NEWS AND VIEWS: The woman is distraught. She blames herself. Her story is interesting and at the same time educational. She tells it on the mumsnet.com website.
She appears to have adopted a rescue cat when she was living in Turkey. She describes her cat as an "ex-street cat". She kept him indoors after rescuing him. He spent two years inside her home in Turkey.
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| Domestic cat rescued from Turkish earthquakes. This is not the cat in the story. The picture is here to illustrate the page. Image now in the public domain. |
During the earthquakes which were well reported he went missing for two months. He was found and rescued. He was kept in a tent for a week on a harness. He was then transported by car in a 20-hour journey to Istanbul. He was then looked after by a different person and then transported to the UK by road in a three-day journey to be reunited with his owner, the lady in question who is distraught and now living in the UK.
When the cat was returned to the UK, he apparently settled in initially. The lady has another cat who doesn't get on that well with the cat from Turkey.
She knew that she had to keep her Turkish cat inside the home for a few weeks before letting him out. The idea behind cat confinement when moving to a new home and a strange environment is to allow the cat to begin to own that environment and feel at home in it. This prevents him or her from trying to return to their previous home and getting lost.
The Turkish cat squeezed out of the cat flap as the other cat was coming through it. He returned to his home but he was asking to be let out all the time. He was howling according to the lady.
Against her better judgement she let him out. He came back a couple of hours later and so she let him out again but this time he didn't return and the days have gone by. At the time of her post on the mumsnet website he had been missing for four days.
She said:
"I just don't know what to do. I literally can't do anything other than just sit around all day crying and hating myself for being so stupid and not following the advice."
Her cat is micro-chipped so there's hope there. She has posted on social media and placed familiar items such as his litter tray and his bedding in the garden to try and attract him to it. She's going to print flyers and post those around the neighbourhood. She asks for help.
Educational? Unfortunately, this lady's life for a while was unsuited to a domestic cat. She travelled from Turkey to the UK after the Turkish earthquakes. This was discombobulating for her cat. It's not her fault but circumstances have created a very unsettled lifestyle for her cat. The earthquakes must have been traumatic for the cat.
RELATED: Live the life that your cat wants with consistency and routines.
In addition, the second cat doesn't appear to get on that well with the Turkish rescue cat. This unsettled lifestyle plus the other cat has resulted in the Turkish cat leaving the home. He might not come back but live outside and become skinny and dirty and suffer ill-health unless somebody rescues him (again for the 3rd time) and has the presence of mind to have him scanned for a microchip at which point he can be returned and reunited.
But the educational aspect of this is that domestic cats like and indeed need a settled lifestyle with routines and rhythms by their human caregiver. They want those reassurances. I wish her well and the same goes to her cat. She rescued him from Turkey so this is an excellent woman.
"Mason lost everything in the tornado we go back to dig through the rubble and there was his cat setting on the pile that use to be his house waiting on him"
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| Amory, Mississippi after tornado: cat found sitting in middle of destroyed home resident. Image: Twitter. |
NEWS AND COMMENT-LAREDO ANIMAL CARE SERVICES, TX: The reporting is a little sketchy but the story is good. An animal control officer, Jose Aranda (also reported as Jesus Aranda) has been recognised by the Laredo City Council for his quick thinking and bravery in saving the lives of 45 shelter cats from a fire at the Laredo Animal Care Services cat shelter.
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| Jose Aranda recognised for his bravery in saving the lives of 45 cats at the Laredo cat shelter fire. Photo: Danny Zaragoza /Laredo Morning Times. |
The rescue occurred in the early part of January 2022. It was quite late at 10 PM according to the reports. Aranda was at the shelter to process some animals when he noticed smoke coming from the roof of the building in the cat shelter section.
Rather than call the fire department and wait, he took action himself. He opened the door to the shelter. There was excessive heat and smoke. He saw the cats and realised that unless he released them immediately, they would probably die.
"I proceeded to open the door and saw a bunch of cats in there, so I started releasing the cat before they got burned".
He was taken to hospital afterwards for smoke inhalation and the consequences of being exposed to excessive heat.
We don't know what happened to the cats except that they were saved and, apparently, they've not been lost. The point is that he released them but we don't know where they went to. My guess is that they went to other parts of the shelter that was safe and where there was no fire. The fire only affected the cat shelter part.
His son, Jesus Aranda Jr., was happy that his dad had saved the cats. He loves cats and they have two at home.
Aranda said that he loves his job and that if he was another person, meaning not an animal control officer he probably wouldn't have gone on to save the animals. He said that he could have waited until the fire department came. If he did that it is likely the cats would have been killed, he said.
Comment: I think that this is the largest number of cats saved from a fire. It is certainly the largest number reported in the news media over many years. I read the cat news every day as supplied by Bing News. Well done to him. It is sad to report that often in house fires the homeowner gets out but the cats die in the fire. This is a natural consequence of two things (1) cats hiding and therefore being difficult to find and (2) people prioritising, understandably, their safety before anything else.
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| Shelter animals transported away from the path of Hurricane Ida. Photo: People.com. |
EVANSTON, Illinois-NEWS AND COMMENT: This must be an inherent danger for firefighters when rescuing cats from burning buildings which, I have to say, is not that uncommon. I am reading too many stories of domestic cats killed in fires. On one occasion many cats were killed in a home run as a cat rescue operation. Often the owners of the property race out of the house and leave the cats behind.
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| Firefighter bitten by a cat when rescuing 15 from a burning house. Photo: Evanston Fire Department. |
On this instance, at around 8:45 AM, fire officers were called to a house on fire off Dewey Avenue, Evanston, Illinois, USA. There was heavy smoke on their arrival billowing out of the first floor according to the chief, Kim Kull.
The two residents escaped. One was working in the basement and the other was asleep upstairs. The firefighters rescued 15 cats from inside the home. Great work. Regrettably, one firefighter was bitten when trying to extricate a cat. He was taken to hospital for a checkup and released.
Comment: this had to happen sometime and it probably happens more often than is reported. Although don't firefighters wear gloves sometimes? But if you are grabbing 15 cats from a burning building, with some force, and the cats are going to be terrified anyway, one of them is bound to strike out.
The cats are surrounded by pandemonium, confusion, smoke, flames, strange people dressed up in strange clothes, noise, you name it, the cats are having to go through it. It surprises me that there aren't more examples of firefighters being bitten or scratched by cats rescued from house fires.
Source: Patch via Yahoo.
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.
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| 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.
This is the story of a 'miracle dog' found alive hiding in an oven after one of the many devastating Greek wildfires that have torn through the country. In another article I have written about homeowners and occupiers evacuating their homes without taking their pets with them. I have questioned why. Were they given short notice? If so, why were they given short notice to evacuate? Did they have time to take their pets with them? Is there a culture problem here? So many questions.
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| Greece forest fires: 'miracle dog' saved himself by hiding in an outside oven. Photo: The Times. |
But they are valid because something is wrong because the volunteers who rescued these animals; cats, dogs, horses and donkeys have said that typically the owners evacuated without their animal companions. What is going on? Surely there was time to take their pets and even horses with them?
It's all about preparation but they must have known the fires were coming or there was a possibility of the fires arriving at least a day or two in advance. I am disappointed with what I read.
The Times reports that rescuers were less than hopeful about finding survivors to the Greek wildfires causing death and destruction around and in the town of Mati. No less than 10 days after the fire broke out a white poodle-cross was found hiding in an outside oven. They have called the poodle the "Miracle Dog".
The dog's name is Loukoumakis. He was discovered traumatised and unable to move with singed fur. Why was he left behind? I would like answers to that question and I don't mind if I'm being rude in asking it.
The news media have simply avoided the central questions - the important animal welfare backstory. The questions I'm asking relate to proactive measures to prevent harm to companion animals. Everything that I am reading is about reactive actions by volunteer rescuers, which is far less efficient and sensible.
When you look at Loukoumakis' fur and his general appearance he looks neglected. His appearance would not have happened over three days living in an oven. It indicates to me that this dog was neglected and that neglect extended to leaving him behind when the fires approached the house.
I suspect that the problem is that there is a general sense of chaos and panic in dealing with these forest fires. I don't think it would have happened in Japan for instance where they have a more organised culture. Look at the Olympic Games which appear to have been highly organised. There is this rather laissez-faire attitude in the Mediterranean European countries which I believe perpetuates poor animal welfare. I would like to see change in the southern European states. Are they complying with EU animal welfare standards? I doubt it.
I know that in Greece their reputation with respect to the welfare of the street cats is poor. I have written about this many years ago. Greece is a member of the European Union. They should set the same animal welfare standards as other states in the EU. I sense that they do not.
In one way, it is obvious why cats get their heads stuck in glass jars and cans. It is because they are scavenging for food at the bottom of the jar and their head size is a tight fit into the jar. They can push their head into it with some friction but there is no means to remove their head because the jar is not clamped in place. This behavior flies in the face of the concept that cats judge the width of gaps with their whiskers.
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| Reason why cats get their heads stuck in glass jars and cans. The beginning of the problem. Screenshot. |
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| Reason why cats get their heads stuck in glass jars and cans. THE PROBLEM! |
Cats seem to presume that because they can push their head into the jar that they will be able to remove it. They don't understand the physics which is obvious and to be expected. If one wants to get inside the head of a cat, it seems that they believe the jar is fixed in place so that when they pull their head up the jar stays in place. They probably expect this because when they push their head into it the jar does, indeed, stay in place.
It's a matter of a failure to understand. And this probably comes about because, as is shown in this video, the domestic cat is living in a human environment. The cookie jar is a human product. They don't fully understand them or totally understand the human environment. You will not find wild cats getting their head stuck in something in nature. All these instances of domestic and feral cats getting their head stuck in an object are invariably concerned with human objects.
If you like, this is a clash of cultures: the cat world and the human world, which sometimes leaves the cat vulnerable to this kind of distressing scene. However, in this instance the video of the cat, which I can't present on this page, shows a domestic cat in a household setting and therefore the whole thing was set up by the video maker.
That, by the way, is another bugbear of mine. I don't like to see scripted videos which entail either a minor or a major abuse of a domestic cat. A lot of them do. And as the pressure mounts to try and get your video seen by people, there is a greater motivation for cat owners to at least mildly abuse their cat or exploit them to get those precious viewings.
I feel compelled to write a quick note about the dramatic floods in Germany (and surrounding nations) which have killed around 160 people but the numbers will climb. And a shocking 1,300 are missing. They've put the floods down to climate change and a 1 in 1,000-year event. There are fears that there will be more of these events. Climate change or global warming is presenting as extreme weather not just a warmer planet.
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| Horrendous floods in Germany and Netherlands. A damaged road after flooding in Bad Münstereifel, Germany. Photograph: Sascha Steinbach/EPA. |
Because about 160 people have been killed by these dramatic and devastating floods, it is a foregone conclusion that many companion animals have also been killed. News media is not talking about them because they talk about people first which I suppose is understandable. Update: 18th July: no news yet of companion animal rescue.
I have searched various news media outlets looking for stories about cats and dogs who have been rescued from these floods. I have not found any stories. I would like to remember those animals. Of course, I'm concerned about people and their relatives but I am equally concerned about companion animals. And, indeed, any animals including farm animals.
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| Pony rescued from the floods. I don't have details of the photographer. Sorry. There is more talk about the animals about 4 days after the floods but still very little. |
If these floods are due to climate change, they've been caused by the behaviour of people. The companion animals are innocent victims of human behaviour. You might argue that people are the authors of their own suffering as a consequence of these climatic catastrophes. But the same argument does not apply to animals.
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| A couple of guys in flood water with cat carriers; the first photographic evidence that I have seen of cat rescue in the floods. This is in Belgium which was also affected. Photo: AFP/Getty. |
And here are two dogs in Belgium waiting to be rescued. The photo is from AFP/Getty:
In Belgium a database of dog and cat owners has been made available to the emergency services who are operating in regions where there was heavy flooding. This will enable rescue workers to reunite animals with their owners. They will use the online dog ID and cat ID database systems but of course the animals concerned would have to be micro-chipped. The database became anonymized because of the European GDPR regulations, which is why they have to be formally opened to the rescue services. Apparently, in Belgium, rescue workers found numerous lost pets who had been dragged away by the force of the floods. We don't know whether these pets had been killed or were alive.
One problem with the floods is that in Germany there was insufficient warning. This was a major factor in the loss of life because both homeowner or home occupier and their companion animals were unable to get out of the way of the flood waters.
We've all heard about California and the near 50°C temperatures that they have been suffering. These temperatures were also felt in British Columbia just north of California. Let's think of the animals in that state and province. Let's pray that they've got air-conditioning but air-conditioning contributes to global warming because you burn fossil fuels to run the air conditioning machines.
I will update the page if the news media report on any animal rescues and the meantime I would like to express my concern that as many dogs and cats survive as possible.
8777 Collins Ave, Surfside, FL News and comment: The Miami-Dade Mayor is seen on video telling the world that a black cat has emerged after the dramatic and tragic collapse of the Champlain Towers South condominium. It is a moment of light emerging from the darkness of this tragedy.
The building is adjacent to the beach and the sea and it is believed that poor quality concrete eroded because of the sea air. So far it is known that 79 people have died while 61 are still missing. The world has read about this story. Nobody could survive that collapse looking at the rubble which is flattened.
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| Binx a black cat survived the Maimi Beach condo collapse? Pic: ABC News. |
But it appears that Binx, a black cat has survived it. Nobody has said that this cat actually survived the crushing collapse. However, he was found in the area after the collapse and there are question marks as to why he was there. Binx lived on the ninth floor of this condominium. He must have been a full-time indoor cat. He was found and a person has claimed him as their cat.
READ A MORE CONVENTIONAL VERSION OF THIS STORY
A local cat rescue, The Kitty Campus, is involved because the cat was taken to them. They posted on Facebook what had happened but that particular post cannot be found by me. It seems impossible that Binx survived the collapse and therefore he must have been outside. And if he was outside, was he the resident of an apartment on the ninth floor of this building.What I'm saying is that he may be a community cat of which there are quite a few in Miami Beach being looked after by volunteers. I guess the only evidence that we have that Binx lived on the ninth floor is that the owner of the apartment on the ninth floor claimed him as their own. That's the evidence.
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.
But being a cynical old man that I am, it seems plausible or at least arguable that the person who claimed Binx is not the true owner but a person who wanted to adopt a cat and perhaps wanted a bit of celebrity although we don't know the person's name which indicates that they did not want celebrity! :)
But we also know that a lot of people, a lot of the time, do rather strange things under these situations. In the past people have claimed to be the murderer of an individual when they are not. They did it for celebrity. They want to be in the news. Perhaps this person did in fact want to be in the news but she was prevented from appearing before the cameras! I have no idea because I'm speculating wildly but it sniffs of that to me.
If Binx truly did survive the collapse of this building he would be the single sentient being to do so. And it would seem to be unimaginable that it actually happened despite the enormous ability of the domestic cat to survive the most extraordinary conditions and emergencies. That's why they are said to have nine lives.
i hate cats, no i hate f**k**g cats is what some people say when they dislike cats. But they nearly always don't explain why. It appe...
