I received this poignant letter today and so I am sharing it with you, but I do not hold out much hope. Actually it would be very hard for this cat to adjust to any home unless it has one very calm person in it. I would find a home that did allow pets if it were me. How could you be sure she will get a good home? No, sadly it might be much kinder to have her put to sleep.

"I'm an older person who has a older cat. She is spayed; declawed and up to date on her shots. We are going to a winter home which does not allow us to have pets. We are looking for a quiet home for her. We brought her home and spoiled her. She is just a nice old tiger kitty, so she is used to a quiet home one or two adults. She is very clean in the house. She is an in-house cat only, and likes to sleep either in the window or on the bed. She doesn't get on the table, at least not when we are home. "Please try to find her a good home; we really love her and do not want to put her down. 647-4946."

I just watched a very moving documentary called, "A Dog's Life" by Gayle Kirshenbaum. It is a short film that starts out with a young woman and her dog looking for boyfriends, but after 9/11 takes a very different turn.

I also enjoyed Marley and Me. It was funny and touching. What I especially liked was the fact that the filmmaker showed how much the dog mattered in the life of the family during good times and bad. All our pets are much more important than we realize at the time.

The Orange County Grand Jury is taking an awfully long time deciding if Keum Lee committed a felony in her neglect of two horses. One of our strongest animal advocates, Linda Brink, wrote the following letter.

"I feel so strongly on these issues! If something is not recognized as a crime — there is no crime. That's the way the human mind assesses. The speed limit may be 55 but if everyone goes 65 and doesn't get pulled over, 65 is okay. On many levels, in the animal abuse arena, it really is that simple.

"There has got to be more done to protect animals in a manner that is legal. As a society, we need to demand that laws protecting animals be enforced — and actually, that they be re-written to be much more specific. As the felony law now stands, the word Intent continually, and with intention itself, repeatedly lets animal criminals off the hook. Enforcement of what laws we have, with a demand for more in the way of justice, won't stop abuse, but it does send a strong message. Tolerance is everything. Tolerance is what truly defines what is a crime and what is not so much of the time in our society, no matter what the law. As things now stand, terrible animal abuse is tolerated, in plain sight. We have to stand up for each and every life as if that life was our own life. Because there, but for fortune, do we ourselves go. If you've no sense of empathy and compassion, there is still that one very real premise to consider.

"The goal: zero tolerance of cruelty. As things stand, despite the documented horrors allegedly inflicted on these two horses through starvation and the intentional tolerance of a health situation that was, in fact, visibly, and in a way that was undeniably olfactory, degrading toward fatality, Keum H. Lee might yet get these two horses returned to her.

"These are our laws in New York State. We, as the people, need to pick up the phone and sit down to the keyboard and demand that these laws be refined, and changed. Lives hang in the balance, and those lives are suffering every single day of their existence — because we are tolerating that suffering. Please do understand: Not demanding change is tolerance. Not demanding change is, in fact, supporting animal cruelty in New York State.

"Justice wears many faces, sadly. Things will never get better until people, en mass, stand up for what is right. It's a hard road."

Linda Brink, Director,
Sunnyskies Bird & Animal Sanctuary
Warwick, NY
http://www.sunnyskiesbirdsanctuary.org/