Homeless cats find respite from Katrina in B.C.

Jenny Lee
CanWest News Service
Friday, September 23, 2005

VANCOUVER -- Four feline refugees from hurricane Katrina have landed in Vancouver.

The furry visitors are expected to be the first of many flown into Vancouver from New Orleans by Burnaby's Action for Animals in Distress Society.

"It's our way of being able to help," society volunteer Kristin Schumacher said in an interview. "We can't get down there and roll up our shirtsleeves."

The cats, three females and one male, arrived in Vancouver Wednesday and are being checked over by East Vancouver vets Parminder Mangat and Jatinder Kang.

Schumacher, who said she has more than 100 offers of foster homes, is currently arranging "home checks" before choosing the first foster families.

"Most of us have our own pets and in the face of disaster, we would hope to high heaven that somebody would help our animals," said Schumacher who runs Kitty Kompany Professional Pet Sitting Services.

"In New Orleans, there are people who had to leave their animal behind on the street in order to get on a bus to get out of town."

While in foster care, vet services will be donated by Mangat and Kang of Killarney Animal Hospital. The office said the cats are all doing well.

One is a Steel Point Siamese who was abandoned when her owners got on a bus. There's also a regal, short-haired black male who is so long he had to travel in a dog carrier, and two female grey tabbies.

The idea of fostering New Orleans cats in the Lower Mainland began with an e-mail.

"Somebody contacted us directly from New Orleans with a plea to take her cat because all the shelters were full," Schumacher said. She wasn't able to rescue that particular cat because it is in a remote area, but its plight got her group mobilized.

"It's a huge undertaking for us," she said. "We are a very small society and we don't have our own shelter."

The registered non-profit society originally understood plane fare would be covered by other, larger, organizations, but ended up contributing to the cost.

The cats' pictures will appear on the website petfinder.org. If unclaimed, they will later be put up for adoption.

"If you don't want to wait for a Katrina kitty, because we don't know how long it will be before we get more, there are thousands of cats in the Lower Mainland that need fostering," Schumacher said. Call 604-724-7652 or visit www.actionforanimals.net to offer help, or donate.

One of the society's regular programs matches mature cats with senior citizens. The society pays food, litter and vet bills for the life of the cat, and if the senior citizen passes away, commits to taking the cat back.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates tens of thousands of cats and dogs have been displaced by hurricane Katrina, ASPCA representative Eric Rayvid said in an interview.

CREDIT: Ian Lindsay, CNS
Four cats, abandoned when their owners had to leave New Orleans because of hurricane Katrina, have been flown to Vancouver to be fostered out.