out many of those that it has taken in so long as it continues to charge so much for them. (See the Manchester Evening News, July 10, 2022, "'Watch Out You'll Be Sorry': The Cat Rescuers Facing Abuse and Threats from Desperate Owners Dumping Cats," the BBC, August 16, 2022, "Pet Bills: The People Reuniting Families with Their Pets," Bloomberg, August 18, 2022, "Food Bank for Pets Show United Kingdom Inflation Reaching Cats and Dogs," and the Daily Mail, August 20, 2022, "Abandoned: The Cats Their Owners Can't Afford to Keep as Cost of Living Crisis Bites -- after Helping Them Through the Loneliness of Lockdown.")

Unfortunately, neither of those expedients are in the cards and therefore of any immediate benefit to Bodhi. By way of default, that leaves his fate ultimately in the hands of fans of the species.

Therefore, anyone who would be willing to give him a home can contact his gaolers by post at the RSPCA's York Animal Home, Landing Lane, York YO26 4RH, by telephone at 44-01904 654949, by e-mail at reception@rspca-yorkhome.org.uk, and through its web site at www.rspca-yorkhome.org.uk. Concerned individuals also can make a donation for his continued care until a suitable adopter comes along and that just might very well be sufficient in order to save his life.

Photos: York Animal Home.

The Narcissists at Kenyon College Enter into an Unholy Alliance with an Ambitious Methodist Minister and in Doing So Doom Moxie to an Early Grave Through Their Insufferable Arrogance, Naked Exploitation, and Abject Neglect of Him

Not Allowed Indoors, Moxie Was Forced to Hang Out on Middle Path

"'Will you walk into my parlour?' said a spider to a fly.
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.

The way into my parlour is up the winding stair,
And I have many pretty things to shew (sic) you when you are there..."
-- Mary Bothan Howitt

It is truly lamentable that cats are not born with the prerequisite bon sens in order to steer clear of the degree mills. Even so much as a passing acquaintance with any of the selfish, predatory, and good-for-nothing egomaniacs who strut and prance around these capitalistic, brainwashing warehouses for the young, naïve, and ambitious can be lethal for a cat.

Sadly, that was the tragic and cruel fate that befell a handsome five-year-old black tom named Moxie on the night of July 6th when he was run down and killed by an unidentified motorist at an undisclosed location on the campus of Kenyon College in tiny Gambier, eighty-two kilometers north of Columbus in the woods of rural Ohio. He thus became the latest victim to be added to the ever-growing list of cats that have died, quite often violently, as the result of the abject neglect and naked exploitation meted out to them by legions of totally irresponsible and morally retarded professors, administrators, and students.

"It is with great sadness that I inform you that Moxie was struck by a vehicle last night and passed," is how that campus police chief Michael Sweazey broke the distressing news July 7th on Twitter. (See "Moxie the Cat.") "The driver immediately stopped to render aid, but there was nothing that could be done."

First of all, vehicles do not kill cats any more than guns kill people; au contraire, it is drivers who kill cats and they always do so intentionally. Secondly, given that Moxie was killed on campus, the driver most assuredly was connected in some fashion to the college. 

Thirdly, the individual behind the wheel could have braked unless he or she was either speeding, impaired, or gassing on the telephone. Additionally, all motor vehicles on the road today are equipped with modern, state-of-the-art braking and suspension systems that enable them to be stopped on a dime. (See Cat Defender post of August 14,2019 entitled "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.")

Fourthly, contrary to Sweazey's sottise, Moxie simply did not "pass" but rather he had his young life violently taken from him in, presumably, a few seconds. Cats that are killed instantaneously by motorists usually have been struck in the head with their brains and eyeballs squeezed out of them and deposited all over the pavement.

On the other hand, if Moxie had received only a glancing blow there is a good chance that he was still alive but that the campus police, being too lazy and cheap to have transported him to a veterinarian, stood idly by and watched him die a lonely, protracted, and excruciatingly painful death. Such a scenario seems more and more plausible given that, as best it could be determined, there are not any practitioners located in Gambier and that in turn would have necessitated that the cops driven him to Mount Vernon, eight kilometers to the northwest, had they been so inclined.

It is even conceivable that they finished him off with either their nightsticks or a bullet to the head. After all, they love nothing better in this whole, wide world than to train their coshes and the barrels of their automatics on helpless cats, other animals, and individuals. (See Cat Defender post of March 22,2012 entitled "In Another Outrageous Miscarriage of Justice, Rogue Cop Jonathan N. Snoddy Is Let Off with a US$50 Fine for Savagely Bludgeoning to Death an Injured Cat.")

Fifthly, "last night" could mean anytime between dusk on July 6th and dawn on July 7th. The outside world has only been given Sweazey's account of events and all cops are, to one degree or another, inveterate liars and perjurers. Besides, it is extremely unlikely that he was even working that night; normally, chiefs of police do not work the evening and graveyard shifts. Consequently, it likely was one or more of his subordinates who responded to the scene.

"His owner was immediately notified, and a dignified and respectful burial was arranged," Sweazey concluded. That, too, could mean almost anything.

Moxie and his brother, Mosie, first turned up at the old-as-the-hills Anglican-affiliated liberal arts school in October of 2017 as six-month-old homeless kittens. They were almost immediately apprehended and taken into custody by the Reverend Susan Stevens of the Gambier Epworth United Methodist Church at 200 Wiggin Street. Following closely upon the heels of their earlier cruel and indefensible abandonment, Stevens' entry into their young lives constituted their second stroke of outrageous Unglück.

Whereas the presence of the eggheads would have been bad enough, the addition of a hypocritical and ambitious Christian into Moxie's life ultimately proved to have been too much for him to have overcome. After all, when it comes to defaming and killing cats, the followers of Jesus Christ have quite a checkered past.

For example, in 1233 Pope Gregory IX denounced black cats as being satanic. Two centuries later, Pope Innocent VIII issued his infamous witch bull wherein he decreed that all cat-worshipers and, by extension, felines themselves were to be disposed of via the auto-da-fe.

Moxie Was Taken Advantage of by the Eggheads and Holy Rollers

Some historians even maintain that the principal reason that the bubonic plague was able to have so easily decimated one-quarter of the population of Europe over the course of five hundred years can be laid at the feet of the Catholic Church in that it killed off so many cats that there were not enough of them left alive in order to control the rodent population which spread the disease. Many churches of today, such as St. Jude Catholic in Tequesta, Florida, and Northside Baptist in Baltimore, still fervently believe that the only good cat is a dead one. (See the Palm Beach Post, October 19, 2007, "Cat Feeders Hiss at Church's Barricade" and Cat Defender posts of July 30,2009 and May 1,2010 entitled, respectively, "Ferals Living at a Baltimore Church Find Out the Hard Way That Hatred of Cats Is Every Bit as Christian as Unleavened Bread and Cheap Wine" and "When It Comes to Cats, Acts of Faith Count for Absolutely Nothing with the Good Christians at Northside Baptist.") 

In keeping with that ancient Christian tradition, the good Methodist Stevens took Moxie and Mosie home to her abode near the Acland Apartments, just off campus, whereby she shortly thereafter washed her hands of all moral responsibility to the former by turning him loose to roam the sprawling one-thousand-acre campus all by his lonesome both day and night. Even more reprehensibly, she became enraged when concerned students and local residents began to warn her on an "almost nightly" basis of the dire consequences of her callous and inexcusable neglect.

"I had to remove my phone number (from his collar) because I was getting calls at two in the morning," she unashamedly confessed to the student newspaper, The Kenyon Collegian, on April 11, 2019. (See "Beloved Campus Cat Moxie 'Fills a Need' on Kenyon Campus.") "I know when he's not coming back, he's with somebody."

The old girl surely must have missed her calling and should have been a fortune teller instead of a Bible beater because she ultimately was proven correct in both of her prophesies. First of all, Moxie was indeed with someone on the night that he was killed: a motorist. In fact, he was underneath that cretin's front tire having his precious life violently crushed out of him. 

Secondly, he most definitely will not be returning home or anywhere else for that matter. Moxie was not a creation of some Hollywood movie house who dies in one flick only to return to life in a later production, but rather a real-life, flesh and blood sentient being who is now gone forever.

Stevens' callous and morally irresponsible attitude toward him while he was alive also calls into question the veracity of Sweazey's assertion that "a dignified and respectful burial was arranged." Specifically, since she was so unwilling to even answer telephone inquiries regarding his safety, let alone to have gone and collected him, it strains credulity that she would have been willing to have gotten out of bed and gone and retrieved his mangled and bloodied corpse.    

Au contraire, she more than likely instructed the ever-obliging Sweazey, or whichever one of his underlings that was on duty on that god-awful night, to have disposed of his remains in the nearest trash can. If against all odds she did elect to provide him with a proper burial, his grave should be easy enough to locate either on campus or close by.

It also is odd that, in so far as it has been reported, no funeral service was held. Of course, that glaring oversight could be explainable by the petit fait that as a hellfire and brimstone Christian Stevens does not believe that either the lives, souls, or remains of cats are worthy of preservation and commemoration.

If that indeed is the case, the Bible furnishes her with more than ample justification for her immorality beginning with the Dominion Mandate of Genesis I:26. In his 2015 encyclical on climate change, Laudato si', Jorge Mario Bergoglio signaled the Catholic Church's readiness to move away from that simply hideous doctrine but so far the only action that he has taken has been to chastise the faithful for keeping cats and dogs as opposed to adding to this already hopelessly overcrowded planet by having more babies. (See The Guardian of London, January 5, 2022, "Choosing Pets over Babies Is 'Selfish and Diminishes Us,' Says Pope.")

In addition to the Dominion Mandate, the god of the Christians and Jews commands them in Acts 10:11-13 to kill and eat animals and Americans slaughter and scarf down more than nine trillion terrestrials alone each year.  As if all of that were not morally reprehensible enough, Isaiah 27:1 has been used by both sects as a rationale for killing millions of whales. Before the first oil well was sunk in Titusville, Pennsylvania, on August 27, 1859, it was whale oil that was used in order to illuminate the major cities of Europe and New England. 

With Yom Kippur rapidly approaching, Orthodox and Hasidic Jews are sans doute already busily sharpening their straight razors in eager anticipation of the tens of thousands of totally innocent and defenseless chickens whose throats they are going to be slitting during their utterly barbaric sacrificial rite of Kaparot. In reality, however, this outrageous bloodletting has very little to do with atonement but rather the turning of a fast and easy buck in that rabbis purchase the birds that they slaughter for US$2 and then sell them back to sinners for US$26 or more. 

They also callously allow thousands of other chickens to die from heat exhaustion while they are on death row in cages that are purposefully left out in the hot sun on the streets of Brooklyn and elsewhere. Although these horrific atrocities violate every anti-cruelty statute on the books, the Jews are allowed to get away with them year after year just as they enjoy this society's blessings to live off of tons of welfare and the fruits of their crimes instead of being required like everybody else to work for a living and to obey the laws.

To top it all off, they claim that they donate the chickens that they slaughter to charity but that is an outrageous lie in that they instead toss them in the trash. Furthermore, it is difficult to believe that they ever have given so much as a penny to charity. 

 Absolutely Nobody Cared Enough about Him to Have Saved Moxie's Life

For example, back in 2018 two staffers at the Central United Talmudical Academy in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, pled guilty to stealing US$3.2 million that the New York State Health Department had given them in order to feed needy children. (See the New York Post, January 19, 2019, "New York City Yeshivas Collect More Than US$100 Million in Public Funds.") 

Clearly, both Christians and Jews always have been at war with the animals and Mother Earth and they do not have any intention of relenting until they have annihilated the both of them. It could even be argued that Christianity is antithetical to human rights, egalitarianism, and democracy.

"...Christianity, with its emphasis on humility and the hope of a happier afterlife was clearly a religion for slaves and poor people," is how that Edward Rutherfurd put in his 1997 historical novel, London. Even though the Talmud thumpers and the Bible beaters may have won the propaganda war hands down, they have not been able to completely drown out saner voices.

"There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to man and beast, it is all a sham... and it will not stand when things come to be turned inside out and put down for what they are," Anna Sewell did not mince any words in declaring in her 1877 masterpiece, Black Beauty. Abraham Lincoln put the matter even more succinctly when he declared that he did not "care for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it."

It was in her eulogy, however, that Stevens bared her ugly and thoroughly rotten soul for all the world to behold. "My boy touched so many hearts and souls," she began on July 13th in an article that is posted on the school's web site. (See "Remembering Moxie. Community Members Reflect on the Life of a Beloved Campus Cat.") "I too loved him from afar because he felt the need to minister to you all."

That last statement of hers is so asinine, dishonest, and self-serving that it is difficult to even read without vomiting! Even so, she did not have the bon sens to have stopped there.

"My prayers are with all those whose hearts he touched. Know that his legacy lives on in all of you," she continued. "Go be Moxies in the world in which you live."

Statements such as those make it perfectly clear that she never thought of Moxie as a sentient being with needs and prerogatives of his own. Rather, she looked down upon him as an expendable tool in order to recruit paying parishioners to her church.

"I really believe god has given him that gift (friendliness)," she averred to The Kenyon Collegian in the article cited supra. "God brought him to campus to fill a niche, to fill a need."

Stevens so far has declined to disclose how much money and how many converts that Moxie brought in to her church but, given the tenor of her remarks, his contribution to her bottom line does not appear to have been insubstantial. "When this cat came onto campus the doors just swung wide open," she continued to The Kenyon Collegian. "I was able to meet so many of you, and I want to say thank you to all you college students who have taken him in and loved him."

First of all, cats not only do not know anything about Christianity but they most assuredly do not have any need for either it or any religion. Secondly, Stevens' imploring of students to "go be Moxies" can only be interpreted as a clarion call for them to allow Christians like her to exploit, neglect, and to ultimately sacrifice them upon the altar of her religion. After all, Christians simply adore martyrs so long as they are always someone other than they themselves.

Thirdly, Stevens is lying through her rotten teeth when she clumsily attempts to make Moxie out to have been a feline version of an itinerant minister along the lines of the Elmer Gantrys of yesterday and the David Terrells of today. People are all the time getting it wrong, but the only reason that cats roam, except for intact males during Paarungszeit, is because they are being hideously neglected at home by their totally irresponsible owners.

Contrary to popular belief, cats are high maintenance animals and for that reason nobody should be allowed to adopt one unless he or she, or another family member, is willing to stay home with it every day and night. C'est-à-dire, cats with owners who are willing to stay home with them, to entertain them, to give them treats throughout the day, and to play with them do very little or no roaming at all. Therefore, whenever a cat is routinely spotted either on the street or a college campus it is a sure bet that it is either homeless or has a derelict owner.

A Warning Sign Ignored: Moxie Stranded Aloft at Wiggin Street Coffee

Locking up cats indoors while their owners are out chasing shekels, whoring, doping, and drinking is not the answer either. On the contrary, it is not only cruel and negligent but doing so additionally creates mental and physical health problems as well as leaving them to the mercy of burglars, conflagrations, and gas leaks. (See Cat Defender posts of August 22,2007 and October 19,2007 entitled, respectively, "Indoor Cats Are Dying of Diabetes, Hyperthyroidism, and Various Toxins in the Home" and "Smokers Are Killing Their Cats, Dogs, Birds, and Infants by Continuing to Light Up in Their Presence.")

Stevens therefore killed Moxie through her extreme neglect and selfish exploitation of him just as if she had been the individual who mowed him down in the street. She accordingly has blood all over her grasping little hands and ugly face and it is going to take considerably more than insincere religious mumbo jumbo for her to get it off.

She also sans doute belongs in jail but it is a foregone conclusion that neither the Knox County Humane Society nor the Knox County Animal Shelter, both located in Mount Vernon, has the slightest bit of interest of looking into Moxie's killing. At the very least, the slackers should take Mosie away for her before she kills him too. Through both her words and deeds she has proven conclusively that she is totally unfit to be entrusted with the life of any cat.

Most revealing of all, there is absolutely nothing in her eulogy that even remotely demonstrates so much as a scintilla of any real appreciation and love for Moxie; rather, it amounts to little more than a crass and totally inappropriate advertisement for her faith. It therefore is almost a sure bet that she is yet to lose either so much as a wink of sleep or to shed a solitary tear over his cruel and premature killing.

She can hide behind her phony-baloney religion and precious shekels until judgment day but if she does not richly belong in jail for animal neglect and cruelty, she must assuredly needs to be put away for being such an outrageous hypocrite. In his 1906 magnum opus, The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce defines a Christian as "one who follows the teachings of Christ in so far as they are not inconsistent with a life of sin" and that definition fits Stevens to a tee.

  

In spite his myriad of other problems and mistakes, Sweazey was somewhat more forthcoming than Stevens in his eulogy, which appeared in the Twitter article cited supra. "As you know, Campus Safety had a special relationship with Moxie and is in mourning with all of you," he wrote. "I know I will miss his frequent 'guest appearances' in my Google Meet-Zoom meetings as he used my window and desk as his highway in and out of our office and knocked a few random items off as he passed through. Kenyon has lost a legend who will not be forgotten."

Sweazey's fellow officer, J.P. Downes, pretty much echoed his boss's sentiments. "I am going to miss seeing him laying (sic) in the Campus Security window seat he loved to sleep in! I'd say good morning to him most mornings....," he stated July 13th in the commemorative article posted on the college's web site. "He was the best boy."

Miracle Mahle, who works as an administrative assistant in the campus police department, also paused to remember him. "Moxie was one of a kind. Sassy and beautiful. Intuitive and funny. Spoiled rotten and giving," she told the campus web site. "He had the best life a cat could have."

If she truly believes her last assertion, then why is Moxie dead at the tender age of five? Furthermore, the same charges of moral turpitude and abject neglect that have been leveled against Stevens apply equally to Sweazey, Downes, and Mahle.

As officers of the law, they were acutely aware of the myriad of imminent dangers that Moxie faced every day of his life and yet they stood idly by and allowed him to be killed. That in turn gives a distinctively hollow ring to their eulogies.

Furthermore, police departments do a terrible job of protecting the lives of those cats that they adopt. For example, members of the Philadelphia force inexplicably allowed one of their cats to be stolen. (See Cat Defender post of May 29,2007 entitled "Corporal Cuffs, a Beloved Stationhouse Mascot, Is Abducted Right Underneath the Noses of the Philadelphia Police.")

Like the campus police at Kenyon, officers of the Hamilton, Massachusetts, Police Department carelessly allowed their black cat, Eco, to be run down and killed by a hit-and-run motorist on February 15, 2009. (See Cat Defender post of March 18,2009 entitled "Eco, Who for Years was a Mainstay at a Small Massachusetts Police Department, Is Run Down and Killed by a Motorist.")

Moxie Hitching a Ride with Teddy Hannah-Drullard

"An unlicensed therapy cat, Moxie was a friend to all in good times and in bad, and could be trusted to keep a confidence," is how that Liz Keeney of Student Accessibility and Support Services chose to remember him on Kenyon's web site. "He will be widely and deeply missed."

Being so narcissistic as to be thoroughly incapable of ever thinking about the needs of anyone other than themselves, nothing much was expected from the toffs and in that regard political science and Asian studies professor Michelle Mood certainly did not disappoint. "Moxie came into my upstairs Acland House office one time, perambulated once, and promptly left with a sniffy attitude," she related in a vein that can only be described as a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. "Being a cat lover, I felt like I was being snubbed so thoroughly I could only laugh at his judgeyness (sic). I did not count."

Whereas Mood's soul may be a wasteland of rank selfishness and runaway egotism, the Kenyon experience apparently is not a complete waste of time and the whopping US$80,000 in tuition, room, and board that the professors con out of unsuspecting students each year. "Safe travels over the Rainbow Bridge, Moxie. Your companionship during my time at Kenyon College made Gambier feel even more like home and inspired me to adopt a black cat of my own," 2019 graduate Evangeline Warren testified to the college's web site. "You will be missed."

Still, it is impossible to justify the continued existence of Kenyon if the very best that it is capable of accomplishing is to once in a blue moon produce a graduate who is morally responsible and has an abiding respect for the sanctity of all feline life. Certainly, none of those qualities are to be found in its professors, administrators, and religious blowhards.

In what little that can be gleaned from press reports and online articles, even Mahle's assertion that Moxie "had the best life a cat could have" seems absurd in hindsight. To begin with, since Stevens categorically refused to keep him at home nights, where did he sleep? Also, how did he survive Ohio's cold and snowy winters without shelter?

Secondly, what did he do for food and water? If he was forced to scrimp by on morsels of hot dogs, sandwiches, and cookies tossed to him by students, he is lucky that he did not die from either malnutrition or food poisoning long ago.

Thirdly, no one connected with the narcissistic degree mill ever afforded him so much as a speck of protection from motorists, such prolific feline predators as dogs, raccoons, skunks, and coyotes, the machinations of ailurophobes, such as ornithologists, wildlife biologists, and gardeners, and such ubiquitous poisons as ethylene glycol. Worst still, even after he became stranded on top of a dormer window at Wiggin Street Coffee at 101 East Wiggin Street in 2019 and subsequently had to be brought down by firefighters, neither Stevens nor anyone connected to Kenyon could be bothered to take any proactive measures whatsoever in order to better safeguard his well-being and fragile life. 

Fourthly, the school's professors would not even allow him to enter their classrooms. Being nothing more than priggish, selfish, and egomaniacal monsters on even their best days, they were not about to share the stage with a cat even if doing so meant saving his life or even granting him a moment's respite from the bone-chilling cold, rain, and snow.

Fifthly, Moxie was not permitted to so much as set foot inside the on-campus Harcourt Parish of the Episcopal Church at 100 College Park Street. Whenever he attempted to do so, the Reverend Rachel Kessler, a 2004 graduate of Kenyon, did not hesitate to give him the bum's rush. Since the worship houses of the Christians are off limits to cats, who the hell would ever want to go to their heaven? Hades would be a far better choice in that there are sure to be plenty of witches and warlocks down below and they always have been some of the staunchest defenders of both cats and the truth.

Given the cold shoulder by Kenyon, the Episcopal Church, and the good Methodist Stevens, Moxie was relegated to spending his days, evenings, and nights hitching rides on the tops of obliging students' backpacks and hanging out with the campus dicks. Not being welcome anywhere else on campus, he thus was forced to live outdoors and with all the dangers that entailed.

Even though both the Christians, Methodists and Anglicans alike, and the eggheads were totally unwilling to have taken any responsibility for his care and safety, they certainly were not the least bit shy about exploiting him to the hilt for their own selfish purposes. "I think Moxie injects a levity into the campus," the ailurophobic Kessler blowed to The Atlantic on September 27, 2019. (See "The Cat with a Campus Wrapped Around His Paw.")

Most hypocritical of all, although Moxie was not allowed indoors, the college's admissions office did not hesitate to exploit him as a recruitment tool. "Moxie has definitely become a selling point," Teddy Hannah-Drullard, who graduated in 2020 but has been unable so far to do any better for herself than to gamely solider on as a gratte-papier in the admissions office, confided to The Atlantic. "If you're on a tour and Moxie shows up, you are definitely not discouraged from stopping, picking him up, and bringing him with you (but not indoors)."

The picture that emerges from all of this is as clear as a blue sky on a sunny day. Both the eggheads and the holy rollers not only exploited Moxie and treated him like dirt but they also callously allowed him to be run over and killed by one of their own motorists.

Middle Path Still Exists but Its Most Famous Promeneur Is Gone Forever 

Even their eulogies are, for the most part, insincere and as phony as a three-dollar bill. He most assuredly will not be remembered because in order to do so both groups of miscreants would have to first candidly come to terms with his blood being all over their grasping little hands and, as consummate narcissists, they are not about to do anything of the kind in a million years.

In addition to not caring anything about him, they remain to this very day totally ignorant as to the enormity of their despicable crime. They have killed a young cat who not only had his entire life ahead of him but whose existence was easily worth ten million of their own.

Most damning of all, in spite of their multitude of degrees and honors neither the eggheads nor the holy rollers seem to have all that much between their ears. For instance, it is well-known that a cat has the intellectual development of a four-year-old child and absolutely nobody with so much as a lick of sense would ever turn loose a toddler in traffic but yet that is precisely what Kenyon and Stevens did to Moxie.

If the eggheads are so smart and know it all as they are all the time proclaiming, why is Moxie dead? Moreover, with them in charge of things, why is this world teetering on the eve of destruction?     

Could it possibly be that every one of them is a colossal fraud and that higher education and Christianity are little more than sleazy, money-making and power-grabbing rackets? Socrates once asked the Sophists whose lives that they had improved and that same inquiry needs to be directed at the eggheads and holy rollers.

Since cats such as Moxie are unable to read and to learn, the only prudent course of action is to bar under penalty of law all eggheads and holy rollers from coming within one-hundred yards of any of them. They are far too selfish, egotistical, morally irresponsible, exploitative, and manipulative to be entrusted with the life of an animal as exquisite, precious, and refined as a cat. Why, just the mere fact of bringing them together is tantamount to mixing tin with gold.

Finally, although it is way too late for it to be of any use to him now, Mary Botham Howitt's 1829 poem, "The Spider and the Fly," pretty much sums up in a nutshell the web of intrigue that the eggheads and holy rollers spun in order to not only entrap but to rob Moxie of his life. It begins as follows:            

"'Will you walk into my parlour?' said a spider to a fly.

'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.

The way into my parlour is up the winding stair,

And I have many pretty things to shew (sic) you when you are there..."

Just like the hapless fly, Moxie went unwittingly to his horrible, violent death, ignorant to the very end of just where those that he trusted were leading him. Howitt thus continues:

"He (the spider) dragged her up his winding staircase, into his dismal den,

Within his little parlour -- but she never came out again!"

The lesson for both those who care about cats as well as for individuals who are partial to staying alive in such a vile, violent, and deceitful world should be obvious but, in case it is not, Howitt spells it out as follows:

"And now, dear little children, who may this story read,

To idly, silly, flattering words, I pray you ne'er give heed:

Unto evil counsellor, close heart, and ear, and eye,

And take a lesson from this tale..."

In other words, the Philistines should return to their pulpits and lecterns and confine their strutting, preening, and overinflated egos to their dreary, dull little worlds. In doing so they should remember just one little thing, however, and that is to keep their filthy, blood-drenched hands off of cats!

They already have killed far too many of them. Besides, they have their acolytes' empty noggins to fill up with their lies and sottise, their pockets to clean out, their young bodies to sexually exploit, and the United States Treasury to loot and that should be more than sufficient in order to keep such sorry excuses for human beings busy.

Photos: Ben Nutter of The Kenyon Collegian (Moxie on Middle Path), Kenyon College (Moxie on a cushion, asleep on a table, and stranded at Wiggin Street Coffee), The Atlantic (Moxie and Hannah-Drullard), and Twitter (Moxie on Middle Path.)

Igor Has Had a Difficult and Troubled Life but He Is Doing Everything in His Power in Order to Enjoy Each and Every Moment of What Very Well Could Be His Final Summer

Although Old and Ailing, Igor's Love for Summer Remains Undiminished 

"So, here's to every day and hopes of a golden summer, but really hopes aren't worth as much (as) today's joys. Let's enjoy them whilst we can!"

-- Igor

It often has been noted that even if an individual should be fortunate enough to live until he is eighty, he is destined to only see an equal number of summers. Unfortunately for cats, their days and summers are far fewer in number.

With those sobering thoughts in mind, there is a long suffering brownish-gray and white tom named Igor living at an undisclosed location somewhere in, presumably, West Yorkshire, who is trying his level best to enjoy what very well could be his last summer. Hopefully, The Fates will be kind and extend his sojourn upon this earth so that he will be able to see at least one more summer but that momentous decision rests in their hands.

Absolutely nothing is known about his younger days. His story for all intent and purpose therefore began in either late 2020 or early 2021 when he arrived at Yorkshire Cat Rescue (YCR) in Keighley.

Given his advanced years and the fact that he had been picked up on the street, it would seem logical to deduce that his previous owner either had died or moved away and left him behind in order to fend for himself. Other scenarios are, of course, possible.

That which is not in dispute, however, is that to run out on any cat is cruel and heartless. The mere fact that Igor was elderly and in poor health only serves to make his former owner's betrayal all the more abhorrent.

In particular, by the time that he had arrived at YCR he already was suffering from osteoarthritis and kidney trouble. His teeth likewise were in bad shape and that necessitated their prompt removal.

His poor health is another indication that his previous owner had not taken particularly good care of him. It additionally is conceivable that he could have been forced into sleeping rough for an extended period of time after he was abandoned and therefore that a lack of a proper diet and a warm and dry place in which to live could have contributed mightily to his decline. Almost anything is possible once a cat ends up on the street.

YCR accordingly placed him on a special diet for his kidneys, anti-inflammatory drugs for his osteoarthritis, and unspecified medicine for his aching joints. All totaled, his treatment is setting the charity back £100 per month but keeping him alive has been, most assuredly, worth every penny of that amount and a good deal more.

Stabilizing his deteriorating health was, however, only half of the problem. What to then do with him was an even bigger challenge in that only rarely are members of the public willing to adopt old and ailing cats. Quite obviously, the majority of those individuals who profess to be great lovers of the species are primarily liars and blowhards.

Therefore, unless their owners make some provision for their continued care before they themselves become either incapacitated, enter an old folks' home, or embark upon that long ride on the dragon, it is virtually impossible for elderly cats to survive. If they are not doomed by circumstances, shelters and veterinarians waste little time in dispatching them to the devil once they are able to get their murderous hands on them. (See Cat Defender posts of July 13, 2019 and November 22, 2020 entitled, respectively, "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" and "Slow Deaths Trapped Inside Apartments, Precarious Existences on the Street, and Swift Executions at the Hands of Veterinarians and the Operators of Shelters Are About All That Elderly Cats Can Expect in Return for Their Years of Love and Devotion to Their Ungrateful Owners.")

Kindhearted and prescient Karin Tietz of Röbel in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is a notable exception to that rule in that she took it upon herself to make provisions for Felix's continued care before the inexorable march of time and events caught up with her. (See Cat Defender post of August 31, 2019 entitled "A Devoted Röbelerin Adamantly Refuses to Enter an Altersheim Until She Has Successfully Secured a New Guardian for Her Beloved Felix.")

Sometimes a close relative who was intimately acquainted with just how much that a cat meant to the deceased will jump into the breach an adopt it but such acts of compassion are comparatively rare and, despite the best of intentions, they do not always work out. (See Cat Defender post of January 11, 2012 entitled "A Deadly Intrigue Concocted by a Thief, a Shelter, an a Veterinary Chain Costs Ginger the Continued Enjoyment of His Golden Years.")

A sanctuary would have been another option for Igor but they are few and far between plus they normally charge a pretty penny in order to take in a cat. (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.")

Every once in a while a shelter will magnanimously provide an elderly cat with a permanent home on its premises but such arrangements are exceedingly rare. They also are far from ideal unless such facilities are not too crowded and are able to provide such cats with access to a garden. (See Cat Defender post of June 15, 2018 entitled "Jeany Finally Finds a Lasting Home and the Compassionate Care Denied Her by Her Irresponsible and Grossly Negligent Owner at -- of All Places -- a Shelter in Hemmingen.")

Some rescue group have achieved a measure of success by placing elderly cats with senior citizens. (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 obvious drawback with such arrangements is that elderly owners get sick and die just as do old cats. Even more heartbreaking, occasionally reports surface of extremely unlucky felines who have outlived two or more guardians.

Even those precious few that land on their feet in order to live another day are put through hell during the interim. (See Cat Defender post of July 27, 2013 entitled "Instead of Killing Her Off with a Jab of Sodium Pentobarbital and Then Burning Her Corpse, Ian Remains Steadfast at His Guardian's Side Long after Her Death.") 

Realizing not only that but, much more importantly, recognizing a difference between operating a shelter as opposed to a slaughterhouse, YCR has elected to provide hospice care for elderly cats who have become homeless. "Some of the cats that come through our doors are sadly those that have a very limited lifespan because they have a terminal condition, or are very old," the charity acknowledged on its web site in May of 2021. (See "Yorkshire Cat Rescue's Hospice Cats: Please Support Our Fospice Cats in the Autumn of Their Lives.") "As we don't want these cats to spend any more of the precious time they have left in our cattery we put them into 'fospice,' that is hospice care with one of our foster carers."

That is far from being the only thing that the charity does, however, in that it additionally picks up the tab for their veterinary care and, sometimes, even their food. All that the fosterers have to do in return is to provide them with a safe and caring place in which to reside and to watch over them.

In addition to the added costs associated with caring for an elderly cat, some of them, like many elderly men and women, have already begun setting their ways and therefore find it all but impossible to adapt to a new living arrangement. This is especially the case with those cats that have spent their entire lives with one owner and under circumstances where they were the only animal in the house. Placing them in new homes with children, dogs, multiple adults and, sometimes, even other felines is therefore out of the question.

Besides his multitude of serious health issues, YCR has cited Igor's alleged aloofness as the reason for its having placed him in permanent hospice care as opposed to a more conventional home. More than likely, however, his wariness is the byproduct of his past travails coupled with the insecurities and uncertainties occasioned by his current predicament.

An Orphan Herself, Prudence Has Befriended Igor in Hospice Care

If a proper home and the right guardian could have been secured for him, he likely would have been able in time to have overcome his trepidations. In that regard, only YCR knows if it did the very best that it was capable of doing for him.

So far at least, his time in hospice care appears to have been a mixed bag. "I'm getting through this fresh spring, possibly the best ever, as (the) food tastes so good and the sun feels amazing on my old bones," the charity said for him in an article entitled "Igor Loves Spring" that appeared on its web site in early 2021. "My lust for life continues undiminished, and my appetites (sic) are strong. Long after the kids have finished breakfast I'm still roaming, finishing off their leftovers. Spoiled you see...but old Igor knows if you don't  have it quick either someone else will or it'll mysteriously disappear."

In that same article he also revealed that he was finding it increasingly difficult in order to get around and, especially, through the cat flap. He additionally is no longer able to properly groom himself and as a consequence his fur looks to be somewhat matted and it tends to come out in clumps.

His fosterer has attempted to brush him but he is not having any of that. "Oh how 'mum' would love to give me a good comb...but not on my watch, madam!" he wrote in the same article. "I say, allow an old gentleman a little scruffy comfort."

Far from being unsociable, he does permit his head to be scratched and he sometimes even ventures upstairs in order to be with his fosterer and to play with his catnip mouse. The major drawback with his current living arrangement is that it is far too crowded for his liking. 

"A little time spent butting and rubbing my old joints on one quite makes me forget why I was feeling a bit our of sorts, or cross, with any of the slightly too many to be counted or properly remembered cats that pussyfoot around me, although I always know Prudence," YCR wrote on his behalf in an article entitled "Igor Loves Summer" that appeared about a year ago on its web site.

As best it could be determined, the Prudence referred to is a lovely young longhaired tuxedo who wound up at YCR after her mother was savagely killed by a dog. It has not been explained why she was placed in foster care as opposed to a home of her own but her presence appears to have been a godsend for Igor.

"The only one (of the other cats) with a bit of sense is young Prudence, who is most respectful, comes and sits near, but not crowding, and actually wants to hear about the golden days of my youth," he wrote last year in an article entitled "Introducing Igor." "Mind you, she still wouldn't let me have the frog she caught." 

Although frog legs may be in short supply, the cat food is plentiful and, best of all, Igor still has a hearty appetite which is always an encouraging sign in both elderly and ailing cats. "Eating is not as easy as it used to be, what with all my teeth out, but I still love food..." he wrote. "I've tried to make sure those other cats don't get too much, and the hoomans (sic) have had to drop it quick or get the old 'Igor slash.' Keep them in line, I can tell you."

Aside from Prudence, however, his fellow feline lodgers tend to get on his nerves. "It's a little overpopulated with weirdo cats here, but they all keep out of my way, so that's okay," he continued in the same article.

All things considered, he had a rather pleasant summer last year. "This summer has been a joy of sunbathing and kipping outdoors on my new garden seat," he summed up. "I've thought of chasing butterflies, but generally (I) leave them for the kids."

Nothing further was heard from him over the course of the long and dreary winter months and so it came as quite a relief to belatedly learn this spring that he was still alive. Even so, the new year has ushered in with it new challenges for this noble and long-suffering senior citizen of the feline world.

First of all, he has lost all sensation in his "floppy, unhealing" tail. Secondly, concerns have been raised about his blood pressure.

Thirdly, his mental faculties would appear to be on the decline in that he sometimes becomes confused and, in his panic, starts yowling. Of course, he is not only a year older but he certainly looks it in the photographs of him that have been posted online.

Even if 2022 did bring with it additional health concerns, it also introduced Solensia® into his life. Manufactured by Zoetis in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, it is the first treatment to be invented for the alleviation of the excruciating pain associated with osteoarthritis in cats.

Although it was approved by the European Medicines Agency in Amsterdam on February 17, 2021, the slackers at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in Washington did not get around to sanctioning its use until eleven months later on January 13, 2022. It has not proven possible to confirm it, but presumably the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in London followed suit shortly thereafter.

The active ingredient in the drug is frunevetmab, which is itself the first monoclonal antibody (mAb), or protein, to be developed for cats. As such, it has been designed to recognize and to attach to another protein called a nerve growth factor (NGF) that is involved in the regulation of pain. In short, when frunevetmab binds to an NGF it blocks pain signals from reaching the brain.

"Treatment options for cats with osteoarthritis are very limited. Advancements in modern veterinary medicine have been instrumental in extending the lives of many animals, including cats. But with longer lives come chronic diseases, such as osteoarthritis," is how that Steven M. Solomon of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine laid on the governmental propaganda with a trowel in his agency's press release of January 13, 2022. (See "FDA Approves Novel Treatment to Control Pain in Cats with Osteoarthritis, First Monoclonal Antibody Drug for Use in Any Animal Species.") "Today's approval marks the first treatment option to help provide relief to cats that are suffering from this condition and may significantly improve their quality of life."

While he had the wind up, he also hinted that other new drugs might be in the pipeline. "We also hope that today's approval of the first monoclonal antibody by the FDA for any animal species will expand research and development of other monoclonal antibody products to treat animal diseases."

That would indeed be a welcomed development considering that other than vaccinating, sterilizing, microchipping, and occasionally setting a broken limb, the practice of veterinary medicine as it pertains to cats is an outrageous scam that amounts to little more than a cruel money-making racket. (See Cat Defender post of August 14, 2021 entitled "Amazing Little Juicebox Overcomes Not Only a Near Fatal Mauling at the Hands of His Owner's Dog but also Penury and Being Cruelly Abandoned to Shift for Himself Inside the Snake Pit World of Veterinary Medicine.") 

Equally importantly, just what are those advancements in veterinary medicine that Solomon claims are responsible for extending the lives of cats?  First of all,  although Gilead Sciences of Foster City, California, has had considerable success in treating the previously always fatal Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) with remdesiver, it refuses to allow the FDA to sanction it. Consequently, it is only available on the Chinese black market. (See Cat Defender post of July 23, 2022 entitled "Courageous Little Tigger Chases Off a Black Bear in North Vancouver but It Was Irresponsible for His Owners to Have Placed His Life in Such Grave Peril.")

Igor Still Loves Life but Time Is Fast Running Out on Him 

Secondly, in addition to FIP, the veterinary community is yet to come up with cures for, inter alia, the Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV), kidney disease, Feline Hyperthyroidism, Feline Pancreatitis, heartworm, Feline Panleukopenia, storage disease, Feline Viral Rhinotrachetis (FVR), the Feline Calicivirus, rabies, cancer, heart disease, and strokes. C'est-à-dire, there are not currently available any cures for any of the major diseases that claim the lives of cats.

The practice of veterinary medicine as it pertains to cats therefore consists almost exclusively of exorbitant entrance fees, a slew of worthless diagnostic tests, supportive care, and lies. The only thing that taking a sick cat to a veterinarian accomplishes is to facilitate the transfer of thousands of dollars from the pocketbooks of aggrieved owners into the coffers of the charlatans who practice veterinary medicine.

Eventually the cats die anyway only this way they are put through hell in the process. Clearly, it is therefore long overdue that Solomon and his colleagues stopped telling outrageous lies and got down to work.

Furthermore, it is almost superfluous to point out that before any drugs and treatments that are even remotely beneficial to cats are going to be developed in the United States practitioners first would have to receive at least ten-million dollars in cash, an equal number of busses on their fat, rotten asses, and statues in their honor at City Hall.

Consequently, it is a sure bet that such drugs and treatments are not going to be developed in the land of the dollar bill but rather, like Solensia®, in Belgium and elsewhere. Besides, even if against all odds some miracle cure should become available in this capitalistic dystopia veterinarians surely would demand of cat owners, not one, but rather two arms, two legs, and a testicle in exchange for it. So, to put the matter succinctly, old Solomon is as full of it as a municipal sewerage district.

The situation is not all that much more encouraging in England. For instance, according to VioVet, a veterinary retailer in Luton, Bedfordshire, it sells a pair of one milliliter vials of Solensia® for £88.10. Dosages of the drug depend upon the weight of the cat but generally range between one and 2.8 milliliters per injection. 

Even if an owner were able to get two monthly injections out of such a package, that would only bring down the price of the drug to £44.05 per injection. Complicating matters further, the drug can only be administered by a veterinarian and that likely means that YCR is additionally forced into ponying up for an office visit in addition to the cost of the drug itself. 

That stipulation also means that already beleaguered Igor has to be bundled into a cage and transported back and forth to a veterinarian's office once a month. Although those trips are sans doute not only stressful but time-consuming as well, the benefits of the drug would appear to be outweighing the inconvenience.

"Thanks to this arthritis drug I can get under people's feet like a young'un," he wrote this spring in an article entitled "Igor and His Tail." "Now, let's hope spring hurries up with a little warmth for old bones."

In an unexpected benefit, his grumpiness appears to have subsided somewhat since he was placed on Solensia® and that is readily understandable for anyone who ever has suffered from either osteoarthritis or a debilitating spinal cord malady. After all, being constantly in pain hardly brings out the best in any creature. Side effects of the drug include, inter alia, pain at the injection site, scabbing, vomiting, diarrhea, dermatitis, and pruritus, but it has not been disclosed how that they are impacting Igor's life.

Earlier this spring, his tail was surgically removed as a precautionary measure in order ward off the possibility of any toxins traveling from it to his heart and lungs. Prudence is said to be taking advantage of his senior moments in order to help herself now and again to a spot of his tea but other than those two setbacks he is persevering about a well as could be expected.

"I'm still alarming the younger cats, and amazing my fosters with my zest for food, sunbathing, and drinking pond water," he disclosed in an article entitled "Springtime for Our Old Boy," which appeared earlier this year. "I'm still loving life. The people are kind and the food is lovely."

Regrettably, nothing further has been heard about him since early May. "We just got sent another fabulous little Igor update and it was too lovely not to share," YCR wrote May 4th on Facebook. (See "Look at Our Handsome Igor.") "Doesn't he look fabulous? The warmer weather is doing him a world of good and he is enjoying spending more time outside."

It is beyond dispute that elderly cats such as Igor, George, Pops, Papa Mason, and YCR's very own Frank have value and should be allowed to live out their lives to the very end and only then to die natural deaths at a time and place of their own choosing. (See Cat Defender posts of March 23, 2015, August 6, 2015, September 12, 2015, July 24, 2017, and September 5, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Old, Sickly, and on the Street, George Accidentally Wanders into a Pet Store and That, in All Likelihood, Saved His Life," "Elderly, Frail, and on Death Row, Lovely Pops Desperately Needs a New Home Before Time Finally Runs Out on Her," "Pops Finally Secures a Permanent Home but Pressing Concerns about Both Her Continued Care and Right to Live Remain Unaddressed," "A Rescue Group in British Columbia Compassionately Elects to Spare Grandpa Mason's Life and in Return for Doing So It Receives an Unexpected Reward Worth More Than Gold Itself," and "Written Off More Than Once as Being All but Finished, Frank Is Living Proof That Old Cats Not Only Have Value but Considerably More Life Left in Them Than Most People Are Willing to Acknowledge.")

Secondly, to betray their confidence and kill them off is unjust and unconscionable. (See Cat Defender post of September 28, 2011 entitled "Marvin Is Betrayed, Abducted, and Murdered by a Journalist and a Shelter Who Preposterously Maintain That They Were Doing Him a Favor.")

Thirdly, contrary to the blatant lies disseminated so freely by PETA and others, there is absolutely nothing that is kind, compassionate, and painless about lethal injections. Au contraire, they are a sordid and cruel affair from start to finish. (See Cat Defender post of April 8, 2018 entitled "A Rare Behind the Scenes Glimpse at the Ruthless Murders of Two Cats by an Indiana Veterinarian Exposes All Those Who Claim That Lethal Injections Are Humane to Be Barefaced Liars.")

Fourthly, all the palaver about not wanting to see cats suffer is, likewise, pure balderdash. Rather, cats of all ages are killed off simply because their owners, shelters, and veterinarians are too lazy, cheap, and ailurophobic to keep them alive.

While it is undeniable that Igor is old, sans his teeth and tail, suffers from kidney and blood pressure woes, and can sometime be forgetful and loud, none of those maladies, taken either singularly or as a whole, constitute a valid reason for YCR and his fosterer to snuff out his life. Rather, his appetite remains strong and Solensia® has not only alleviated the pain in his joints but increased his level of mobility. Most telling of all, his zest for life remains undiminished.

The overwhelming fear is, however, that his fosterer will soon tire of looking after him and that YCR will begin to begrudge the now more than £144.05 that it spends each month on his care. For example, that is precisely what the charity did when it indefensibly pulled the rug out from underneath another of its hospice cats, Harvey, a few years back and killed him. (See Cat Defender posts of August 31, 2017, March 12, 2018, July 29, 2019, and October 27, 2020 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," "Repeatedly Shunned, Maligned, and Bandied About from One Place to Another, Harvey Is Now Engaged in the Most Important Battle of His Life," and "Noble and Courageous Harvey Who So Desperately Wanted to Go on Living Is Instead Unforgivably Betrayed and Killed Off by His Foster Mother and Yorkshire Cat Rescue.")

There accordingly can be little doubt that perfidious minds at YCR are already busily greasing the skids for Igor. Like all individuals and groups who have grown accustomed to wielding the power of life and death in their grubby little hands, YCR never will mend its evil ways and learn to respect the sanctity of all feline life.

"So, here's to every day, and hopes of a golden summer, but really hopes aren't worth as much (as) today's joys," YCR said for him in the 2021 article entitled "Igor Loves Spring" cited supra. "Let's enjoy them whilst we can."

Indeed, Igor's moments spent sunbathing, sleeping outside, and drinking pond water have dwindled down to a precious few. Even so, that only serves to make the remaining long, hot days, the short, sultry nights, the chirping of the crickets, and the nightly spectacles that the fireflies put on for free all the more precious. Besides, who knows what the winter is going to bring?

"For humans, contemplation is a break from living; for cats it is the sensation of life itself," John Gray wrote in his 2020 book, Feline Philosophy. Cats and the Meaning of Life. "Cats show us that seeking after meaning is like the quest for happiness, a distraction."

He thus concludes that "the meaning of life is a touch, a scent, which comes by chance and is gone before you know it." So, too, is it destined to be the case with long suffering and underappreciated Igor.

Photos: Yorkshire Cat Rescue.