Joe Mason blogs about animals and animal rescue, along with other topics, at phillyburbs.com. Last Friday, when visiting news sites and Philadelphia area animal welfare pages at Facebook trying to find out how many cats had been in a North Philadelphia house that was the scene of a fire on Thursday, and how many cats got out alive, I landed on Joe’s informative post on the rescue effort that removed 20 living cats from the house. I stumbled across his story because it was shared at a couple of Philadelphia based animal welfare Facebook pages I follow. Joe was the only reporter to cover the rescue story that I found; everyone else covered the fire and said the occupant of the house was being called a hoarder, giving very little detail on the cats.
Early Sunday morning, while scrolling through cat related news headlines, I was stunned and disappointed to see the byline of a piece titled My final blog about animals and animal rescue. The post was written by Joe Mason, whose approach to animal stories had impressed me two days earlier. Joe was discouraged after a cat he tried to share and help save was put down. He wrote that he may was well concentrate on stuff like pop culture that get good numbers of views. Posts on pop culture, sports, movies and other light topics don’t as a rule bring a writer disappointment and the feeling that no one cares. Joe is a copy editor at the site; the blog is something he does for fun. You can read the post by clicking the link above.
Joe was able to recover from the disappointment of not getting any help to save Angel, and to change his mind about covering animal related stories in his blog at the site. Sunday evening I found a new post titled Animals are too important to quit on. Joe credits his wife, a shelter volunteer, with showing him the way back. He wrote, “When I was sitting at my computer, bitching about the poor cat, she went to the shelter. Right after she got the bad news, she went back to the place that broke her heart and was helping animals. If she can do that, I damn sure can write about them.”
Joe went on to ask readers to hit the share button for cats who need somebody’s, or the online community’s, help. He then asked a personal favor. He wrote, “With this blog, I’m posting a picture of my wife’s Kneady cat, Princess. She is looking for a home. She is available at Animal Care and Control Team in Philadelphia (ACCT). If you know anyone who is looking for a cat, share this!”
The Kneady Cats program is a wonderful effort for older and otherwise hard to place cats who deserve another chance in life. Many Kneady Cats come to the shelter as bewildered seniors who have lost the only home and beloved owner they have ever known. The program’s cats are featured at the CBT – Cat Behavior Team at ACCT page at Facebook. The Cat Behavior Team helps cats resolve socialization and behavior issues to make them more adoptable.
Readers, can you do me a personal favor by doing Joe Mason his favor? Can you please click on the photo of Princess below and go to her listing at the ACCT’s Kneady Cats Club page and hit the share button? You will be sharing Princess’ adoption photo while also helping to spread the word on the Kneady Cats program and the Cat Behavior Team. Princess is not in immediate danger of euthanization but she is a senior cat who would benefit by having a good home. Thank you to any who do so.
Once upon a time, not so long ago, and not so far away, lived the prettiest Princess you could ever see- ME! With a coat of silver and white, and eyes the color of jade, I thought I had it made in the shade. But….if fairy tales have taught us anything, it that things were about to take a rather unexpected turn!
The next thing I knew, I found myself in a shelter, surrendered due to concerns about my health. I guess the royal health insurance isn’t what it used to be! After an exam, it was discovered that I have polyps in both my ears. Unfortunately this condition could require medical treatment and possible surgery, and needs to be evaluated by a private veterinarian. I’ve always been a pleasantly plump girl, but lately I’ve been losing a little weight. Yaaay for swimsuit season…but it might be a good idea for me to get blood work done to make sure everything is okay. The good news is that I’ve already been spayed, so you won’t need to worry about that!
So, you’re probably wondering why you should take a chance on a broken-down princess. Well, it seems I’m a pretty special gal! I may have lost my throne, but here I’ve been anointed reigning Princess of the Super Senior’s club. At 10-15 years old, I certainly have the experience to back it up!
