True Cat Rescue Stories from the Files of Touched By A Paw, Inc.

I picked up the phone and a timid voice began a story which I have heard many times before. "I want to report a case of animal cruelty. Do I have to give my name?" I can tell by her voice she is a person who really cares about animals. I ask the caller the problem, and she tells me about two five-year-old cats being kept in small cat carriers locked in the back of a pickup truck in some woods. She said the owner placed them there two years ago when she had to abandon her house. "Excuse me," I interrupt, "Did you say they have been out there for two years?" "Yes," the woman said. "In all kinds of weather." I got all of the information, thanked the woman and hung up. It was January 15, 2000, and I was working my store alone. I looked at the clock. It was 4:00 P.M. I close at 5:00 P.M. It had been snowing all afternoon, our first big storm of the winter. The winters had been mild the last two years, but the temperature was supposed to drop to 15 degrees F. by morning.

I immediately put the "Closed" sign up, locked the doors, grabbed food, blankets, and a flashlight, and drove to the location. As I drove through the normal looking neighborhoods, with some houses still shining with Christmas lights, I wondered what these good people and pet owners would do if they knew this animal abuse was going on right nearby for two years. I prayed the caller had gotten incorrect information and I would find nothing. The snow was getting deep, the road slippery. I made many stops before I found the right location. I parked my van and walked toward what appeared to be a pickup truck. It was snowing so hard I could hardly see. Dogs began barking, and I shined my light on three pitiful looking large dogs chained to dog houses, if you could call them that. They were boards nailed together with wide cracks and holes. The dogs had no water or food around and seemed hungry. I continued on to the pickup truck.

The rear window was frozen but unlocked and with a few hard whacks the catch released. I lifted the rear cab window and shined the flashlight inside. I could not believe what I was looking at. Pure misery in the worst form I had ever experienced in all my years of rescuing animals. The smell hit me like a brick. There inside were two separate cat carriers, each with a pair of eyes staring back at me. Tears flowed down my cheeks. I wanted to take them out of those carriers and wrap them in dry blankets and hug them but experience taught me it wasn't worth the risk of possibly losing them. I couldn't get the jammed tailgate down so I lifted each carrier through the opening on top and covered each with a blanket and walked to my van. The dogs were going crazy and straining against their chains

.After I loaded the cats in my van, I went back to the dogs with some dry food I keep in my van for rescues. I threw handfuls to them along with a whole box of donuts. They ate every crumb ravenously.

I drove back to the shelter and carried the rescued cats inside. When I attempted to remove them, I discovered they were frozen to the carriers in their own feces and urine- soaked newspaper. They had no water or food containers, only empty cat food cans. One of the carriers was not even large enough for the cat to stand up in. It was 7:30 P.M. I called in another volunteer, and together we thawed the bottom of the carriers with warm water and got the cats out.

Neither of the cats could stand. Their leg muscles were weak from lack of use. Together we spent an hour cleaning the cats, feeding and drying them. We put them in the biggest carrier we had and loaded them into my warmed van again for the drive to my residence for the night. They would be taken to the vet first thing in the morning. Amazingly, they both used litter boxes later that first night. They had not forgotten.

Eli and Elliot spent a week at the vet's getting shaved,neutered, leukemia-tested, and three baths later, they returned to the shelter. That was one year ago today, and they are still waiting for a loving, forever home. Eli is a male long-haired Maine Coon that many people have wanted to adopt. Elliot is a male short-haired gray and white cat. They are both sweet and loving cats, considering the pain and suffering they endured together in that truck for two years. Because of that, we believe they have a very special bond. Even though they could not see or touch one another during their ordeal, they could hear and sense each other. That may be why they and their spirits survived. They had each other. Because of that we could not separate them, and would insist that they be adopted together.