Cat adopts an American volunteer for K9 Rescue International in Ukraine where things are getting better

NEWS AND VIEWS - UKRAINE: This is a nice letter from an American man, Tom Bates, who has been in Ukraine since March 2022, volunteering his services for K9 Rescue International. His letter is published on the Key Peninsula News website. He's been rescuing and evacuating animals; bringing food to hungry animals and travelling through many zones of conflict dodging Russian rockets and artillery fire. 

MacDonald's to reopen some restaurants in Ukraine. Image: Shutterstock.

When he first arrived in Ukraine things were bad, he says. It was grim and he still can't speak decent Ukrainian which doesn't surprise me because it takes a long time to learn a foreign language.

But some good things have happened. Firstly, a cat adopted him he says. He named the cat Bob. And he says that when he returns home to America, he is bringing Bob with him. I like that. He's rescued a cat in need in a war zone and he is going to give the cat a good life in a good country. That is about as good as you can do in terms of animal welfare as an individual person doing their bit.

The second bit of good news is this: things are beginning to get back to normal despite the war continuing. I guess this is the case because the war is confined more and more to eastern Ukraine and in the south. The other areas, thankfully - and I hope this continues - are fairly normal such as life in the capital Kyiv. Although Putin has hinted that he might try and take Kyiv a second time. Although that would be a new mobilisation which would be incredibly unpopular and it might fail bearing in mind that around 300,000 men left the country last time they were mobilised.

Another good sign that things are returning to normal and I hope it stays that way (there is no certainty) is that McDonald's restaurants are beginning to reopen across Ukraine.

When the war started, MacDonald closed every restaurant in Ukraine and donated all their food to the military. They continue to pay all employees their full wage. Pretty amazing. But now the stores are opening again of course the employees can come back and the general public are very thankful because Bates says that "Cars wrap around several blocks for the drive through. Lines of people flow out the doors for 100 yards. Every table is full."

Ukrainians have missed their McDonald's. Car dealerships have cars on show and some checkpoints have been dismantled. People are smiling more and of course the warm weather helps.

This is just a little glimpse of life from the point of view of a volunteer helping out with animal welfare in a country ravaged by death and destruction to both animal and person. But as mentioned it is focused on certain areas so the mood has lifted.

It is said that it will cost around $500 billion to rebuild the country. As I understand it, the West has frozen almost $400 billions of Russian assets which can be used.

Cat's persistent meows helped to lead rescuers to owner who had fallen down a ravine

BODMIN, CORNWALL, UK - NEWS: A cat's persistent calls saved her owner. And 83-year-old woman was rescued after falling 70 feet down a steep ravine after a passer-by was alerted by the meows of her pet cat, Piran. The police were searching for the woman at the time the passerby was alerted by her cat. That led the rescuers to the woman. 

Cat's persistent meows helped to lead rescuers to owner who had fallen down a ravine. Photo: Bodmin Police.

She'd fallen into a stream and access to it was very difficult as shown in the photo on this page by Bodmin police who said that Piran had saved the day. The woman was hoisted on a stretcher to safety by fire crews and taken to hospital by ambulance. She is in a stable condition.

Neighbours had become concerned about her whereabouts and had called the emergency services. The rescue mission was launched on Saturday. She had been missing for over an hour and had fallen near her house.

Piran had meowed insistently and persistently from the top of the ravine. Piran was sitting in the corner of a field near her owner's home.

Awesome preparation for multi-kitten rescue from urban concrete gully full of rubbish

 Preparation for kitten rescue from concrete gully full of rubbish

The picture is a screenshot from a YouTube video. It shows a cat rescuer abseiling (sort of) into a concrete gully in an urban environment with a carrier for several kittens. There are five kittens there. They were hiding under some cardboard. The notable aspect of the kitten rescue is the preparation and the precision. It is really well thought through both to protect the people and the cats. And to successfully capture them. Highly impressive. The team are from the Hope for Paws animal rescue organisation. The video has been hugely successful as expected. Such a cool cat rescue.

Do you feel as surprised as me that there are great people as seen here spending all this time and effort in rescuing kittens when at the same time millions of unwanted cats are killed at shelters annually in the USA or they used to be? The numbers euthanized has fallen considerably (thankfully but it is still high). And the rescue contrasts with people at the other end of the character spectrum: those that abuse and are cruel to cats. The world seems very strange to me.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

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Bengal Cat Rescue

There are quite a few Bengal cat rescue organisations. I have a page that contains a decent sized list of links to rescue operations where you might find a Bengal cat that needs a new home.

Please click on this link to go to Bengal cat rescue. This page is still good but some links may not work in time and some operations may close in time.

British Shorthair Rescue

When I think of British Shorthair Rescue, I think of cat cubs because they sometimes have welfare or rescue sections. This is the case in the UK at the British Shorthair cat club but it looks like an inactive page.

The Southern British Shorthair Cat Club, also an English cat club, have a rehome list. It too looks quiet, however. But it is worth contacting these clubs I think.

There are other rescue organisations in the UK but they too look quiet. I think a good idea is to join a Yahoo Group and start chatting. You may get lucky. Click here to see four Yahoo Groups concerned with the British Shorthair. These are quite small groups but as I say it is worth a try and easy to do. Yahoo Groups are worldwide. There are no boundaries so you should expect to talk to people from a country that is not your own!

Specialty Purebred Cat Rescue have a Facebook page for USA people looking to rescue a Brit SH or any purebred cat. Although the Brit SH is popular I think you find it difficult to get a result.

Rescue Me! have a Brit SH page but not sure if you will see a cat! They are USA located. On the following page there is what appears to be a large list of rescue groups for this breed but I don't think it works out quite like that. Give it a try though.

Conclusion: It is going to be difficult to rescue a Brit SH.

Siamese Cat Shelters

I have not found Siamese cat shelters in Illinois but something better probably. I would be very surprised if a cat shelter dedicated itself to Siamese cats only.

The RescueMe.org website has two Siamese cats that need rescuing at the time of this post.

They don't make it clear if the cats are purebred or not. But describing the cats as "Siamese" indicates purebred. You will need to see certificates though to prove that. There are many more purebred mix cats in rescue centers than purebred I am sure.

This is the page. Obviously things change all the time.

Siamese Cats Rescue

Purebred cats compared to non-purebred cats are rare. You do find some purebred cats at rescue organisations though. And there are other avenues to purebred cat rescue that I usually discuss. As it happens I have a page on Siamese cats rescue!

Please click on this link to go to the page.