29 cats rescued from Lake County Animal Shelter

Tina and I, made the 3.5 hour drive up to Lake County this morning to pull some kitties from their overcrowded shelter. We had a limit of how many we were to take, but that went out the door when we saw all of these wonderful kitties who were due to die today. Today they had 21 cats scheduled to be PTS mostly orange tabbies, calico's and Siamese kitties. Last night, when we heard, we begged them to hold off putting any to sleep until we could get there at noon.

An elderly lake county woman recently died who had had fifty plus cats in her care, well actually in a garage. I'm sure to begin with, she had a plan to help the cats, she got many spayed and neutered and somehow things went very wrong over time. While once the cats got altered, soon there were kittens being born. What probably seemed like a temporary shelter, the garage became their permanent home. Care of the cats suffered too as some got sick and weren't able to get the medical care, they needed or maybe the number of cats made them keep passing colds around. Whatever happened is hard to say except to say that it all got very out of control for the lady who had them. As of a week ago, 29 of these fifty plus cats came into the very small, underfunded, Lake County Shelter. This number of cats needing help really strained the resources of the shelter.

It was a rainy day and there was even some snow on the mountain highway 175 on our way to and from Lake County but that didn't stop us from our mission. We had permission to pull 10 cats, up from the original 5 cats we'd discussed pulling but it only took a few moments of being in that damp, loud and overcrowded shelter for us to call and discuss pulling more. In the end we were told to "pull as many as we could fit in our car." It's amazing how many cats you can fit in a CRV when you have the motivation to try. We left the Lake County Shelter at 2pm today with 29 amazingly sweet and adoptable cats and kittens. The return drive home had more snow, so we took it slowly.After the 3.5 hour return drive it took nearly another hour to tuck the cats and kittens from Lake County into their cages and beds at the Nine Lives Foundation. We found the softest, warmest beds we could and set them each up with heaping bowls of wet food. The sight of some of these cats gulping down the first wet food they'd ever seen was enough to bring tears to our eyes. Once each of the cats and kittens were eating from their big bowls of food and their little feet were making "biscuits." We began to go through and treat each with Revolution for the fleas and ear mites that nearly all of them had.

Finally, names were given to each and every one of these deserving cats and kittens and their photos taken (We will take better photos when they've settled in). The best part of the day was knowing that these cats and kittens that at the beginning of the day had no hope, now have nothing but happy days and loving forever homes to look forward to. Our 29 new residents are below, please let us know if you're interested in giving any of these wonderful kitties a chance at a happily ever after.

Antony, a gregarious and playful 2 year old orange tabby and white tuxedo boy.

Bunsen and Petri are adorable 8 week old litter mates. They also came from the hoarder and are recovering from a URI and ear mites. Bunsen is a handsome Flame Point Siamese boy,While Petri is a very pretty Calico tuxedo girl. Cagney is a handsome, neutered, Senior Maine Coon boy. Cairo is a stunningly handsome, 3 year old, Chocolate Point Siamese boy. Laid back and friendly, he would be a great addition to any home. Curacao is a very handsome, 5-6 month old, Lilac Point Siamese boy. Diamond is the momma to Ruby and a funny little girl with a silly looking overbite. One of the most obvious cases of neglect that we saw in the cats rescued from the hoarder, Diamond and Ruby will need a lot of TLC before they are 100% recovered.
Julep is a pretty, soft and cuddly little 4.5 month old calico girl and sister to Martini and Rossi.

Kimmie is a very pretty and playful young black and white tuxedo girl.
Licorice is a darling, DMH all black, 5-6 month old boy.
Lemur is a scrawny little 9 week old girl who was adopted out but returned for having diarrhea.

Lita, a 5-6 month old Chocolate Point Siamese love bug of a girl.

Marshall is one of the 4 orange tabby boys pulled from the hoarder. And while he seems less than enthused around other cats, he's quite the lover of people. Melina, a 1 year old grey tabby and white girl.

Miriam, a darling black and white, Polydactyl tuxedo girl. Another of the kitties from the hoarder. She's being treated for her ear mites and malnutrition.

Opie, a 2-3 year old orange tabby boy. Very sweet and fond of his buddy Antony.

Orion is a very handsome and outgoing buff tabby boy.

Pansy was another one of the refugees of the Hoarder. With ringworm, ear mites a long term lack of adequate food she has a long way to go before she'll be 100% again.
Piggy is a darling, Snowshoe mix boy. Probably once very handsome, Piggy has had a tough life and it shows. He's several years old, but still intact and has clearly had ear mites for a very long time. His ears are malformed from years old healed injuries caused by him scratching them until they bled. He's currently got a giant scab behind his right ear from the most recent irritation. We've treated him for ear mites and are hopeful that he'll open up once he's no longer suffering.

Poesy and her buddy Pansy were both refugees of the Hoarder as well. Both have ringworm, ear mites and were near starved, even after more than a week in the Lake County Shelter, where their slim budget was not capable of taking care of so many ill kitties all at once.

Rossi, the boy on the left and Martini, the girl on the right, came in with their sister Julep. All very sweet but they were very overwhelmed in the loud, dog bark echoing, Lake County Shelter. Ruby, one of the more ill cared for of the hoarder's girl kitties. She came in with her momma Diamond. Both were half starved and covered in scabs and ear mites. Stacey, a pretty petite black and white Tuxedo girl.

Theodore, a brown tabby lover boy, who was on hold for biting a person who tried to get between him and the dog he was fighting with. We think he's be amazing in a non-dog home. He loves to give head butts and to get tummy rubs. He's the least aggressive kittie I've yet to meet.

Waldo, a stunning and friendly orange tabby, Manx boy.

Webster, a handsome DMH orange tabby boy. He's a little shy but purrs like crazy once you start petting him.

Willow, a pretty young calico girl. She loves to chat at you and rub against the bars of her cage.

Can you believe we forgot to mention Jacqueline? Jacqueline is a beautiful and very talkative (I mean really, she loves to talk! Maybe she's part Siamese.) one year old dilute torti girl.

That means we pulled 29 cats, not 28!

Written by: LH