Even Though She Is Every Bit as Loving as She Is Lovely, Momoe Has Been Languishing at the Toronto Humane Society for More Than Two Months

Momoe Lost Her Home and Is Now Facing an Uncertain Future

"Momoe would do best in a home that can give her a quiet environment to relax in during her golden years and with an owner who has lots of time to hang around with her and (to) provide her with the attention she needs."

-- the Toronto Humane Society

"This world is not a just or kind place," Midnight Louie, a private dick of the feline variety who operates out of Las Vegas, philosophically observed in the late Carole Nelson Douglas's 2011 novel, Cat in a Vegas Gold Vendetta. A good example of that harsh reality is to be found in the terrible plight that has befallen a beautiful female with white fur, a brown and white face, and black tail named Momoe.

Although at eight years and four months of age she is hardly a spring chicken, she nonetheless has plenty of life left in her and much love, devotion, and companionship to offer. Sadly, she has been incarcerated at the Toronto Humane Society (THS) at 11 River Street ever since December 10th. Needless to say, the recently concluded holiday season could not conceivably have been a very merry time for her.

It has not been divulged how that she wound up in such dire straits but the vast majority of cats at shelters were dumped there by their callous owners who simply had grown tired of them. Others had either become lost or were stolen before eventually winding up on death row.

Elderly cats, such as Momoe, sometimes outlive owners who have neglected to make any provisions for their continued care. Other owners leave their cats in the lurch when they enter old folks' homes.

For her part, Momoe is described as a sweet and personable "social butterfly" who loves cuddles and chin scratches. Consequently, there can be little doubt that she would make the perfect companion for some extremely lucky individual.

Yet, even after this passage of time she is still without any prospects. The Stolperstein very well could be the public's steadfast refusal to adopt elderly cats and that ingrained prejudice has condemned countless numbers of them to not only lengthy periods of incarceration but, even more outrageously, premature graves. (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.")

Lingering concerns about Momoe's health also could be hindering her from getting on with her life. For instance, after she was impounded the THS found and removed a mass from an undisclosed location on her body.

The nature of that growth has not been specified but presumably it was benign. Even so, such growths can return at almost any time and for that reason the THS is searching for an adopter who would be willing and financially able to have her health monitored on an ongoing basis by a competent veterinarian.

Momoe Richly Deserves a Second Chance at Life

What, if any, financial assistance that the charity would be willing to provide such an individual in meeting her veterinary needs is unknown. Nevertheless, the organization doubtlessly has its own practitioners who should be capable of administering to Momoe's needs either gratis or at a sharply discounted rate.

It likewise is not known what role her health may have played in her being abandoned. It is an infuriating thing to even contemplate, but many owners get rid of their cats as soon as they become either ill or injured.

Many of these unfortunate felines are even suffering from terminal conditions. (See Cat Defender posts of September 3, 2010 and August 26, 2015 entitled, respectively, "A Pretty Norwegian Forest Cat, Already Suffering from Kidney Trouble, Is Abandoned to Die of Thirst in a Schließfach at the Hamburger Hauptbahnhof'" and "A Myriad of Cruel and Unforgivable Abandonments, a Chinese Puzzle, and Finally the Handing Down and Carrying Out of a Death Sentence Spell the End for Long-Suffering and Peripatetic Tigger.")

Cats that are not only extremely old but blind as well are routinely found wandering the cruel and merciless streets of this busy and congested world. (See Cat Defender posts of September 12, 2015 and May 4, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Pops Finally Secures a Permanent Home but Concerns about Both Her Continued Care and Right to Live Remain Unaddressed" and "Seventeen-Year-Old, Sickly, and Blind Orakel Is Abandoned to Fend for Herself in the Unforgiving Streets of Breitenfurt bei Wien.")

Elderly and deaf cats routinely wind up at shelters. (See Cat Defender post of January 9, 2023 entitled "Flossie Endures a Rollercoaster Ride of Adversity in Order to Settle into Her Fourth Home and to Begin a New Life at the Age of Twenty-Seven.")

Old cats who are without teeth and thus unable to even masticate most of whatever meager sustenance that they are able to scavenge also are routinely dumped in the street. (See Cat Defender post of March 23, 2015 entitled "Old, Sickly, and on the Street, George Accidentally Wanders into a Pet Store and That, In All Likelihood, Saved His Life.")

Sooner or later, just about all elderly and sickly cats that have been abandoned end up starving and fatigued. Some of them even have been known to collapse in the street. (See Cat Defender post of September 5, 2017 entitled "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.")

Not all of the myriad of ailments that bedevil the lives of senior felines are physical in nature. For example, some of them suffer from cognitive decline.

A Forlorn Momoe Stares Out the Window Wishing That She Were Free

Others are afflicted with emotional issues, such as loneliness, separation anxiety, and a quite understandable fear of a hostile outside world. Others that have spent their entire lives with one owner and in a one-cat household are unable to adjust to new living arrangements that often include other cats, dogs, and children. (See Cat Defender post of October 27, 2020 entitled "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.")

That is especially the case for long-term and unsocialized cats who have grown old and sickly. (See Cat Defender post of July 24, 2017 entitled "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.")

As if all of those disabilities which so tragically afflict elderly cats were not sufficient in themselves, some owners think absolutely nothing of dumping in the street those that have been cruelly declawed as well as those than can barely even walk due to arthritis and other ambulatory difficulties. Quite obviously, individuals who commit such dastardly deeds do not even believe in giving elderly cats so much as a sporting chance of surviving on their own.

Aside from hellish, short-term existences on the street, many cats, elderly and young alike, are condemned to die protracted deaths locked inside apartments and houses with the corpses of their deceased guardians. (See Cat Defender posts of July 27, 2013 and July 13, 2019 entitled, respectively, "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" and "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.")

Overall, the alternatives for elderly cats who have been either abandoned to their own devices or dumped at shelters are almost nil. (See Cat Defender post of November 22, 2020 entitled "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.")

C'est-à-dire, happy endings are about as rare as hens' teeth for them. "There is no such thing as an old cats' home, unless you consider being dropped off at an animal shelter with a murderous overpopulation problem or abandoned on the street to be a nice retirement package," is how that the always sagacious Midnight Louie summed up the plight of the elderly members of his species in Douglas's earlier 2010 novel, Cat in an Ultramarine Scheme.

As for what, if anything, that the THS is going to be willing to do for Momoe in a positive vein is concerned, that remains to be determined. "Momoe would do best in a home that can give her a quiet environment to relax in during her golden years and with an owner who has lots of time to hang around with her and (to) provide her with the attention she needs," Zoomer Radio, 740 AM out of Toronto, reported it as stating on February 6th. (See "Zoomer Radio Pet of the Week: Momoe.")

It thus would appear that Momoe has grown accustomed to having a guardian that largely stays at home with her as well as to residing in a residence that does not contain any young children and possibly even other felines. That in turn would seem to leave little doubt that she must be extremely lonely and miserable confined to a cage at the THS.

The Mummified Remains of a Cat Found at the Toronto Humane Society

There is, however, some confusion on that point in that the THS, as opposed to Zoomer Radio, states on its web site that she is currently in foster care. If so, that certainly would be far better for her.

Her safety that the THS is a far more troubling matter. For example, when agents of the Ontario SPCA (OSPCA) of  Newmarket, fifty-six kilometers north of Toronto, raided the shelter on November 27, 2009 they discovered the mummified remains of an unidentified cat that had been lured into a baited trap in the ceiling and left there to slowly wither away to nothing but bones.

"It sends chills down my spine," Kevin Strooband of the OSPCA told the Toronto Star a day later on November 28th. (See "Humane Society: 'It Seems Like a House of Horrors'.")

The shelter was subsequently padlocked for seven months but it later was allowed to reopen during the middle of 2010. Although it has not made the headlines since then, one cannot help but wonder if it has genuinely mended its grossly negligent and evil ways.

"...l'oeuvre a été incomplète...nous avons démoli l'ancien régime dans les faits, nous n'avons pu entièrement le supprimer dans les idées," a member of the Convention Nationale, which governed France between 1792 and 1795 following the overthrow of Louis XVI, admitted to Bishop Myriel of Digne in Victor Hugo's 1862 masterpiece, Les Misérables. "Détruire les abus, cela ne suffit pas; il faut modifier les moeurs. Le moulin n'y est plus, le vent y est encore."

Much more importantly, cats do not belong in either cages or at shelters under any circumstances. Secondly, they should not be bandied about from death houses to fosterers to failed adoptions and then back to cages at shelters over and over again. They are sentient beings with minds and emotions of their own, not sacks of potatoes, and such cruel behavior inflicts far more harm than good upon them.

The best possible dénouement for Momoe therefore would be to get her out of the clutches of the THS as soon as possible and into a loving home with a responsible owner who is committed to unstintingly respecting her inalienable right to live out her life to the very last second.

Anyone who therefore would be willing to give her a much deserved second chance at life and happiness can reach the THS by telephone at (416) 392-2273. The charity's e-mail address is adoptions@torontohumanesociety.com and her profile can be found on its web site at www.torontohumanesociety.com.

Momoe's identification number is 5113591.

Photos: Zoomer Radio (Momoe in a cage), the Toronto Humane Society (Momoe staring out the window), and Chris Young of the Canadian Press (the mummified cat).

N.B. On February 26th, the THS placed a hold on Momoe's profile and by March 5th it as well as her photograph had completely disappeared from its web site.

Although it is far from clear what those actions signal, more than likely she has been adopted and thus has escaped, at least for now, death row with her life. If that is true, it is indeed a welcomed turn of events for such a preeminently deserving female. (9 March 2023)

Hopkins, the World's Youngest, Tiniest, and Loneliest Flier, Is Abandoned in a Wretched Toilet at an Airport in Cleveland

Stoic Little Hopkins Was Left All Alone and Without a Friend in the World... 

 "She appears to be healthy. She's about five months old (and) just getting her adult teeth and no fleas."

-- Debra Bartowick of the Able Animal Hospital

Individuals traveling with cats have not always provided them with the meticulous care and safety precautions that they have deserved but of late some fliers have taken their callous disregard for their well-being to an altogether new nadir by inexcusably dumping them at airports. For example, early on January 6th an unidentified individual abandoned a pretty five-month-old gray and white kitten subsequently named Hopkins in a toilet at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, fourteen kilometers southwest of the metropolis of the same name.

She was discovered by an employee of Southwest Airlines trapped inside a soft carrier and sitting on a sink in a lavatory located near the Transportation Safety Administration's PreCheck area. So far no one has been willing to speculate as to either how long that she was stranded there or how many travelers, workers at the airport, and employees of the airlines turned blind eyes to her perilous plight.

Considering that she was discovered in the wee hours, it is entirely possible that she had been relegated to that smelly shithouse for the better part of the night. The important development, however, was that the conscientious employee of Southwest took it upon either herself or himself not only to rescue her but also to go the extra mile by paying a call upon all nine or so passenger carriers that operate out of the airport in order to determine if she should have been on one of their departing flights.

When that effort came up fruitless, the employee then contacted airport administration which for its part made several announcements over the public address system but, once again, to no avail. What transpired next is not exactly clear but one way or the other Hopkins wound up at the Able Animal Hospital in Parma, fourteen kilometers southwest of Cleveland, where she was held for three days in the care of Debra Bartowick just in case her owner should have a change of heart.

"She appears to be healthy. She's about five months old (and) just getting her adult teeth and no fleas," she told WOIO-TV of Cleveland on January 6th. (See "Five-Month-Old Cat Found Abandoned in Bathroom at Cleveland Hopkins Airport.")  

Well! That certainly is one hell of a way to describe such a pretty little kitten! It is doubtful that Bartowick would take it all that kindly if the best that anyone could ever say about her was that she has some of her "teeth and no fleas." To her credit, however, she did add that Hopkins was affectionate and playful.

When no one came forward in order to reclaim her, Bartowick transferred her to the Forever Friends Foundation (FFF) in Northfield, thirty kilometers southeast of Cleveland, where she also volunteers. While she was waylaid there, she also was spayed so, regrettably, there are not going to be any little Hopkinses in the future in order to brighten the world.

Otherwise, this story did have a happy ending on January 24th when she was adopted by a woman identified only by her first name as Jacqueline. In doing so, she wasted little time in vowing to spoil the little one rotten. (To see a 1:43 minute video of the happy adoption, go to FFF's Facebook page.) 

Although she previously had been dubbed Coco Bean and Herb, Jacqueline has, apparently, settled upon Hopkins even though Coco Bean would have been a much more appropriate choice. That which is not in dispute, however, is that she is going to be much better off with her new owner than she was with her old heartless one.

As far as the cretin who so cruelly abandoned Hopkins is concerned, Bartowick has had some choice words for that individual. "I think they're (sic) a horrible person. You don't do that to a living creature," she told WOIO-TV. "They (sic) don't know the animal could have ended up in worse hands."

Reprehensibly, dumping cats at airports has become rather common. "From previous experience I've seen other animals who weren't able to fly, and not able to be accommodated," Meredith Janik, who not only used to work at the airport but also rescues cats and, more importantly, played a key role in hooking up Hopkins with Bartowick, told WOIO-TV. "They were just left next to the trash can at the airport."

Equally deplorable, travelers also are abandoning dogs at the airport. "They've indicated that the airport found a Beagle this week from a person who decided that they (sic) were going to travel, leave their animal and continue on their trip," she added to WOIO-TV.

Like Bartowick, Janik believes that there should be serious consequences for individuals who abandon cats, dogs, and other animals at airports. "The person should be prosecuted for abandonment," she averred to WOIO-TV. "It's neglect to leave a cat unattended at an airport, so it should be neglect that comes with a fine and some sort of punishment."

Oddly enough, this does not appear to have been a case of a harried flier with a flight to catch but without there being an additional seat on the plane for either his or her cat. On the contrary, preliminary inquiries tended to indicate that the culprit took a Regional Transit Authority train back downtown after dumping Hopkins as opposed to having boarded an airliner.

WOIO-TV has hinted that the airport may even know the identity of the person but even if it does an arrest seems highly unlikely. That is even more so the case given that the airport has not even divulged if the kitten was found in either a men's room or a ladies' lavatory.

It is a worrisome thought, but it is entirely conceivable that some individuals, without any intention whatsoever of boarding a flight, have come to view crowded airports as a safe and convenient venue in order get rid of their no longer wanted cats and dogs. Nothing positive can be said for individuals who dump animals anywhere and at any time but Hopkins' plight should serve as a wake-up call for all airports and carriers to carefully examine all refuse, bags, and other items before discarding them.

...until Debra Bartowick Belatedly Came to Her Rescue

No statistics are kept on the matter, but if the small number of cats and kittens that are retrieved from discarded bags at the last minute is any indicator, the number of them that die in the trash each year must surely be astronomically high. (See Cat Defender posts of October 3, 2009, February 24, 2010, February 25, 2010, and October 14, 2011 entitled, respectively, "Deliberately Entombed Inside a Canvas Bag for Six Days, Duff Is Saved by a Pair of Alert Maintenance Workers at an Apartment Complex in Spokane," "Sealed Up in a Backpack Inside a Plastic Bag and Then Tossed in the Trash, Titch Is Rescued by a Passerby in Essex," "Bess Twice Survives Attempts Made on Her Life Before Landing on All Four Paws at a Pub in Lincolnshire," and "Chucked Out in the Trash, Tabitha Winds Up in an Oxygen Chamber with Four Broken Ribs, an Injured Lung, and Pneumonia," plus the Daily Mail, August 26, 2010, "Greyhaired Bank Worker Who Dumped Cat in Wheelie Bin Could Face Court as RSPCA Prosecutors Review Case.")

Other cats have made it all the way to recycling centers and to city dumps before being rescued. (See Cat Defender posts of August 23, 2007, March 23, 2009, May 4, 2010, and May 12, 2017 entitled, respectively, "An Alert Scrap Metal Worker Discovers a Pretty 'Penny' Hidden in a Mound of Rubble," "Mistakenly Tossed Out with the Trash, Autumn Survives a Harrowing Trip to the City Dump in Order to Live Another Day," "Picked Up by a Garbage Truck Driver and Dumped with the Remainder of the Trash, Alfie Narrowly Misses Being Recycled," and "Miracle Maisy Is Bound and Tied, Soaked in Petrol, Sealed Up in a Plastic Bag, and Then Run Through a Trash Compactor but, Amazingly, Is Still Alive Thanks to a Pair of Compassionate Garbagemen.")

Still other owners hate their cats so much that they make doubly sure to kill them by not only sealing them up in cages and bags but by additionally weighting down these death chambers with heavy rocks and then either depositing them in streams or leaving them behind on beaches in order to be drowned by the incoming tide. (See Cat Defender posts of January 13, 2006, May 20, 2008, and July 9, 2014 entitled, respectively, "Montana Firefighters Rescue a 'Lucky' Calico Cat Who Was Caged and Purposefully Thrown into an Icy River," "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," and "Dumped in the Normans Kill, Chance Did Not Have a Prayer in Hell Until a Jogger Who Had Turned Down the Music Heard His Desperate Cries for Help.")

In addition to members of the public dumping cats at airports, such facilities seldom have been hospitable environments for them. For instance, in late 2007 JFK International Airport in Queens eradicated its population of homeless cats.

Since the airport is located in a remote area, it is highly likely that most of its innocent victims at one time or another had owners before they were either abandoned or became lost at the facility and that serves only to compound the injustice of their eradication. (See Cat Defender post of November 5, 2007 entitled "The Port Authority Gives JFK's Long-Term Resident Felines the Boot and Rescue Groups Are Too Impotent to Save Them.")

At Manchester International Airport, management betrayed its longtime resident cat, Ollie, by getting rid of her once she had grown old. She was initially taken in and given a home by a nearby resident who soon thereafter had her killed off. (See Cat Defender posts of November 28, 2007, November 8, 2009, and May 28, 2015 entitled, respectively, "Lovable Ollie Finds a Home at Manchester International Airport After Workers and Vendors Come to His Aid," "Oops! Ollie Belatedly Gives Up a Closely Guarded Secret Much to the Chagrin of the Employees of Manchester International Airport," and "Abandoned, Homeless on the Street, Expelled by the Ingrates at Manchester International Airport, and Finally Whacked by Her Last Guardian, So Ran the Course of Ollie's Sad and Turbulent Life.")

The only airport ever known to have shown any lasting fealty to a cat is Son Sant Joan Aeropuerto in Palma de Mallorca in the Balearic Islands which for more than a decade permitted a white Persian named Mumu to live at its terminal with its owner, a middle-aged German ex-pat named Brigitte. (See Cat Defender post of November 3, 2008 entitled "Down and Out in Paradise: Against All Odds, Brigitte and Mumu Strive to Forge New Lives for Themselves at a Mallorcan Airport.")

The airlines are even more ailurophobic than airports in that they lose countless cats each year. (See Cat Defender post of February 28, 2020 entitled "Lost by Lufthansa at Dulles, Milo Is Eventually Located but He Would Appear to Owe His Deliverance More to Sheer Luck Rather Than to Human Ingenuity.")

Others freeze to death in cargo holds. (See Cat Defender post of April 7, 2009 entitled "A Pretty Minskin Arrives in Oregon Frozen as Solid as a Block of Ice Following a Fatal Cross-Country Flight in the Cargo Hold of an Airliner.")

The reason that the airlines are able to get away with so brazenly lying about the actual number of cats and other animals that they lose and kill each year can be traced to Section 710 of the Wendell H. Ford Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the Twenty-First Century, Public Law 106-81 of 2000. Specifically, it defines an animal as "any warm or cold-blooded animal which, at the time of transportation, is being kept as a pet in a family household in the United States."

Such a narrowly defined definition thus excludes, inter alia, animals that are owned by pet shops, research laboratories, breeders, and zoos. It also excludes all livestock and in particular baby chickens which are known to freeze to death by the thousands each year in cargo holds. 

It is almost superfluous to point out but military aircrafts, whether they be fighter jets, bombers, missiles, rockets, or drones, indiscriminately kill scores of cats and other animals every time that they are deployed. They additionally destroy land, pollute the air and streams, increase noise pollution, and waste huge amounts of petrol. (See Cat Defender post of October 12, 2006 entitled "A Few Hundred Cats and Dogs Are Airlifted Out of Lebanon but Cluster Bombs and an Oil Slick Continue to Kill Animals and Marine Life.")

In Hopkins' case, however, she owes her life to the compassion shown her by the unidentified employee of the much maligned Southwest Airlines. The Dallas-based carrier may not know much about scheduling but it sure knows how to treat a kitten in distress and that is far more important.

Besides, what difference does it make if one's flight departs on time today or sometime next week? One day is as good -- or bad -- as the next for being trapped for hours on end inside a sardine can at thirty-three-thousand feet surrounded by drunks, terrorists, and passengers indiscriminately spreading COVID-19 through their steadfast refusal to wear masks. 

In conclusion, it is sad to accept the harsh reality that the outside world has in all likelihood seen and heard the last of Hopkins. It would be much appreciated if Jacqueline and the FFF would keep her many fans apprised of her progress from time to time but that is unlikely.

Therefore, it is time to say good-bye to this intrepid kitten that the world had the pleasure of getting to know but oh so ever fleetingly. Hopefully, the remainder of her days will be a huge improvement over her rude introduction to this cruel, uncaring, and hostile world. Alles Gute!

Photos: the Able Animal Hospital (Hopkins in her carrier) and WOIO-TV (Hopkins with Bartowick).