Help comes for abandoned cats

A week ago, Martha Truscott, Diane Jellison and Cynthia Parent couldn't get anyone to help them — or even return their calls — as they struggled to care for more than two dozen abandoned cats in Lewiston and Auburn.

Now they have so many offers of help that they're a little stunned.

"I couldn't believe it. I was kind of overwhelmed," said Jellison of one women who donated a carload of cat food and blankets Friday. "I was just standing there going, 'Oh, my word.'"

The Sun Journal highlighted the women's struggle to care for the animals in a story on stray cats a week ago. Truscott and Jellison were feeding and trapping a dozen or so starving kittens that lived at an abandoned house on Lewiston Junction Road in Auburn. Parent was feeding a dozen cats on River Street in Lewiston. Those adult cats —  mostly clean, friendly and obviously well-loved pets at one time — were abandoned after an apartment building fire in August.

Truscott and Jellison hadn't known each other before they started feeding the cats in Auburn. Neither of them knew Parent. But all three were fighting the same fight, working to save the stray cats when the local animal control officer, animal shelters, animal welfare and rescue groups, the police, the city and lawmakers declined to help.   

The women got offers of assistance as soon as their story appeared in the paper. Most people dropped off cat food — enough to last for months. Some offered cash donations. A few said they would adopt a cat or two.

Gail Arnold, president of the Animal Welfare Society of Kennebunk, lamented that her shelter didn't have room to take any of the cats. So on Friday she packed her Jeep full of cat food and blankets and delivered the donations to Jellison and Parent. A friend went with her and told Parent she would pay to have the River Street cats neutered so they would be more adoptable.

"I just hate to think of them being euthanized," Arnold said.

So does Parent.  She wants to find permanent homes for the cats, but failing that she wants them to have a safe, warm place to live until they can be adopted. She worries that they won't live through the winter on the street and will be euthanized if taken to an over-crowded animal shelter. 

She said some subcontractors have offered to build a small, heated building on her property for the cats. She is looking for donated building materials. She has been reluctant to take money from donors, but she is looking for lumber.

She wants to offer the River Street cats — and all cats — a safe home until they can be given away to families. She sees having her own no-kill shelter. Eventually.

"Until I die, this is something I'm going to stick with," she said.  

Jellison has caught no more cats since the nine she and Truscott trapped a few weeks ago. She plans to set out more Havahart traps to catch the mother cat that lives in the abandoned Lewiston Junction Road house and any remaining kittens. She said one woman had offered to adopt a couple. 

Jellison has seen the cats as she drops off food. After weeks of food and fresh water, they no longer resemble the skinny, starving animals she first saw. 

"They look like whole different cats," she said. "They look good."

If you would like to donate lumber or other building materials, Parent can be reached at 786-7102.

ltice@sunjournal.com