Fierce Fighters and Ham-Mick Auction

We miss Davy. He was a Fierce Fighter while he was here. We also miss the Other Ones Who Came Before: Munchkin, Patches, Inky, Dusty, Rojo and all the others who have been in all of our lives and gone to the Bridge.



Now, on another note, we would like to auction this wonderful Snowman Ham-Mick for Moki's vet bills. Auction price will be $2 a ticket. Use the Paypal button on the upper left of our blog to purchase as many Auction tags as you would like. We will pay for Priority Shipping via the Bloo Shorts Man. Regular shipping to overseas locations.




Luf, Us

Photo Hunt #53

The Photo Hunt this week is sad. Our loss of Davy the Panther Cat makes us sad.










Luf, Us

Horrible News

Some of you read my 4-part story about our Davy, The White Panther, and how he was bloodlessly mutilated in August 2000. If you haven't, you need to.

On Saturday, I found out that a small city southwest of Ft. Worth has had 14 known cat mutilations since March in a gated community. This community, DeCordova Bend Estates in Granbury, not only is enclosed by fencing and shrubbery, but has its own private security that patrols 24/7 and staffs the gated entrance. People pay a $4500 initiation fee for the privilege of building on a lot in this subdivision, and then a monthly fee of about $100 to maintain their private golf course, pool, lake access, country club, and security.

I spoke with 2 women who were interviewed by local news channels. Each of them has a missing cat and does not know its fate. One woman is very proactive in getting the news media, print and TV involved and is trying to get the message out, but she is also fearful of reprisals from the HOA board and it's long-time members. The other woman I spoke with is much more hesitant to get involved and be vocal for personal reasons.

Ok people, the reason I'm bringing this up is that now, in 2007, Texas finally has laws in place making this a punishable felony. When Davy was killed in 2000, cruelty to animals was a Class A misdemeanor and the police and lawyers didn't even want to bother with pursuing a crime. Then, when SB 1724 was passed in 2001 making animal cruelty a felony, it had big enough loopholes in it that a lawyer could drive a dumptruck through it and get guilty clients off on various technicalities. This year, HB 2328 was passed and signed into effect closing those loopholes. Yet, we still have these sicko, psycho perverts slicing cats up and returning them to people's yards or leaving them on this private, security patrolled golfcourse.

And, the worst of this that sticks in my craw is that both of these women still allow their other cats access to the outdoors!!!! One of them has a doggie door that her 1 year old cat can use at any time, the other allows one of her cats to go out in the daytime, and then brings it in at night.

What is it about the human psyche that allows us to deny the obvious when we don't see it with our own eyes? I didn't know the mutilations were still occurring in my city when Davy was killed. I thought they had stopped. But I probably would have been one of those who thought, "Oh, this can't happen to my cat."

But, once Davy's 5 lbs. of remains were returned to us, and I found out that his blood had been drained from him prior to his being surgically mutilated, my brain did a complete 180. I used to believe that cats should be indoor/outdoor animals. I figured they were much happier.

I still have nightmares and horrible waking thoughts of Davy being conscious while his torturers drained his blood from him. I see his fear when the net was thrown over him in our driveway. I see the sick, maniacal eyes of his torturers watching while his life was being drained from him.

No, I know longer believe in cats going outside. Period. The average life-span of a cat who goes outside in the US is 5 years. My own average with indoor/outdoor cats was about 5 years. I've finally decided that I believe the cats are happier not being hit by a car and slowing dying on the side of the road. I've finally decided that I believe the cats are happier not being killed in a coyote's or wild dog's jaws. I've finally decided that there are way too many gangs, occult dabblers, and sick kids in the US and I know my cats are happier not being killed or tortured at the hands of these wack jobs.

You can change the behavior of a once indoor/outdoor cat into indoor only. It's going to take a lot of patience on your part because the cat will howl and pace and carry on as if it's dying. But do you want your cat to remain living?

Luf, Maw

Davy, The Conclusion

A heartfelt thank you goes out to each and every one of you who have read about Davy the last several days and left your comments. It is as hard for me to relive it and tell it as it is for you to read about. Although you may believe I did a lot of work, there are still so many instances of animal abuse in this country and in Texas. No, I don't like to hear about them, and I was pretty much done with the cat mutilation research and efforts by October 2000.

Also, I want to make it clear that the 2 suspects in these cat mutilations were not from under-priviledged, or even single parent homes. Both of them lived in more expensive homes than mine, and one lived in an exclusive part of our city where estates dot the land. And not for one minute did anyone in the courtroom buy into their "wiccan", vegetarian tales. The case was dismissed on a technicality, as are so many animal abuse cases nationwide.

In February 2001 an aide from Texas State Rep. Manny Najera's office, D-El Paso, contacted me and requested my help with collecting petitions for HB 653. That bill would change the then current animal cruelty statute from a Class A Misdemeanor to a Felony. He also asked for copies of all my information that I had collected regarding the cat mutilations in my city and neighboring North Texas areas.

Meet Loco, a puppy from East Dallas who was stolen from his front porch in February 2001 and found his way back 4 days later with his eyes gouged out. He became the "poster child" for HB 653 and SB 1724 in the 2001 Texas Legislative Session. His owner contacted me requesting help with SB 1724. He was working with Texas State Sen. David Cain, D-Dallas, on that bill which would also increase the penalty for animal cruelty to a felony.

Loco campaigned heavily for these bills. He travelled to schools to teach children about animal cruelty, he visited the capital many times, he was interviewed extensively during the legislative session appearing in the paper and on TV.

I placed petitions at numerous vet offices throughout my city and a few neighboring areas, and collected over 800 signatures that I sent into Rep. Najera's office. Statewide I believe about 34,000 signatures were collected for these bills.

Working with Rep. Najera's aide, I then found out how I could testify to the Texas House of Representatives Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence which would be the first committee to hear the bill and its supporting testimony.

I acquired the crime scene photos of Davy and blew those up to 8 x 10 for my testimony and prepared a speech.

I knew nothing about the day-to-day workings of a legislative session. The bills kept getting delayed. I was sent action alerts weekly to phone or write letters to members of the house or senate to support these bills.

Finally, we were told the week had arrived to hear the bill and it could be any day. Then the next week arrived. It was pretty much set in stone that the bill would be heard on Tuesday, April 24. So I drove down to Austin to arrive before 2:00pm for the committee. Loco and his owner were there to testify as well. The daily session adjourned around 5:00pm and the Committee began its hearings. I think I testified around 8:00pm.

Sen. Cain's aides then asked if I would testify the next day at the Texas Senate Committee on Criminal Justice. I hadn't brought anything with me other than my paperwork, but I found a motel and stayed the night and began the process again the next day. The Senate Committee was more heavily attended and more reporters were there. My testimony was taped and parts of it were broadcast statewide. I was asked more questions at this testimony.

SB 1724 died in committee, but HB 653 was amended and passed to the floor for a vote. Thus began another series of alerts to call and write representatives and senators. The floor finally passed HB 653 and it was officially signed into law on September 1, 2001 by Gov. Rick Perry and Loco, who put his paw stamp on it.

Last night I was browsing the Texas Humane Legislative Network (THLN) website to see what they are supporting this legislative session. I was appalled and LITERALLY sickened at the animal cruelty cases that have gone unpunished because of loopholes in Loco's Law. A stray is not considered "owned" therefore it can be tortured. Charges can't be filed when someone injures or seriously injures their own pet under the current law. It is not against the law to torture a wild animal that is not previously "captured", so one can torture it as long as they didn't capture it by some means. It is not against the law to kill one's own animal by any means including torture. It is difficult under the current law to define when abuse becomes "torture" because the law does not specifically define what constitutes torture. Livestock are exempt from the torture statute.

Laws aren't perfectly written the first time out. If you live in Texas, please go to the THLN website and print out the petition and start collecting signatures. Please support THLN if you live here.

If you live in a southern state or a ranching state, know that your laws are likely as open as Texas' laws. The good ol' boy network has difficulty in assigning animal status to livestock and wildlife.

You can help nationwide by supporting the Animal Legal Defense Fund. The THLN website also has a list of resource links that all support anti-cruelty laws. Check it out and find out how you can help.

Please help those who can't speak for themselves. It's hard to know about these crimes, but if you don't act, who will?

I think I was meant to write about our "cage" and tell all of you about Davy so that I would find that I am once again called upon to help with the 2007 Texas Legislative Session.

Luf, Maw

Davy, Part 3

One of my first questions was "Why did it take 6 days to notify me that my cat had been killed when his collar was found with his remains?" That was a bureaucracy problem. The police department had assumed all responsibility for investigating the mutilations and the shelter was only to be a transporter of remains from the crime scene to the vet and then back to the shelter. The police had even confiscated the shelter's files on all previous mutilations as part of their ongoing criminal investigation. And naturally, the detective was overloaded with more pressing police work.

Also, the editor at our little teeny town newspaper had changed, and the new editor wasn't reporting every mutilation as the previous editor had done. The newspaper's circulation was primarily people with children in sports since that's what the paper reported. I don't have children, and therefore didn't subscribe, so I wasn't aware how many mutilations had been occurring even before the editor change.

The shelter supervisor told me that the mutilations that made news were when a concerned citizen/animal lover such as myself became involved and irate enough to make it news. She told me that she had attended a seminar for Animal Control Officers/Police Officers over in Arlington just that summer on animal cruelty and the perpetrators who commit these crimes. She told me that they were called "dabblers" because they were more "cult want-to-be's" than true cultists. And that the information on performing these sadistic rituals was readily available on the internet behind password protected sites.

So I set forth on my mission. I spoke with the vet who performed Davy's necropsy and found out that he was exsanguinated. She also told me that he had been surgically mutilated, as had all the others that she had examined. I later found out through reading occult books and speaking with people what the dabblers do with the blood.

I spent several days at the public library looking through every roll of microfilm for our little town newspaper and printing out every cat mutilation article. I then mapped out where the mutilations had occurred and where the remains were found. Typically, and this is worldwide, the remains are returned to either the owner's home, or within a couple of blocks of the home.

I began contacting any of the owners that were named, and my network grew as I spoke with more people who knew someone else, etc. I found people in North Dallas, Addison, and Carrollton who had been extremely involved in the mutilations in their area, and then found a police detective in that area who would actually talk with me about it.

I contacted the Southwest Regional office of the Humane Society of the United States and once I presented them with all the information that I had gathered, they contacted their national HQs and a crime expert came out to work with our police department. They also put up a $5000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of person(s) responsible. After they became involved, the remains were no longer necropsied by a local vet. They were sent to a forensics lab at Texas A&M.

I called the SPCA of Texas and asked why their $2500 reward had been dropped and was told they thought the problem had gone away, so I provided them with all the information and they posted their award again and also began working with our PD.

Although this was considered "old news" to the tv stations and our little town newspaper, what made it new was that remains were now being left where small children would find them, such as in parks and on school grounds. On August 29 and 30 two TV stations interviewed me and the police captain about the "new rash of mutilations". Our little town newspaper also ran several articles. Then a new mutilation occurred in Carrollton and the Dallas Morning News ran an article on it and mentioned our rash of mutilations. I was also able to get a couple of letters to the editor published in this timeframe.

The police passed out flyers on streets adjacent to the elementary school and the private school where remains were found by children asking for information. I received permission by the HSUS and the SPCA of Texas to use their logos and created a flyer stating a $10,000 reward was offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of person(s) responsible for the mutilation of cats. It also stated in bold letters "KEEP YOUR CAT INDOORS". Myself and 2 others passed out about 3500 flyers in the 2 neighborhoods that had been heavily targeted based on my maps. It devastated me to actually talk with people and plead with them to keep their cats indoors because my own cat had been killed only 2 streets away. They would invariably tell me that their cat wouldn't stay indoors. Arrrgghhhh!!!

Davy was number 36 out of 55 mutilations that I was able to track in this small suburb from October 1997 to May 2001. I couldn't continue counting. I was done.

Two boys were charged with the 5th mutilation when they were 14 years old. They went to trial in their suits and ties with their parents. Although teen witnesses said that the boys bragged about killing and mutilating cats and talked of Satanism and ritualistic killings, the case was dismissed because the owner of the Siamese cat never actually viewed its remains. The boys claimed to be Wiccan, vegetarian and animal lovers on the witness stand. In school, they bragged of their deeds, wore all black, and snake bone necklaces. By the time Davy was killed they were 17 or 18. By the next year, one of them had already reproduced. Ugghhh.

This city did at one time try to claim these were raptor and coyote kills. The first editor of the newspaper prevented that theory from taking hold. A raptor rehabilitator was interviewed and said that no bird of prey could attack and kill a healthy, adult cat. Also, the articles all reported the precise parts of the cat that were removed, and what parts were left at the home or nearby.

I found this to be true with the Santa Clara valley cat mutilations. The animals were drained of blood and surgically mutilated. Later, officials took the stance that these were in fact coyote kills. Aurora, CO took the same stance, although enough articles were well written and detailed prior to their official stance of coyote kills that if one knows enough, they know that these were humans performing cat mutilations. The city adjacent to mine also officially claims all of their mutilations are coyotes. I actually spoke to a woman in a vet clinic who was taking down her "Lost Cat" poster who said a coyote had killed her cat. I asked how she knew that. She said the police and animal control told her because the head was left in her front yard. I asked if there were signs of a struggle, blood, fur, etc. She said, "No, just his head." I thought that was so thoughtful of that coyote to return the head to the owner as a keepsake.

Cities don't like to be known as harboring teenage cult dabblers or people who practice the occult and prey on innocent animals. It sort of does damage to commerce and home sales.

Tomorrow I will wrap this up by telling you how Davy helped get "Loco's Law" passed.

Davy, Part 2

I forgot to tell you yesterday that Davy loved everyone!!! Contrary to his disposition and behavior, he loved people. He would gladly run up to anyone walking along the street, which is how all the school children knew him and knew of his temper. He'd go visit the neighbors and walk right up to their doors. He was really very friendly until someone would attempt to pet him.

What I'm going to tell you today and tomorrow may distress you, or you might find extremely difficult to believe, and you may never want to return to the Forty Paws blog. But if you can't manage to read today's post and tomorrow's post, please at least come back on Thursday to see how it all ended. There was really some much needed legislation passed in the State of Texas in part because of Davy. So please, check out the wrap up on Thursday.

I won't go into extreme detail because I don't want this activity to begin anew, and much of it is too difficult to handle emotionally. I was changed forever by what happened.

In early August 2000, I went outside to wash litter boxes in the wee hours of the morning before it became too hot. It was an oppressive summer. I noticed a great deal of Davy fur in the driveway. Fur on the pavement, in the mulch of the flower beds lining the driveway, against the garage door. There was so much fur that I swept it up. I thought Davy had been in a heavy duty fight overnight. I knew he liked to sit at night on top of the rolling polycarts that the city uses for trash collection surveying the lay of his land, and figured that an evil intruder cat had come onto his property.

Well, Davy didn't come in during the heat of the day, and he didn't come in that night. Sometimes he would be gone for almost 24 hours, but he usually checked in to eat and get some companionship at least daily. By the next day I became worried when he hadn't appeared. I started walking the alleyways calling his name, fearing that he was locked in someone's garage or worse yet, their metal shed which would become an oven in the Texas August heat.

Daily I walked the alleys and called for him. I walked up and down the nearby streets and called his name. I made signs for "Missing Cat" with his description, etc. and hung these on lamp posts, utility polls, and placed them in vet offices and at the Animal Shelter. I visited the Animal Shelter several times over the next week, and had filed a missing cat report with them on the first day.

Nine days later, after my latest visit to the Animal Shelter, the supervisor called me at home and informed me that she was very sorry, but that Davy had been found mutilated. I couldn't believe it! I thought the mutilations had stopped in our city. She told me that they had never really stopped, they only slowed down periodically, and would then pick up again. And that Davy had been killed during an increase in activity. She thought the police had notified me because they had taken my information off his collar. She said that I could come and get his remains because he was back at the shelter after the necropsy had been completed by a local vet. She told me there wasn't much left of him. Only his head and 2 front legs and collar. He had been found by 2 young boys in the field behind our house. His head, 2 front legs and collar neatly laid out in a straight line.

I was fairly hysterical at this point and called my husband home so that we could go get Davy. When we walked into the shelter, the supervisor brought forth a small, square package from the freezer and handed it to me with such pain in her eyes. The package didn't even weigh 5 lbs.

We brought Davy home and buried him. Our cats immediately became indoor only. Bow fought this change the hardest. He had been indoor/outdoor for 10 years and it was hard to retrain him. But we persisted.

That weekend we installed motion detector floodlights in our driveway and on the front porch. My husband built the cat enclosure and moved Davy's cat flap from the front of the house to the back bedroom leading into the cage.

Tomorrow I will explain the actions I took to try and get this activity stopped and the research that required. Thursday I will explain how Davy played a part in changing Texas state laws.

Davy, the White Panther

This was Davy, the White Panther. He was a huge, intact male cat about 18 months to 2 years old when he came to our house. 19 lbs. with a 13 inch tail. He could clear an end table in a single sweep with that tail, and never realize he'd done anything. He was totally white with one blue eye and one gold eye. He appeared at our windows one day to watch our cats eating. He continued to hang around our house for a couple of weeks, and our cats were inside/outside cats at the time, so a few scuffles occurred since he was the evil intruder.

I noticed that he appeared to be getting thinner, so I started feeding him. I actually thought he had a home because he was so big and snowy white. After we got to know Davy, we began to think his previous owners had probably dumped him. He had severe petting induced aggression. We came to the conclusion that his people had probably rough-housed with him from the time he was a kitten, and then since they didn't have him neutered, he likely became too much for them to handle, so they off-loaded him.

We had Davy neutered and vaccinated and tried to make him an indoor/outdoor cat with our other cats. He liked to spray doors and windows and beat up on our cats, so that didn't work so well. We ended up installing a cat door in one of our bedroom windows, and made that Davy's room so that he could come and go as he pleased.

Over time we enlarged his area by stacking baby gates across the hallway and keeping our other cats in the living area while Davy had all the bedrooms. Then we installed a home-made gate on hinges that was about 6 ft. tall, but Davy climbed that. So we made a gate that almost reached the ceiling and gave Davy 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. If he was in a good mood when he came in, we would let him into the rest of the house. If he was grumpy, he couldn't come out of his area. So many times he would sit on his side of the gate and look at us woefully with his bi-colored eyes.

When interacting with Davy, I was soon able to discern when he was going to change from sweet Davy into evil, biting, rabbit kicking Davy. It was subtle, but I knew I had to immediately go limp or I would get bitten and scratched very hard. If I tried to pull away, he scratched and bit harder. Neighborhood kids would tell me how beautiful my cat was, but that he was mean. I asked them if they tried to pet him and when they said "Yes", I would say that he didn't like to be petted and leave it at that.

My husband was bitten severely by Davy one time when he tried to break up a fight between Davy and Bow. His hand swelled to twice its size. He also was scratched numerous times while petting Davy because he never quite learned Davy's body language signalling that he had reached his petting limit. I could carry Davy over my shoulder like a baby when he was in a good mood, and he really enjoyed it. But when he wanted down, I knew that I needed to let him down immediately.

Davy loved to play tag outside. I would chase him around the house and then he would hide and leap out at me. I would act surprised, and then take off running in the opposite direction. When he "tagged" me, then I would turn around and start chasing him again. Usually, I wore out long before he did.

Sometimes we thought that Davy wasn't the sharpest tack in the box, or a few sandwiches shy of a picnic, etc. We knew that he wasn't deaf like many all white, blue eyed cats tend to be. But what we've since learned is that white cats with one blue eye are sometimes deaf on that side, and now we wonder if that was one of Davy's problems. It would explain some of his odd behaviors.

Davy was with us for about 3 years when he went missing in August 2000.

Part 2 tomorrow.