After More Than Nine months in a Cage at a Shelter, Ex-Street Cat Bodhi Finally Has a Home and, Hopefully, That Change in Fortune Signals the End of His Bitter Travails

Long Suffering Bodhi Has Been Sprung from Jail

"Adopters will need lots of time and patience with Bodhi and understand the traumas he suffered when he was living on the street."

-- the RSPCA's York Animal Home

It sure was a long time in coming but Bodhi's ship has finally docked. The long-suffering, six-year-old, white-colored tom with a black and white face and a black tail was adopted sometime last month after having been forced to languish in a cage for at least nine months at the RSPCA's York Animal Home (YAH) in the city of the same name, thirty-five kilometers northeast of Leeds in North Yorkshire.

He arrived at YAH last June, if not indeed earlier, after he had been found on the street in "terrible condition." In particular, he was not only homeless but also covered in various wounds. (See Cat Defender post of August 29, 2022 entitled "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.")

Since the nature of his injuries never has been disclosed, it is impossible to know the culprit. For its part, YAH believes that he had been attacked by other cats.

Whereas that is entirely possible, it is nevertheless a dubious assumption. Alpha toms most certainly do bully other males but usually their victims are able to flee to other locations before their assailants are able to inflict any visible injuries upon them.

On the other hand, Bodhi's ingrained fear and distrust of humans strongly suggests that he was abused by a far more common two-legged monster. The extent of his injuries also would be consistent with those suffered by a cat who was trapped indoors and thus unable to flee.

Even YAH has hinted that possibly could have been what happened to him. "Bodhi is a special little cat," the shelter told The Press of York on July 3, 2022. (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."

As far as it is known, the shelter was able to have rectified Bodhi's physical injuries fairly easily and quickly but the psychological damage that was inflicted upon him has proven to be an entirely different affair. Although staffers immediately went to work attempting to instill in him some measure of trust in humans, that process has proven to be slow and painstaking.

"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 shelter told The Press. "We feel he will improve so much quicker in a home environment."

Even so it is doubtful that anyone at YAH expected that process to have taken nine months. One possible explanation could be that socializing Bodhi for adoption took much longer than originally expected; a far more plausible reason, however, could be that it took far longer for the shelter to have located an individual who was willing to have given him a second chance at life.

Slandered as Being Feral Cost CeCe Four Years of Her Life...

It is truly deplorable but the vast majority of individuals who adopt cats think only of what they are going to add to their lives instead of saving feline lives. Equally importantly, they fail to realize that cats which have been abused and abandoned and subsequently find themselves incarcerated in tiny cages on death row at shelters are, quite justifiably, confused and frightened to death. Under such life and death circumstances, few of them are able to muster the confidence and friendliness that most would-be adopters are seeking in a feline companion.

That is very similar to what happened to a beautiful fourteen-year-old gray and white female named CeCe who was forced to spend four years all alone in a cage at a shelter after she was erroneously labeled as being feral. Actually, she was anything but unsocialized; au contraire, she only wound up on death row after the death of her longtime owner.

Such a colossal miscarriage of justice is totally inexcusable given that very few unsocialized cats are able to live anywhere nearly that long. That in turn calls into question the insanity of allowing such idiots to come anywhere near any cat, let alone to make life and death decisions at shelters and veterinary offices.

Far from being unsocialized, CeCe was merely scared and confused. Mercifully, she was granted a new lease on life in October of last year when Better Days Rescue Fund in Roxbury, Connecticut, gave her a permanent home at its sanctuary. Although that is a poor substitute for having her own home and an owner who dotes on her, hopefully things will work out for her. (See Better Days' press release of October 28, 2022, "CeCe Is Loving Her New Life.")

In that light, there certainly is not any shortage of blame to go around for the desperate plight of cats such as Bodhi and CeCe who wind up homeless. First of all, owners do not have any business of either abandoning cats and kittens to the street or of surrendering them to murderous shelters and veterinarians.

Secondly, all societies are blameworthy for granting shelters, veterinarians, Animal Control officers, and cops an unfettered right to kill cats and kittens with impunity. Thirdly, would-be adopters are guilty of not only failing to consider the circumstances under which all shelter cats are forced to live but also of not recognizing the tremendous potential that all homeless cats inherently have within themselves.

They are sans doute far more tractable than humans. The rub lies in which species is doing the judging.

"These human beings are terribly independent and self-involved and not trainable, and they will not listen to reason," Midnight Louie astutely observed in Carole Nelson Douglas's 2008 novel, Cat in a Sapphire Slipper. "It's like herding lemmings."

CeCe was one of the lucky ones in that most cats that even appear homeless are either killed in the field by Animal Control officers and cops or immediately upon arrival by the operators of shelters. Many, if not indeed most, shelters do not even bother to scan them for implanted microchips.

It is only the laws against homicide that curb, but do not entirely eliminate, man's tendency to treat even his fellow citizens in a like manner. "It is fatal to look hungry," George Orwell observed in his 1933 novel, Down and Out in Paris and London. "It makes people want to kick you."

...but She Now Has a Home at a Sanctuary

Even those cats that are officially impounded are usually only allowed to live for between three and seven days before they, too, are killed. Mercifully, YAH not only had the compassion in order to have spared Bodhi's life but the wisdom to have recognized his potential. It additionally was willing to have socialized him and to have placed him in a home no matter how much time, effort, and cost that required.

Moreover, to have done so was neither an easy nor an inexpensive decision for it to have taken. As a small operation, it has space for only fifty-four cats, an equal number of canines, nineteen rabbits, and an undisclosed number of "small furries."

How many other cats that it killed during the time that it took for it to have saved Bodhi has not been divulged but it is long overdue that all shelters, Animal Control officers, and veterinarian were mandated by law to get out of the business of slaughtering cats and kittens en masse. There are far better means of humanely addressing the dilemma of homeless cats.

Very few individuals seem to be the least bit troubled by it, but abusing and killing animals for any reason has forever stained the human race. "As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower beings he never will know health or peace," Pythagoras, a vegetarian, correctly predicted some twenty-six-hundred years ago. "For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love."

YAH has not disclosed anything concerning either Bodhi's new owner or where that he is now residing. Earlier it had stipulated, however, that it was looking to place him in a home that was sans both children and other cats and that he was to be kept indoors.

It additionally wanted to place him with someone who was knowledgeable about homeless cats as well as willing to continue the socialization process with him. It also wanted him initially to be given a spare room in which to live by himself until he became more comfortable around his new guardian.

"This may take up to six months to happen so they (sic) will need to be in it for the long haul," the shelter told 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."

A quiet home also would appear to be essential and that means no nonstop gassing on the telephone or loud radios, televisions, and stereos. All visitors likewise should be instructed to not only conduct themselves accordingly but to stay out of his room.

His new owner should only address him in a quiet voice and in a respectable manner. That individual likewise should neither scold nor correct him no matter what he does. It also might be a good idea to deal with him on hands and knees given that cats find that position considerably less threatening than having to deal with individuals who tower six feet over them.

Initially, his new owner may need to be content with feeding, watering, and emptying his litter boxes. Above all, he needs to be constantly reassured that he now has a safe and permanent home with plenty of food and water and the freedom to move around the house as he sees fit.

Wishing Bodhi Nothing but the Absolute Best

Sooner or later, he eventually will begin to feel more secure and comfortable in his new home but it still could take quite a while before he becomes a lap cat. "Staff at the centre believe he will make a great pet if someone will take a chance on him," YAH predicted to The Press.

Even though staffers at the shelter worked with him for more than nine months, it is not known how far that the socialization process with him had advanced. Hopefully, he is now at a stage where that his owner will be able to get him into a cage should he need to make an emergency trip to a veterinarian. That person also would need to eventually be able to brush his fur and, possibly, his teeth as well as to attend to any minor injuries and ailments that might develop.

Although the socialization process with cats such as Bodhi cannot be pushed too rapidly, some measure of sustained improvement needs to be made so as to enable their caretakers to be able to properly monitor their health and well-being. Staffers at the shelter should be able to instruct his new owner how to go about that but if additional assistance is needed cat behaviorists are available for a fee. The greatest reservoir of knowledge concerning cats is to be found, however, by consulting old dowagers who have forgotten more about the species than the so-called experts ever learned.

In addition to commending YAH for sparing Bodhi's life, The Press is to be thanked for its willingness to have championed his cause as well as that of the countless other cats and dogs that it has helped to find new homes and lives over the many years. Both the print as well as the electronic media throughout both England and Deutschland seldom hesitate to help out in this regard but the capitalistic media in the United States is far too stingy and uncaring to ever do anything positive for cats, dogs, and other animals.

It is impossible to predict how that things will turn out for Bodhi in his new adventure. If for any reason things should go awry, the fault most assuredly will lie with his new guardian given that YAH not only has invested so much time and effort in him but, more importantly, it would not have adopted him out if it did not believe in him.

Suffice it to say that he is still a young and handsome tom who richly deserves both a home and a second chance at life. Hopefully his new owner therefore will be willing to love and care for him on his own terms. That is by no means too much to ask of any guardian.

After all, many kindhearted individuals have compassionately cared for cats for years who would not even allow them to come near them. Then one day out of the blue their cats unexpectedly allowed them to touch their fur for the first time and right then and there their hearts broke into a thousand pieces.

All their time, effort, and concern had been worth it a thousand times. Time spent loving and caring for another individual may very well be a total waste of time and effort but that is never the case with any cat. In fact, doing so may be one of a handful of undertakings in life that are genuinely worthwhile.

In all likelihood, the outside world has seen and heard the last of Bodhi and that, in a way, is a positive development. If the situation should turn out otherwise, it likely would be only because the adoption had failed and he had been returned to a cage at YAH.

As it is the case with countless other cats around the world, memories of Bodhi are ultimately destined to fade into the deep recesses of the mind. The ravages of time will not be able, however, to completely obliterate the memory of him and his sad face trapped in a desolate cage four-thousand miles and half a world away. His face thus has become that of all the unjustly incarcerated and soon to be killed cats that are on death row.

Photos: York Animal Home (Bodhi) and Better Days Rescue Fund (CeCe).