# Urgent situation in NC - crosspost



## pudnpies (Jan 4, 2007)

Sorry for the long post...hope that someone can help.

 :sad2  

urgent situation in NC
Posted by Bendy Kitty on 12/25/2006, 9:41 pm

a fellow rescue friend sent me this sad story.
I've emailed the group that mom is working with and hopefully they can get some of these cats.
Please crosspost this.

I feel very sad for the poor woman. These cats were dumped on her, she did not intentionally get them all! glad she had the sense to ask for help.

One thing we will say, if Dr Kelli Ferris is in charge (and she is) it will be a well run operation! Mom worked with dr Ferris with the animals rescued from Hurricane Floyd.

email:
Hi Sasha, 
Yes, I think so. 
There's an article on it at http://bayourescue.typepad.com/bayou_rescue/ 
They plan to pull all the cats Jan 6-7. 
Sabine French is the contact, her e-mail is 
I'll paste more up to date info that was on one of my cat lists below. 
Hope you are having a good Christmas! 
-Kitty 

Cross Posting for all NC Rescues (and others, if you can help) – 158 
animals to be seized from a “collector” January 6-7. Dr. Kelli Ferris of 
NCSU Medical School has offered FREE basic medical services and supplies 
to rescue groups that help these animals! 


On the weekend of January 6th and 7th, 2007 (at a location to be 
determined), the vet school will offer recognized rescue groups an initial 
physical for each cat (and 3 dogs), basic vaccines, initial feleuk/FIV 
blood work, flea treatment and simple medicinal supplies free of charge 
(although any donations to cover “hard costs” will be appreciated). 
Additionally, Dr. Ferris (or Dr. Stevens) will be able to provide free 
pre-arranged follow-up visits should an animal’s condition require them. 
They regret, however, that they cannot offer free hospitalization. 
Additionally, for the cats that need it, the CVM will offer free 
spay/neuter when the cats are old/healthy enough. 


Please see specific details in the email below. 


If you can help, please contact 

Sabine French 

Raleigh, NC 






Re: The Reidsville Rescue (January 6th and 7th) 

Greetings, all, during this busy holiday season! 


Greetings, 

Attached is information regarding a pending (January 6&7)rescue of 158 
cats and three dogs from a woman in NC. On behalf of the NCSU vet school, 
Dr. Kelli Ferris has generously offered free medical assistance to 
participating rescue groups. I hope y'all will be able to help in some 
way. 

Also, please pass along the information in this attachment to any 
individuals or organizations you think may be able to offer assistance. 

Thank you and "Fleas Navidad"! 
Sabine French 
Raleigh, NC 


As some of you may already know, Dr. Kelli Ferris with the NCSU College of 
Veterinary Medicine has graciously offered to provide free basic medical 
services and supplies to rescue groups that help the 158 Reidsville 
animals being removed from Carolyn Johnson’s home January 6th and 7th, 
2007. In order to pull off this major “rescue”, I am broadening my appeal 
for help to include any animal rescues across the state of NC and along 
the SC and VA borders. Please cross-post this email. 


For those of you not familiar with the case, here’s a brief update 
followed by a list of what is needed to get these animals into a warm, 
clean and healthy environment. 


Cat lover Carolyn Johnson lives in rural Rockingham County (near Danville, 
VA). 

Over the years, her reputation as a cat lover grew and so did her cat 
population as local folks brought their unwanted cats to her rather than 
to the local high-kill “shelter”. To Carolyn’s credit, she has used her 
modest income to get these cats spayed and neutered. Carolyn says she 
reached crisis point this summer when a local paper did an article on her. 
People found out where she lived and soon began dumping animals left and 
right. That’s when she asked for help. 


Since Carolyn fears having her landlord visit her rental home, the house 
has fallen into disrepair. The old home no longer has running water or 
heat, and has only limited electricity (one outlet works). The cats are 
crowded, cold and many are sick. One male tabby who does not like other 
cats has not come off of the top of the refrigerator in several years (his 
litter box and food bowl are up there). 


Carolyn says she has learned her lesson and realizes she “can’t save them 
all.” [To briefly address the valid concern of hoarding – initially our 
radar was up, but several folks who have visited with Carolyn have come to 
see her merely as a well-meaning person who got overwhelmed. She has 
pledged to never own more than ten cats in the future.] With Carolyn’s 
help, we have removed 12 cats over the past few weeks, but there are many 
to go. 


When Dr. Ferris became aware of this situation, she called and offered the 
following services: 


On the weekend of January 6th and 7th, 2007 (at a location to be 
determined), the vet school will offer recognized rescue groups an initial 
physical for each cat (and 3 dogs), basic vaccines, initial feleuk/FIV 
blood work, flea treatment and simple medicinal supplies free of charge 
(although any donations to cover “hard costs” will be appreciated). 
Additionally, Dr. Ferris (or Dr. Stevens) will be able to provide free 
pre-arranged follow-up visits should an animal’s condition require them. 
They regret, however, that they cannot offer free hospitalization. 
Additionally, for the cats that need it, the CVM will offer free 
spay/neuter when the cats are old/healthy enough. 


Here is Carolyn’s breakdown of the population: 


3 dogs (1- 4 mos old Aussie Shepherd mix; blue merle) 

(2 – 5 year old mixes. 60lbs each. Very bonded to each other. One appears 
to have arthritis. Neither have ever been heartworm tested or treated). 


158 cats 


Most of these cats are adults and have been fixed. 

There are 18 mostly younger (recently dumped) cats that need s/n. 

This number includes 20 semi-feral or feral cats that have lived indoors 
for a number of years. 

There are also 29 ferals in separate colony in Carolyn’s town 
that she has been feeding. Twelve of these cats have been 
fixed and ear-tipped. 



The cats that have been rescued so far have been diagnosed with things 
like URIs, conjunctivitis, flea anemia, ear infections, ringworm, coccidia 
and other internal parasites – and could be considered representative of 
the entire group. 


HOW TO HELP: 


First and foremost, I urgently need rescue groups to step forward and 
commit to fostering these cats. Can 24 groups commit to taking 5 cats 
each? (that’s the question that wakes me up in the middle of the night). 


To be fair, to the best of the vet school’s ability, rescue groups will 
receive a mix of both healthier, more readily adoptable cats alongside 
some that might require additional care before adoption. Dr. Ferris 
advocates euthanizing any cat that tests positive for Feleuk or FIV; 
however, participating rescues will have the ultimate say about that 
matter. Fortunately, none of the cats that have ever been tested from 
this group have tested positive. 


The second urgent need required to pull of this rescue is a heated 
facility somewhere in the Triangle area that we can use as a staging area. 
We’d need access January 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th (one day to prep, two days 
triage, one day to clean up). Cats in carriers will be “stored” in this 
space while the vet school’s mobile unit is parked on-site for triage. 
For the comfort of volunteers and vet students, this space should also 
have bathrooms. (Also, we need to have food on hand to feed all of the 
volunteers making this possible.) 



A third opportunity to assist: 

I am looking for a group to work directly with Carolyn (on an agreed upon 
timeline -- this part does not have to happen by January 6th) to TNR the 
remaining unaltered 17 ferals she is feeding “uptown” before kitten season 
blossoms. Carolyn does have concerns about being able to pay for food for 
this colony on an on-going basis. If there is no way these cats can be 
removed to a safe place, I personally feel that they are better off 
staying where they are if Carolyn can procure food for them on a regular 
basis. However, at this point, my meager efforts are directed at removing 
the animals that are in her home (which, as mentioned earlier, also 
includes some ferals and semi-ferals). 


Other areas of assistance needed: Someone to help me pull this off! 
Specifically, it would be so helpful to have someone document and manage 
the folks who are volunteering to help on the 6th and 7th. 

I have no particular expertise regarding rescues of this scale and welcome 
input and assistance from those of you who are undoubtedly more 
experienced. 


If you are not affiliated with a 501c3 rescue group but would like to 
offer space for a cat or two, may I suggest that you contact an 
established rescue group as soon as possible, make sure they know about 
this situation and then offer to foster some of these cats on the group’s 
behalf. 


Can’t help with any of this? Perhaps you can send money or supplies to 
Bayou Rescue (http://www.bayourescue.org), a local group that has offered to 
disburse allocated funds to participating rescues. Please mark your 
donations “Reidsville cat rescue.” 


When responding to me about this matter, it would be most helpful if you 
put “Reidsville kitties” in the subject line. 


Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. 

I hope to hear from you soon! 


Thank you, 

Sabine French 

Raleigh, NC


----------



## Lisa 216 (Oct 25, 2004)

Thanks for trying to help these animals  

I'm concerned that this post is really long...many people may not have the time or patience to read all this. Would you condense the info or maybe bold the info specific to the animals in need? That would be a great help


----------



## pudnpies (Jan 4, 2007)

Hi - The above message printed 3 times & I was deleting 2 of them while you were posting. It's a lot shorter now! Sorry, I must run for now; if it's still a problem I'll come back & try to do the best I can with it. Thanks...........


----------

