If you happen to live in the area of Highland Avenue and see a sweet little bobtailed orange colored neutered kitty wandering around, my grandchildren are looking for Pumpkin, who accidentally got out of the house and hasn’t been seen since. Pumpkin is less than a year old and certainly not street wise. Our hope is that someone found him and fell in love with him and took him in, but it would give the family a great deal of comfort to know he is safe. Please call me at 532-2345 if you’ve seen him.
It surprises me sometimes, the dozens upon dozens of cats that show up at the shelter as strays and the lack of calls from owners trying to find their kitties, and then there are the families who are desperate to locate their animals who call daily, show up and look through the shelter thinking that maybe, just maybe, we overlooked their kitty when it came in. It’s a total polar opposite from one extreme to the other.
I remember when my Elizabeth went missing. My beloved kitty for over 18 years, Elizabeth escaped when she was around 10 or so and I was just beside myself, I went door to door, imploring neighbors to keep their eyes open for her, I put flyers in mailboxes, put ads in the paper, crawled around under cars and sheds, sat and called “here kitty kitty” till I had no voice, and no matter where I looked or how long I called, no Elizabeth.
You’ll think I’m crazy, but I cried myself to sleep over her. She was that precious to me, and then one night, eight days after her disappearance, I’m pulling into the driveway in the dark when my headlights catch a dashing figure running from left to right, headed toward the house, and there she was, my Elizabeth, a little thinner than when she left, but none the worse for wear. I hugged her for hours. She looked at me like I’d lost my mind. I’ll never know where she spent her eight days, but she never left home again.
If you have lost a kitty, don’t forget to notify the shelter. They’ll keep a file and call you if she comes in and they’ll get our facebook friends to help look for her.
If you would like to adopt a kitty, please don’t forget that shelter kitties are so much more of a “bargain” than a “free to a good home” pet. A vet has already seen them, they already have their first series of shots, they’ve been tested, and many, but not all, are already spayed and neutered. The small adoption fee you pay barely covers our cost for these shots etc, and our cost is substantially less than you would pay if you took a “free to a good home” cat to your vet for all this care.
We were so excited to adopt out 10 animals at the Rockin’ the Doghouse event – we are continuing to see the positive impact from this weekend as all of our southern puppies have been adopted and many of our kitties also found homes. We continue to need your help at the shelter. Canned cat foot is in short supply and we have a lot of kittens that need this additional nourishment. We find that many kittens come in dehydrated and the canned food adds much needed fluids to their diet.
If you can help, you may drop off your donated canned food to the shelter or to the Varney Agency at 9 Katahdin Lane. If you’re bringing in canned food, you can also drop off your clean empty yogurt or cottage cheese containers, your used ink cartridges or cell phones, as these are all turned in for cash to help keep the shelter going.
Many thanks to all of you for your continued support. Have a great week.
Cathy Davis is a longtime volunteer for the Houlton Humane Society. She can be reached at houltonanimalshelter@gmail.com or 532-2345.
