Shelter animals transported out from the path of Hurricane Ida

America has a wonderful system of transporting shelter animals away from disaster zones so that those shelters are freed up for animals caught up in the disaster and the resident animals are moved out of harm's way. This works so successfully because of the wonderful volunteers who carry out the work with passion and commitment and because there are efficient air services which carry out this work. 

Shelter animals transported away from the path of Hurricane Ida. Photo: People.com.

America is a large country and therefore a lot of the time transporting shelter animals out of the path of a hurricane means putting them on an aircraft and flying them hundreds of miles.

In this instance, Hurricane Ida was classified in Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on Sunday afternoon. Before it hit landfall animal shelters and rescues has made preparations by transporting their animals to areas outside of the storm's path.

One shelter which stepped into the fray and did their bit is Helen Woodward Animal Shelter based in California. They took in 40 cats and 25 dogs from a transport flight planned by the well-known charity Greater Good Charities, in less than 24 hours.

Their website tells me that they have three arms to their charitable work: empowering people, safeguarding animals and preserving nature. As for safeguarding animals they say that they transport at risk pets to safety among other services.

The charity contacted Helen Woodward Animal Center asking for help. The adoption services director of Helen Woodward Animal Center said that it was one of those moments when animal rescue becomes a life-saving mission. She said "without a place to put these dogs and cats, many of these orphan pets would face a tragic end. We couldn't say no."

They are now looking for temporary foster care for the 65 Louisiana cats and dogs in their care. This is the way shelters deal with spillover numbers. When they have too many cats and dogs, they can go to their volunteers who live in the area who willingly provide foster care services to rescue animals. It greatly extends the scope of a shelter. Foster carers provide essential work.

Another shelter which stepped up to the plate is Operation Kindness based in Dallas. They took the ground route and drove a transport vehicle to Louisiana, filled it with young shelter animals and took them out of the path of the storm. They took, in all, 20 dogs and 31 cats in the age range two months to 16 years from Jefferson Parish Animal Shelter.

These lucky 51 companion animals are now looking for homes in Texas. Applicants can apply through their website at operationkindness.org.

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.

---

Many other organisations worked together to help protect Louisiana's shelter animals from this devastating storm. It is a good example once again of how animal rescuers can work together so effectively to save lives.

Thieves hijack SPCA ambulance with the cat, dog and field officer inside

NEWS AND COMMENT-KLOOF, SOUTH AFRICA: The Kloof and Highway SPCA provide a comprehensive and useful service to the community in helping to protect against animal cruelty and neglect. They have a Facebook page and on it they've reported a bizarre hijacking.

Kloof and Highway SPCA cat rescue. Photo: Video screenshot.

The team were responding to a call for help at 9 PM as a dog had been hit by car. While they were waiting for the owner of the dog two men approached their ambulance. At gunpoint, they entered the vehicle and drove it off with the field officer, a cat and a dog inside.

The thieves then stopped and let the SPCA officer inside leave the vehicle with the dog and cat. They drove off with a cell phone, cash donations together with the equipment in the vehicle.

Barbara Patrick the manager said that they are devastated but pleased that the animals and the officer were released. They have alerted law enforcement but the vehicle has not been found. Another SPCA ambulance collected the animals and the officers and they have been treated.

Comment: as stated, it's a bizarre crime because what they have stolen is a very specialist vehicle which I guess is of no use to them and neither is the equipment inside unless they are interested in providing an ambulance service for animals! It's unclear what they were trying to steal. It looks a bit harebrained to me and the police will probably find the vehicle abandoned in due course.

Vet removes huge pulsating parasite from kitten's neck

This is a botfly larva. Quite disgusting. There are a lot of videos on YouTube of botfly larva being removed from kittens. It's a bit mad. People are fascinated with the ghoulish nature of these videos. I've watched it and the size is horrific when you think it was inside this small, fragile kitten's neck. They've been extracted from worse places such as from the nose or the eye. Horror videos. This one is not too bad.

Botfly larva pulled from kitten's neck

See: Picture of a warble pulled from under the skin of a kitten

The botfly lays eggs on the skin and they burrow into it and take up home under the skin where they grow and feed off the cat. Parasites are disgusting. They can cause infections. They present as lumps on the skin. If you see a lump on your cat one possible cause is one of these foul creatures.

Here is the botfly lifecycle if you are interested:

Floss (cat) and Inca (sheep) have a particularly strong bond

Floss and Inca have a particularly strong bond. Floss is said to be the friendliest cat in the world and Inca is probably the friendliest sheep so this is a very good friendship! And it will no doubt get better. To see a flourishing interspecies friendship developing is very nice indeed. I love to see them. 

Floss (cat) and Inca (sheep) have a particularly strong bond. Screenshot.

It's the first time that I've seen a domestic cat bonding with a sheep. Cats can make friends with almost any animal. I've seen cats head-butting fish! Yes, I've seen cats developing friendships with fish and you might well have seen domestic cats being very friendly with little chicks. It's all about socialisation which completely dampens out the natural instinct to hunt animals they would normally hunt and with whom they become very friendly. Although there is no explaining the cat-fish friendship :) 

Here is the tweet - these sometimes disappear. I can't stop that I am afraid and if it does not work, sorry.

Floss and Inca have a particularly strong bond 🥰 Floss is the friendliest cat in the world, and Inca probably the friendliest sheep, so a good friendship forming ❤️ pic.twitter.com/cwwx6Q5tzS

— SmallholdersUK (@SmallholdersUK) September 1, 2021

Cats are adaptable particularly young cats

Cats are more adaptable than people give them credit for. Dr Bradshaw (Cat Sense) says that during the first year of their lives 'they effectively tailor their personalities as much as they can to suit the particular household in which they find themselves'.

A guy called Spencer with his cat Cuddles. Screenshot of video.

He then says that if a person has an intensely emotional relationship with their cat, the cat is likely to be happy when picked up and cuddled. He believes that this is the cat adapting to the demands of the owner.

I can confirm this from first-hand experience. Domestic cats do learn to accept the preferences of their human caregiver in how they interact with them. Although they might not particularly like being petted in a certain way, they accept it after a while. They even learn to like it. This will only happen, in my view, if the relationship is great because the cat's caregiver is excellent.

Under these circumstances any interaction with their caregiver is welcome provided it is essentially pleasant even if the method is not the sort of interaction that pleases the cat.

I like to handle my cat a lot. He likes to be close to me which gives me the opportunity to pet him multiple times a day. He was a bit twitchy in years past as he was born feral but he now fully accepts and likes it. This adaptation should not surprise people because it is replicated in human-to-human behavior. They say that the success of a marriage is based on acceptance and adaption. And the husband saying 'Yes, dear'. :) 

It is also worth mentioning that cat caregivers do a lot of adapting too! The more you think about cats being adaptable the more you realise that it happens in any sentient being relationship.

It is an example of how domestic cats live in the human world, which is essentially unnatural to a domestic cat but through basic socialisation and adaption cats learn to live in it. There is also a lot of acceptance. Domestic cats are very accepting and stoic of the situations in which they find themselves. They put up and shut up. This can be a recipe for abuse.

They don't complain, do they? But this is not helpful for them. It allows them to be neglected in the misguided belief that they are independent and are fine being left alone. Cats need interaction from their owners. This is another reason why they adapt to their owners' demands.