Thursday, August 12, 2010

Blind, Abducted California Cat Turns Up In NYC

Portions of an engaging story from Carolyn Jones at the San Francisco Chronicle:
If Jack Daniels could talk, he could probably explain everything.
But alas, Jack can only meow. So it remains a mystery as to how the nearly blind black cat, abducted from the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals a year ago, ended up on the streets of Harlem last week.
Tuesday morning, Jack Daniels' journeys brought him back to San Francisco, courtesy of JetBlue and a cat-loving book designer from Brooklyn named LeeAnn Falciani.
"He's this superstar cat," said Falciani, who took a week off work to escort Jack Daniels from New York's animal shelter to San Francisco's SPCA. "He's wonderful. I'm actually kind of sad right now to say goodbye."
Jack Daniels' saga began in May 2009, when San Francisco animal control officers brought him and his brother, Jim Beam, to the SPCA for adoption. Jack Daniels was suffering from scarred corneas because of a viral infection, a common condition among kittens, SPCA veterinarian and interim co-president Jennifer Scarlett said.
With his milky gray eyes, Jack Daniels relied heavily on his brother, who acted as a sort of seeing-eye cat, Scarlett said. SPCA staff intended for the brothers to be adopted together.
But a week after the pair were put up for adoption, Jack Daniels vanished from his enclosure. Someone had catnapped him. . . .
But on Aug. 4, New York City animal control officers spied a nearly blind, apparently homeless, black cat ambling along 110th Street, and they brought him to the city's nearby animal shelter. Staff scanned his microchip and contacted the registered owner: the San Francisco SPCA.
For the full story see the San Francisco Chronicle.

No comments: