Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Daily cat post

Please remember to click on the links in the Silence Is The Enemy post every day in June. It costs you nothing, and it generates revenue for an important cause.


Haha, I meant to do this as a supplementary post for Tuesday, but I got wrapped up in another post on NEPA Blogs and by the time I looked up, it was already Wednesday! So does this count as my Wednesday post? You'll just have to stay tuned to see!

The two latest additions to our feral kitten collection went to the vet today and got a clean bill of health. Everyone at the vet's office is telling me how I need to capture the rest of the litter, and the mother, and the other two litters and mothers in our neighborhood, and all the other stray cats in Nanticoke, and bring them in to get checked, and spayed, and neutered. As I handed out $114 per kitten for the initial checkup, which included Feline AIDS and Feline Leukemia tests, de-wormer, and an initial distemper shot, as well as a physical exam - a bargain, since I was expecting something more like $150 per cat - I could only smile, nod, and try to figure out how many days of overtime I will have to work to support these cats, when and if overtime becomes available again.

Bowie was glad to finally get to play with Thor and BlueBear. BlueBear seems to be more traumatized than the other kittens - while Thor and Bowie rolled around and ambushed each other, BlueBear preferred to sleep against my heart while curled up under my shirt for well over an hour, something Bowie outgrew several weeks ago.

Tomorrow I think I will be going over to my house across town to mow the lawn, possibly after mowing the lawn here. I may be taking all three kittens with me, to start getting them used to their future home!

4 comments:

Jason said...

Hi, I followed you here from the Bad Astronomer. Didn't want to derail Phil's hilarious post on the bricks being birthed by the chiropractors...

"We have a situation locally where a teen gang is torturing and killing cats and posting videos of their activities to YouTube. Prosecutors refuse to take action based on the videos, contending that once the video is posted to YouTube it could be altered by a third party."

I searched, but I couldn't find any news on this situation. Is this a copycat form of the Kenny Glenn thing from Oklahoma a couple of months ago?

http://www.kenny-glenn.net/

The e-vigilantes from 4chan did originally call a couple of wrong phone numbers before finding the real numbers of his parents; was just wondering since this wasn't in a quick news search, if it wasn't conflated with that. While they did a lot of silly things alongside this (ordering pizzas and so forth), the cat was saved in the end.

I know the laws in Oklahoma are different from those in Penn, but surely they can't be too different. Kenny Glenn and his brother? friend? were both placed under arrest for their actions. Surely the local media would like wind of the story even if the city or state attorney refuses to press charges... Not suggesting similar vigilante action, just pointing out that there is recent precedent in an almost identical situation with YouTube videos.

Regardless, I hope that it gets sorted out. Animal abuse is disgusting.

Cheers

D.B. Echo said...

Jason, I'm actually embarassed to say that I was not reporting something I heard first-hand, but was told by my mom and confirmed by a cashier at the local supermarket. I will do a search of the local news outlets for "Shickshinny" and "cat" and "youtube" to see if I'm just reporting a suburban legend...

D.B. Echo said...

Here are two possibly unrelated stories...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31008400/
Reward Offered for Cat Found Shot With Arrow

PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY- A reward is being offered to find whoever shot a cat with an arrow.

A black cat was found in Shickshinny with an arrow right through its body. It barely missed its heart.

http://www.citizensvoice.com/news/1.39136
State, local police investigate reported cases of cat killings
- Kelly Monitz)
Published: May 28, 2009

A representative from the Hazleton Animal Shelter fears there may be a cat killer with a poor sense of humor afoot.

Janice Gans Moisey, shelter treasurer, found a bludgeoned cat dead along Rock Glen Road between Valley Elementary/Middle School and The Meadows housing development in Sugarloaf Township on Monday night.

Whoever left the cat placed a sign near it saying, "Free cat," she said. The cat and sign were not along the road when she first passed around 7 p.m., and she found the cat around 9:30 p.m., Gans Moisey said.

While she was stopped along the road, a man pulled over and said he had seen another cat similarly displayed a few miles west on Rock Glen Road near Maylath's farm, she said.

Jason said...

Aha, thanks for the follow-up. I read the article, and it sounds like people are on the lookout. Not sure, but it sounds to me like the checker and the association with videos was from that original Kenny Glenn thing. It's still pretty sick, and it does sound like someone wanted to make their own version of the "free cat" joke roadkill picture from years ago (it's around in a google image search, and is a "meme"), so it might turn up somewhere, but hopefully it's not an epidemic.

There's of course always the danger with publicizing things like the YouTube video cat torture that someone else will do a *cough* copy-cat crime, but it doesn't seem to be so.

Anyway, I hope the person stops, or if not, that they're at least brought to justice.

Cheers!