No place to call home

When Raphial Morgado and Michelle Kraus were forced to move from their home, they never imagined that a neighbor would brutally kill 15 cats at their Acampo property.

But that is what happened, and the surviving 37 cats, as well as a large numbers of chickens, still have no permanent homes. Some say the couple should be charged with animal abandonment, but they say there was no other option when they had to move from the country to a smaller house.

"We did everything we could to find them homes," Kraus said Monday. "I cried for days, knowing we had to leave them."

They tried calling animal shelters and rescue groups, but say they were told that nobody had the resources to take in at least 50 feral cats.

Eight of the rescued cats are so tame that they can be adopted out to homes, said Rose Hilliard, vice president of Abandoned Cat Team of Stockton. The others will be spayed or neutered and placed with families who can put them in barns.

The 15 cats that were killed, apparently by a neighbor teen who admitted to the crime and was cited by Sheriff's deputies, were among the most tame, Hilliard said. That news was upsetting to Morgado, an inventor who once spent $700 on a veterinary bill for a wild cat with a mangled leg.

Morgado and Kraus had lived for nine years in a home on Watkinson Road in Acampo. Morgado said his sister owned the home and rented to them, and they had to move about a month ago when the house was foreclosed.

Over the years, the animal lovers said they accumulated a large number of pets, including 50 goats, a large bull, sheep, chickens, five dogs, eight pet cats and even a donkey they raised in the house for a time because the animal's mother died. The feral cats started coming around soon after the couple moved in and took in two wild cats. Those two felines, which the couple spayed, soon became tame and were indoor cats.

But then more cats began appearing. A woman up the street had fed local cats so when her husband died and she moved, the cats had to find food elsewhere.

Morgado and Kraus put some food out for a couple cats that emerged from a nearby apple orchard, and before long more animals came. People from town would dump animals in the country, and they also made their way to Watkinson Road.

How to help

Volunteers have rescued 37 cats from a vacant home in Acampo and the felines will soon be spayed and neutered, starting with six on Wednesday, but the animals still need help.
The cats, 29 of which are feral, don't have homes — and that doesn't include a number of chickens and game hens.
Rescuers are also trying to find more people to foster the cats until they find permanent homes, said Rose Hilliard, vice president of Abandoned Cat Team.
The group pays for medical bills and can even help with food and litter if the foster families really need it, she said. In exchange, the families take the cats to adoption days, until someone decides to permanently adopt the cat.
Many of the cats are feral, meaning that they need to find homes with barns or outbuildings. Once they get used to the area, they will stay and fend off mice, Hilliard said.
Additionally, volunteers are trying to find rural homes for chickens. They are game fowl, meaning that they don't lay eggs to eat, but they're great pest control for gardens, Hilliard said. The chickens have brightly colored feathers and are fun for children and adults to watch, she added.
To help, contact Abandoned Cat Team at 462-5958, or visit their Web site at ACatTeam.org.

"They showed up, they were skinny; what were we supposed to do? When we had money we shared," Morgado said.

"I was spending $60 a week on cat food alone, and this is when I was broke already. There were times when the cats were eating and we were not," he added.

He and Kraus were upset at the accusations that they had abandoned animals, because they say they called the pound and other animal rescue groups.

They found homes for the house pets they couldn't keep, including having to pay fees to the animal shelter for two dogs, Kraus said. When they finally had to leave the property, the wild cats were left behind.

Abandoned Cat Team got involved when they learned that dozens of felines were living alone on the property. They convinced the mortgage company to fund the costs of vaccinating, spaying and neutering, and testing the cats for diseases.

Three days before they were going to collect the cats, volunteers got word of the killings, which likely happened Feb. 6. The teenage boy, whom authorities have not identified because of his age, admitted to his father that he shot the animals with a pellet gun, according to San Joaquin County Sheriff's deputies.

The volunteers showed up at the home and found a grisly scene, along with a bloody piece of wood. They documented it in graphic photos they say show more violence than would be inflicted with a pellet gun.

Morgado believes he knows the teen, and said the youth had shot at — and missed — his bull. One time, he shot a cat and wounded its leg.

"We talked to him and we thought that was the end of that," Morgado said.

A school resource officer at Lodi High School said the teen has been referred to counseling, and both Morgado and Kraus worry that it's not enough.

"That kid should have gotten more than being cited," Kraus said. "That's how serial killers start."

Reader Feedback

aattura wrote on Mar 26, 2008 8:06 AM:

" Killing is not the answer -- spaying and neutering and REPSONSIBLE caretaking is -- these cats are out there reproducing and eating garbage becuz they were initially DUMPED, abandoned or allowed to wander -- another example of man"KIND"'s irresponsibility.

The responsible thing to do is what Alley Cat Allies and everyone associated with a TRN (Trap Neuter Return) group does for feral cats -- AND RESPONSIBLE feral cat caretaking DOES take into account the neighbors and THEIR comfort zone.

Feral cats have the same (LOW percentage) percentage of illnesses and rabies that House cats do -- practically NIL.

http://www.alleycat.org

Let's get involved in this. "

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Lodian wrote on Mar 18, 2008 10:14 AM:

" Scrutiny 9:44 AM: I can understand your problem with the neighbor cat. People need to be responsible and get the animals spayed/neutered. It's the irresponsible owners that cause these problems. There should be stiff fines for this neglect.
"

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Scrutiny wrote on Mar 18, 2008 9:44 AM:

" I would not want a pack of feral cats roaming my neighborhood. I`m having a problem with just one of my neighbor`s cats` lovesick screaming in my backyard at 3-4AM and spraying all over my house. Euthanize? Heck ya! "

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Whoa Nellie! wrote on Mar 18, 2008 9:34 AM:

" Our good friend "Taxpayer & Citizen" has finally come clean on the Record blog with him admitting that he is "Eyewhitie". "

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AKM wrote on Mar 18, 2008 8:29 AM:

" Sometimes the most humane thing to do for a feral cat is to euthanize it...it can't be adopted and its not humane to just leave it to die (or be killed brutally). I feel for the couple who tried to find them homes...but in the end...it is abandonment. "

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