Oh my kaffe! Poor Cato (and Meomie) went thru quite an ordeal. Do you know how Cato came to be locked in the storage room?

I beleive he roamed around for 3 days and 3 nights, probably coming to feed now and again at his food bowl left perpetually full outside.  On the fourth day of his disappearnace, at nightfall, he decided it was time to come home to me.  He must have crept back into the hole behind the steps of my neighbor's house (which is attached to ours) and crawled along towards my side of the house.  There's a hole in the "ceiling" of the basement storage room from where Cato undoubtedly dropped through. He could jump down safely from that height (around 7  8 ft), but could not jump back up.  Cato was "trapped" in the storage room and it was by divine guidance that I went down the basement last night.  That's my theory, anyway becuase no one opens the storage room around here except the landlord, who hasn't come around for 2 weeks.

Thank you LeslieK for conveying the good news that Cato is home!  I've been busy putting down flyers and posters and talking to neighbors virtually all day... anyway, this is how I found Cato:

After dinner last night, I took another walk around the block to look for Cato.  As usual, I began to tear up and cry as I talked to God.  For the last three days, I used to ask Him, “Lord, please bring Cato back home to me...”  This night, in utter frustration and near despair, I cried: “Lord Jesus, You know exactly where Cato is. And you can command an angel to help guide him to me... I don’t understand why you won’t help me!  See those people from Itchmo?  They’re all helping me to the best of their power – and they’re only sinful humans like me ...  Why won’t You help me, God of my salvation, God of my praise?  What’s the point of praying if You won’t answer?” ... and so on... then this phrase crept to my mind: “Trust in the Lord, wait patiently for Him, and He will do it...”  The cold windy night drove me back indoors, resigned to “wait.”  But something drove me to go down the outside steps to the basement.  I go in there when I want to be alone and undisturbed.  I sat on an abandoned backseat to talk and argue with God once more.  I was just opening my mouth with the first syllables of distres when I heard a low “meoow-meoow.”  I asked, “Mitten?  is that you?” A loud “Meoow.”  Holding my breath, I sing-songed: “Cato, Mitten?”  Louder: “Meoow Meooow.”  Goodness! thought I; it’s Cato and he is in the storage room.  I tried the handle.  It was locked!  I looked around for a way inside, all the time talking softly and calmly to Cato, who was now talking back to me plaintively, as if wondering why I wouldn’t open the door immediately.  When I was convinced that there was no other way Cato could get out of that storage room but through the door, I said, “Minute-minute sweetheart: Mama open door little-little while.”  Dashing upstairs to the house, I called a locksmith, who came in record time from the city.  I gave him explicit instructions:  just unlock the door, do not open it wide - just enough to check that it is indeed unlocked and DO NOT make noise.  He performed magnificently.  I paid him and then with flashlight and kibble bag in hand, I entered the storage room quietly, calling softly, “Cato?  Mitten-mitten?  Meowmie here babie...”  I went over the room with the flash light beam and then, right at the back, behind an abandoned mattress, I saw him: Cato!  I stepped outside the storeroom to grab Cato’s bowl and kibble bag.  Sitting on my haunches facing the storage room door, I shook the kibble bag and called: “Mitten! Come-come! Foodie-food-food!”  As expected, Cato came trotting out on his own, straight to the food bowl. He began to eat and purr.  I gently grabbed his nape to lift him up to my face so I could examine his body.  A bit dusty but Hale and Whole.   Finally, the tears of gratitude and relief came flooding.  After many hugs and kisses, I stuffed Cato into his soft-sided carrier and carried him upstairs.  He looked so happy to be back: rolled on the rug, purred and purred and seemed not to be able to bear letting me out of his sight. I had to get in and out of the room getting supplies: cleaning cloths, food water, brush...   As I was ministering to him, this song came to my mind:

http://www.imeem.com/people/H5KGomY/music/4UI0Q4wK/john-denver-annies-other-song/

And from the wanderer himself, BIG Purrs and Sandpaper lickins in Mitten-Thank-You's for all your prayers and support.   

No Cato yet... I just did another mail box drop of Cato's leaflets.  Went to the local humane society (nearest here) in San Mateo yesterday to register lost pet and to look at their kennels - no Cato there.  I talked to neighbors, searched yards... left some soled clothing out, Cato's kitty litter box and food bowls out for him to pick up scent... walked up and down several blocks calling him... I'm loosing my mind

Thank you for your thoughts an prayers.  Cato has not turned up, even though the food dish I leave out has been eaten dry - the strays may have eaten it.  I'm going to post on Craigslist now.  I have a feeling that he may be trying to find our last home in LA... perhaps when he realizes it isn't anywhere here, he'll come back.  I never thought he's capable of this - missing for more than 24 hrs.  Wha comforts me is that God knows exactly where he is.

Still no Cato... I am so tired and beyond depresed...  just spent the whole afteroon posting flyers and talking with neighbors about him.  I also called the local humane society and they have no cat fitting Cato's description coming in since Wednesday.  I  going down there tomorrow to file a missing pet report.

I desperately need prayers, guys.  My Cato has been missing since yesterday morning.  I took him to walk around the enclosed nack garden bt he bolted and got loosed from his leash (he is a houdini).  He went underneath the front steps of our neighbor's house.  When I peered in there, I noticed a "hole" in the bottom wall nehind the stairs leading to the foundations of the house.  I called, I coaxed, but he wouldn't come out.  This went on all day.  But I had to go inside now and again.  Last night it rained very hard and I thought he might wait the rain out before returning home.  But he didn't.  I've called and alled, shaken the kibble bag, but no Cato.  I took a flash light to per into the gap underneath the house, but no Cato.  So I've knocked on doors asking neighbors.  One lady thought she saw him jump a fence to the cemetay. I went in there, calling.  No Cato. I stayed up all night and looks like I'll be doing the same.  No one here is really sympathetic becuase the presence of a cat, even if he was only in the foyer, was a "bother" to them.  I feel so incredibly alone and so very very sad and depressed.  Please, would you pray that he makes his way back to me?  I just need something to encourage me... everyone says I need to call the animal shelter and that really upets me.  But I will do the calls tomorrow. 

Thanks, Bonkers.  I find myself in support for this bill, although I'd like to know how they will administer the resvenue in such a way as most DO get to fund the state's spay and neuter program.

Two bills (SB Bill No. 5329 http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=5329&year=2009 and HB 1406 http://apps.leg.wa.gov/billinfo/summary.aspx?bill=1406&year=2009)
introduced last Wednesday in Washington state, USA, that calls for $57.50 per ton fee on petfood to fund the state's spay/neuter programs.  The PFI are not too happy, saying that the fee is the highest ever imposed on a product.  See http://www.petfoodinstitute.org/

    Thank you for posting about the bones in Wellness Salmon etc kibble.  I've never seen anythinike it either!  I ho OMH gets to the bottom of this QA problem!

RIP sweet Socks 

oh dear... Guys, we're all in the same team, ya?  I don't think TAZ was anywhere complaining that the YouTube video clip I posted was already posted here before... I think she was just saying it is the 7:30 news report of something or other...

TAZ, if we sound a mite aggressive towards the PFI, you should see the posts in other forums!  Besides, a few months after the March 2007 petfood recall here in the US, some people were saying, "it's over, everything is honkey-dorey now..." and then melamine was still turning up in various petfoods and  treats and then "bang" - in infant formula as well!  If you've had a beloved pet struck down becuase you fed it a commercial petfood you thought was 'good,' I'm sure the "war with the PFI" will never end for you either.  While my cats have not eaten any of the recalled foods, I have freinds whose cats are now either chronically sick or have died.  Their pain in immeasurable precisely becuase they fed the poisoned food with their own hands, not knowing it contained something that will harm and even kill their pet.   Forums like this one give these pet parents an avenue not just to "vent" but to disseminate information while they "educate" themselves more on petfood, pet health and nutrition, etc.  Forums like this also goes a loooong way in making the PFI sit up and listen to the concerns of those who buy their products.

What about these cats who were fed food subjected to your so-called "safe and well-understood technology" Doctor Kava?

This is Maurice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEaXvEbLTVg

This is Rocky:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_uxnBEGFkg

This is Gus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2tLHUn1RSA

These are just a few of the affected cats, doctor.  Some of the cats that have eaten irradiated Orijen have died.  The pet parents of the surviving but paralysed cats are going through HELL right now and every animal lover on the planet is agonizin along with them. 

How dare you and your "scientific" establishment promote a process that can do this?



 

["Food irradiation is a process that can kill illness-causing bacteria without harming the quality of food. Irradiation is a safe and well-understood technology... ..."]

I saw this clip on YouTube from the Amrcian Council of Science and Health - it is a hard sell to the public portraying irradiation as safe.  Dr. Ruth Kava says at one point: "Food irradiation is a process that can kill illness-causing bacteria without harming the quality of food.  Irradiation is a safe and well-understood technology... ..."          

RANT: OH, REALLY, doctor?  I'd like to innundate the American Council of Science and Health with video after video of the Australian cats now paralysed and suffering becuase they were fed irradiated kibble.  These cats are the 'canary in a coal mine' warning us that food irradiation is NOT "a safe and well-understod technology!"

Here's the clip (warning: blood might shoot out of your eyes in sheer anger and disbelief):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUu4683Fnsc

I don't know if this has been posted before.  A news clip about the Orijen horror in Astralia.  The banner reads: "If you love your pets, don't buy them any imported food"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kO5GsmKt24

Thank you for the link, TCM!  I'm going to listen to it now.