Anyone who has ever fed a hungry animal and watched as it gobbled its food should find it unforgivable that there are other animals even hungrier, other animals starving.

Anyone whose life has been enriched because they shared it with an animal should find it unacceptable that there are other animals whose lives are cut short because there’s nobody who wants them.

Anyone who has ever loved an animal should find it inexcusable that there are other animals out there needlessly suffering and dying.

Anyone who has ever loved an animal should find it unpardonable that there are other animals with the same capacity for love but no one who loves them.

When you walk into the GCHS Adoption Center, you’ll see all sorts of animals ready to come home with you and give you love.  There are dogs and cats of all different sizes and shapes and at different stages in their lives.  You might see an elderly dog with cataracts as well as rambunctious puppies; aged cats that would love a soft, sunny place to nap all day and kittens that want to pounce on your shoelaces.  The one thing these homeless souls have in common is that they’re all healthy.  The GCHS doesn’t want you to adopt animals that aren’t healthy: it’s not fair to the people adopting them, and it’s not fair to the animals themselves. 

However, getting an animal to that point of health where they’re ready to be go to their forever home (perhaps yours?) can be a long, expensive and heart-breaking road.  Every year, we see an overflow of kittens.  They are rarely ever cute and cuddly.  Most are malnourished and skinny, and there are some who are so weak and ill they don’t survive.  This year, GCHS took in a litter of kittens that was unlike any we’ve ever seen.  People who were moving into their new home were surprised to find kittens in the basement, the mother nowhere in sight.  These babies were lying in a pool of water and oil, too little to move very far themselves, completely dependent upon others for survival.  They were so hungry that they were sucking on each other, creating wounds that cost the two little males their lives.  As I write this, I can remember how terrible they smelled (their coats, ears and eyes were matted with their own diarrhea), and how I held them to my heart willing myself not to be repulsed, thinking, “they don’t even look like kittens, what am I going to do?”  

It took several veterinary visits and many, many hours of loving care by volunteers to nurse them to health.  The little ones had to fight for their lives every day for the first few weeks.  What remains out of that litter are three little girls who will soon be ready for adoption.  They are finally out of the danger zone and eating like there’s no tomorrow!  Here’s a little introduction to the three cuties:

The littlest girl, “Halle” is pure white with a dark mark on her head that makes her look like she’s wearing a beret.  Her big, dark, beautiful eyes stand out on her white body.  It is amazing that she’s here with us today because she was on her way out at a very sick 4 ounces.  She probably had less than an hour left when Dr. Lind revived her with fluids. 

The middle girl, “Sheena” is a very pretty, delicate gray-black tiger.  Early on, she was healthier than the little white girl, but we almost lost her when an infection took hold in her lungs and brought her near death within just a couple of hours.  She was revived in an oxygen tent and had to be on strong antibiotics for three weeks.

The biggest girl, “Gracie” is a gorgeous, loud-colored calico.  She should be in pictures.  It took us a week to get her cleaned up to the point where we saw she had pretty white feet.  Now that all of her nutritional needs have been met, she is more interested in playing than anything else, but isn’t that the point?

By all accounts, these little girls shouldn’t have survived.  They have seen enough suffering to last the rest of their lifetimes.  However, their spirits are not broken, and each one will make someone or some family a wonderful friend.  They could not be more loving. 

The GCHS won’t turn away cases like these, but they are costly.  These little girls would not have made it if they hadn’t had supportive veterinary care several times.  It would have been very easy to put these little creatures to sleep, but the GCHS believes that every life has value, and they all should be given a chance.  That is why we are a no-kill shelter.  But we can’t save lives without your support.  It is our hope that, with your generous donations, you’ll continue to support us as we work towards eliminating animal suffering.  Also, please come and see the three little girls when they’re ready to make their debut! 

Ralph and I had 4 boxers in our Jeep.  One of them, “Bam Bam”, insisted that he sit on my lap for most of our 90-mile trip.  He had a cone on his head (perhaps he was recently neutered; we don’t know).  I didn’t mind; it was obvious he was starved for attention, so attention I gave him.  Another little guy, “Harrison”, slept right behind our seats the entire trip.  He looked quite young and was in beautiful shape, unlike some of the others.  I imagine the trip took quite a lot out of him because he slept soundly and didn’t make a peep, even when Bam Bam decided to snuggle up to him for the last few miles of our leg.  The other 2 were in crates: “Ozzie” was kind of disagreeable with the other dogs and needed to be separated, and “Timmy” had recently had one of his front legs amputated and needed to be handled carefully.

The boxer that got into my heart and refuses to leave my mind, though, was “Boxie” a female who looked like she had a few hard years on her.  She was no longer young and was covered in ticks and sores (perhaps infections from the ticks).  I was dying to remove the ticks, but didn’t have the appropriate supplies with me and didn’t want to make things worse for the poor dog.  She is on her way to the vet today, so I’m sure they will take care of those things immediately.  I got the feeling that this sweetheart had spent most of her life outside on the end of a chain with very little interaction.  She didn’t show the slightest bit of aggression or fear.  She was so well-behaved and looked right into our eyes.  I think she was hoping for some love, some scratches behind her ears.

Jonah, the cat who survived starvation and abuse

Hi, Peggy here.  This is a picture of “Jonah” our 6-month old kitten who came to us starving and abused.  My husband and I were home from our honeymoon only a couple of hours on the afternoon of August 8th, 2009 when we got a call.  A man had picked up a kitten who ran up to him as he left a bar late the night before.  This kind-hearted person could tell the kitten was starving, so he took it home.  He fed it some milk and dog food because he had no cat food on hand, and tried to make it comfortable for the night.  The next morning, his 14-year old daughter took one look at the kitten and said “That’s the kitten the man in the apartment down the street tried to drown by flushing it down the toilet.  The little girl that lives there peed on him too.”

The man who rescued this little one didn’t know how to care for sick kittens, so he called the Green County Humane Society the next morning and, in a round about way, the message got to me.  I was so angry when I heard what the daughter had said that I couldn’t even talk on the phone.  My husband and I immediately went to get the kitten.  When we got to the man’s home, the kitten was hiding under a dresser, as far back as he could get from people.  It was a very sad site.  I initially thought the kitten was a male, but he was covered in filth and diarrhea, and it was difficult to tell for sure.  He was very weak.  We named him Jonah, because, like Jonah in the Bible, he had survived being in a watery place that should have killed him.

When we got back to our house, I called my favorite animal rescue rehabilitator, Chris Reis, one of ENAH’s board members and asked her what I could do for Jonah.  Chris is a nurse and has saved hundreds of injured and starving wild and domestic animals.  Jonah was a tiny bag of bones; his spine, hips and ribs were poking sharply out of his dingy coat.  This kitten had not been fed good food in his short life.  Chris told me the amount of subcutaneous fluids to give a kitten that size.  It was more important that we get him hydrated than full of food right away, especially with his diarrhea.

On Monday morning, I spoke with my veterinarian at Center Hill Clinic in Darlington who recommended that I continue with the supportive care until he was stable and said we should not worm Jonah at that point because dying worms might put too much stress on his already stressed body.  She said to wait until Jonah was stronger before worming him.  As soon as he was ready, in he went to the vet for his initial vaccinations and de-worming.

It wasn’t until we had Jonah a few days, he had a couple of baths, and the diarrhea stopped that I took a closer look and realized that Jonah was really a girl!

As of this writing, Jonah is now a 5-pound kitten, about 6 months old, flourishing in all the attention, love and good food she is getting.  She is pure white, beautiful, and loves to be held and snuggled like a baby.  Fortunately, Jonah doesn’t show any of the fear and sadness she had when she first came to us.  Little Jonah doesn’t know it, but she’s going to be spayed in a couple of weeks.

I have asked myself “Why?” so many times.  Why would someone do something so horrible like try to flush a tiny, defenseless kitten down a toilet?  What kind of cruelty was in this person’s life to make him in turn treat others with such cruelty?