Lucky Cat Tells His Tale

(As it appeared in the April 3rd edition of the News & Press)
To All the People in Darlington, Hello—
My name is Lucky. I am a very fortunate cat because someone saved my life. You see, my owner died and left me with my 51 friends in our home. A nice man, a friend of our owner, inherited the home we lived in and also inherited 52 cats. My friends and I had food and water but we also had fleas and illness. It was an overwhelming task to care for us.
I became very sick and anorexic. I really wanted to live, but most of my strength was gone. Somehow, I crawled from my home and made it to my neighbor’s house. I could barely “meow” or hold my head up. Two ladies picked me up and one lady drove me to an emergency clinic in Lugoff, SC. Much of my blood was gone from fleas and my veins were hard. The nice lady brought me home to Florence. No one thought I could live.
A very nice man, Dr. Chuck Hewitt at Westside Veterinary Clinic, did everything he could to save me. My name is “Lucky,” and with prayers and Dr. Hewitt’s help, I am alive and well! They tell me I am the strong one because I alerted some friends and neighbors that help was needed in our home for my 51 “friends.”
These ladies came in with flea medicine, shots, antibiotics, and started with my buddies. They cleaned litter boxes and washed our water bowls. They even had time to sit on the floor with us and rub our heads. You see, we needed medicine and we needed love because we were sick and frightened.
It’s been almost ten months since I made that trip to Lugoff. Many things have happened. Several of my friends didn’t survive, but most of us did. We have had shots and been neutered and spayed. Some have been adopted (free) to good, loving homes. We have been loved and taken care of by my lady friends. The ladies feel that God surely had His hand in our ten-month journey.
Friendships became deeper and some things became important in life while other things didn’t seem important at all anymore.
I have just a few very special cat friends left at the home. The house is for sale, and my special friends need to be adopted to very loving homes. Some of us are still a bit skittish, but we are willing to try to be good kitties if someone will love us and give us a good home. We would be so grateful.
My name is Lucky, and God gave me a second chance at life.
Contact: 907-3225 or 393-6494

Forgotten lives

Spay Day USA, Feb. 26, has come and gone with little, if any, fanfare in Darlington.

On Saturday at a visit to the Darlington County Humane Society Shelter off Harry Byrd Highway, I saw the effects of this lackadaisical attitude. Every dog kennel had two or more dogs crowded into each fenced area. There were at least three litters of puppies, and three dogs curiously located in one of the "Cat Habitats."

The volunteers were busy cleaning, feeding, walking ... doing all they could do to keep up, but I could see it was wearing on them. As the Darlington County Humane Society said in two meetings last month, the shelter is in dire straits and needs community support.

Everyone in this community needs to do their part. These animals are our responsibility.

The three litters of puppies at the shelter are a perfect example but only the tip of the iceberg. Two of my dogs (I have a total of eight.) were from a litter of puppies dumped in a ditch on a country road. How many other litters have been discarded that way? I hear of people "taking off" their animals because they reproduced, and it sickens me. The owners punish these creatures, often with a death sentence, for something only the people could have prevented in the first place.

If you can only consider these animals as the property they legally are, think about this: Who pays to clean up the trash on the side of the road? The discarded property? The "litter"?

Everyone. And everyone has to pitch in to clean up this problem too. The cheapest and most effective way to head off this problem is to spay/neuter and to educate people about it. Why do we have to let problems multiply before we do something about them?

Isn't it more sensible to fix it before it spreads?

Please help build Darlington County into a better, more responsible community.

Donate. Volunteer. Adopt. Spay/Neuter.

Donate: A few extra dollars, bleach, paper towels, laundry detergent, heavy duty trash bags, hand sanitizer, heavy duty buckle collars, kitten and puppy formula.
Volunteer: Walk dogs, socialize cats, wash bowls, staff events and fundraisers.
Adopt: If you can afford a lifelong commitment to an animal, please choose a shelter pet. As a proud owner of three shelter pets, I can say that those animals are just as loving as pure-bred animals. Often, you can find pure-bred animals in shelters too if that's your fancy.
Spay/Neter: This is the key component to ending the vicious cycle where 600 to 1200 animals are euthanized in Darlington County each year and millions more are euthanized across the United States. One unaltered cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 animals in seven years while one unspayed dog and her offspring can produce 67,000.

For more information, call 843-398-4402 or click here to visit the shelter's Web site.

- Lisa Chalian-Rock