A 2001 ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE FILE PHOTO — Cats wait in cages at North Little Rock Animal Services.

KRISHA WILLIAMS TURBEVILLE

For two and a half years, the area behind the Tennis Center in Burns Park has been home to a colony of six to eight feral cats cared for by a Little Rock rescue group. Now only three can be found after complaints from the center’s management spurred North Little Rock Animal Services to set traps.

Billy Grace, director of the North Little Rock shelter, confirmed that at least three cats from the location had been trapped, beginning six weeks ago after he received complaints from Tennis Center management.

Grace could not verify whether those cats had been euthanized. “But I wouldn’t doubt it,” Grace said. “Probably so.”

Jennifer Franks, a Feline Rescue and Rehome (FURR) volunteer who has for two and a half years coordinated the sterilization and vaccination of the Tennis Center cats, said Grace confirmed to her that at least one cat from Burns Park had been killed.

“FURR has requested the opportunity to relocate the cats which they have already trapped so they will not be destroyed,” Franks said. “North Little Rock Animal Control has not provided the trapped cats to FURR or confirmed that they are still alive.”

Grace said the shelter has taken the traps away for now and is going to work with FURR, whose President Lynne McAllester said she received emailed permission two years ago from North Little Rock Parks and Recreation Director Bob Rhoads to allow the cats to stay under a Trap-Neuter-Release Program.

The program, begun March 2008 and funded by multiple tennis players at the park, allowed FURR to humanely trap the cats, sterilize, vaccinate and license them before being released back to their habitat, McAllester said.

Rhoads said he didn’t recall the email but may have sent it. He said he did not notify FURR before calling animal services because he did not know of the rescue’s existence.

“We’ve got nothing against cats per se, but in a public facility we can’t continue dealing with the fleas and other things,” Rhoads said, noting that more strays had been showing up, increasing the population.

However Franks said tennis players at the park on a regular basis saw six to eight cats before trapping by animal services began. Rhoads estimated there were seven. When FURR became involved in March 2008, the colony numbered 15.

Rhoads said one of the maintenance employees in the center’s boiler room received several flea bites as a result of the cats’ presence. Other complaints about the cats, including one from Rhoads himself, and a fear of being fined for feeding the unlicensed cats led to the policy shift.

“I thought there was feces on one of the courts,” Rhoads said. “But it may have been another animal.”

Jeff Brack, who became director of tennis at the Tennis Center a few months ago, said kittens were born on the property, increasing the population.

When asked about complaints he’d received, Brack said, “A few of the ladies in the league liked having cats around and were concerned about what would happen to them.”

But North Little Rock Animal Services told Brack the center could be fined for feeding the ferals, he said.

Feeding an animal establishes ownership, Animal Services Director Grace said.

According to the North Little Rock city ordinance, available on the city’s website, owners must vaccinate dogs or cats once a year for rabies through a licensed veterinarian. As of Jan. 1, 2002, owners must also purchase yearly city licenses for cats and dogs.

“It’s an operating business,” Brack said. “And there was a sanitary issue. We had to clean it up.”

Brack said he was happy to learn FURR would relocate the cats.

However, Franks of FURR said that repeated requests for a meeting have gone unanswered by both Brack and Rhoads.

Grace said animal services will work with the rescue.

“I told [the FURR representative] we’d give her two weeks and then to call me after two weeks if she’s made progress, and we’ll go from there.” Grace made it clear though that while the two-week deadline is not set in stone, he can’t allow the situation to continue forever.

“If you cut this world in half,” Grace said. “Half of them love cats and half of them hate cats, and we’re right in the middle.”

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAKE CHARLES, La. — When the USS Orleck departed Orange, Texas, for Lake Charles on May 18, the Gearing-class destroyer had four secret stowaways. They managed to remain undetected for the vessel’s two-day trip to Lake Charles.

Once the Orleck docked at its new homeport on the Calcasieu River, Debbie Lynn Hoffpauir and other USS Orleck Naval Museum volunteers discovered the kitten quartet as they inspected the newly arrived ship.

Hoffpauir was uncertain how long the kittens had been without their mother, but he later heard reports that a few dockworkers in Orange saw a cat jump from the Orleck before its departure.

Hoffpauir, among the volunteers giving their Saturdays to prepare the destroyer as a museum, took charge of the thin, feral orphans.

Using what she described as a raccoon-type trap, she managed to bring all four kittens home safely in just a couple of days

“I knew they would need a lot of love and care,” Hoffpauir said.

She said she and her 11-year-old son, Je’An, spent a considerable about of time playing with and domesticating the kittens, three females and one male.

The kittens’ favorite activity in the Hoffpauir home is playing wound-up on catnip in their custom built, three-tiered cage with a fan to keep them cool.

Now about 4 months old, the kittens are loving, docile and can even be held upside down.

Hoffpauir spent eight years in the Navy Reserve. Her duties included working on the Orleck when it returned to Orange in 2001. With these ties, and in honor of their voyage, Hoffpauir decided to name the cats Orleck, Gearing, Destroyer and Joseph, Joseph being the first name of the USS Orleck’s namesake.

She put three up for adoption, and all three were quickly taken. The new owners said they would keep the names, she said.

“I had tags made for each kitten with their name on the front and USS Orleck Rescue laser etched on them,” she said.

In preparation for adoption, Hoffpauir had the animals neutered and immunized with the help of the Animal Angels’ S.N.A.P. facility in Lake Charles.

Hoffpauir kept Gearing, the runt of the litter. She is quick to mention that cats don’t have owners, they own you.

Bruce was rescued from a neglectful situation. He had been hit by a car, but his owner did not take him to the veterinarian. When we saw him, it was obvious that he had serious injuries as he would not move and would barely turn his head.

He was immediately taken to the vet. He had a fractured pelvis and a dislocated hip.

What a trooper he was! And now, after having surgery to correct his hip injury, he is living life to the fullest and putting all that other stuff behind him.

Luckily, Bruce has had the best care possible after surgery from Vet Tech Jenifer, who is fostering him until the lucky family to adopt him is found.

For more information or to adopt, contact Kathy at gizmohouse@aristotle.net.

For an Out of the Woods adoption application, please click here.

Sasha

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s talk about all the great personality traits this girl has! Sasha came to me as a stray on one of the hottest days of the summer. She was exhausted and burning up! I got her cooled down, and she realized this wasn’t a bad place to stay! Sasha moved in with my six dogs and the cat and has gotten along with them perfectly. She’s a little lady.

She is housetrained and is great in her crate, but I only use the crate at night. She would rather sleep with me, but there’re just too many in the house to allow everyone to sleep in the bed. I put her in the crate with a treat, and cover the crate and never hear a peep from her. When I go to open the crate in the morning, she usually takes a few minutes to come out … she’s a sleepyhead!

Sasha seems to love everyone. I would be fine with her in a home with young children. She would never intentionally harm anyone, but she does tend to paw you if you are not paying enough attention to her! Like a handshake, but she will just lay her paw on you as if to say, “HELLO?! Time to stop playing with the remote control and pet me!”

Everyone at the vet loved this girl. She loved everyone she met. We all agreed she would be a great therapy dog and she could also be great at agility. She’s high energy, but she’s not hyper, if that makes sense.

Sasha is not destructive and likes to play with toys like tennis balls, stuffed squeaky toys, etc. She is a great retriever too! If you toss the ball, she will retrieve it for you and beg you to toss it again.

Sasha would be fine with another dog (or cat) or as an only dog, but she might enjoy a playmate as she has loved having other dogs here at my house and loves playing chase with the other dogs. She is FAST!!!

For more information or to adopt, please contact Sasha’s foster mom at georgiagriffis@sbcglobal.net.

For an Out of the Woods adoption application, please click here.

We are full with kittens and puppies right now and encourage anyone looking for a new pet to adopt!

Kittens come in all shapes and sizes, and we have them all, including this little Siamese mix.

Come see all our kittens, puppies, dogs and cats at our great facility.

— Submitted by Little Rock Animal Village

Photo courtesy of Facebook/Valerie Hicks White — A fan of The Mexico Goat submitted this photo identifying the animal.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MEXICO, Mo. — A goat that has been wandering around the eastern Missouri town of Mexico has gained enough attention to have his own Facebook page and T-shirts saying “Catch me if you can.”

But animal control officers are not amused.

A Missouri radio station reports that the goat was first seen by a motorist on Saturday near an underpass on the east side of town.

Mexico animal control officer Joe Horton says the department has received more than a dozen reports of the adult goat being seen around town, including in downtown Mexico.

Horton says animal control officers are earnestly trying to catch the goat, which he’s named Billy Goat Gruff.

Mexico residents are having a bit more fun with it. Someone started a Facebook fan page for the goat, which had 1,958 friends as of Saturday afternoon.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND, Maine — A rare mottled orange and black calico lobster caught off Cape Elizabeth, Maine, is being spared.

Portland Lobster Co. is holding the crustacean until Larry and Crystal Dunne of Saco can find a new home for their catch. Crystal Dunne said they have caught blue and yellow specimens but not a calico one.

Company manager Ethan Morgan said the lobster is in a tank with notes to the kitchen staff not to cook him.

Diane Cowan, lobster scientist and founder of the Lobster Conservancy in Friendship, said only albino lobsters are rarer than calicos. She said a blue lobster is one in a million and a yellow or orange one is one in 30 million. She said she’s seen only two or three calicos in 25 years of research.

The shell usually is deep green and red.

WESTBROOK, Maine — The Animal Rescue League in Westbrook, Maine, won’t have to worry about how to feed the cats in its shelter for a couple weeks.

On Friday, an 18-wheeler pulled up and dropped off 87 cases containing 1,044 cans of cat food. The gift worth $1,000 was due to a miscommunication.

The truck driver delivered a load to Hannaford Bros. Co. in Scarborough but the supermarket chain had not ordered the cat food. The driver contacted Portland’s animal control officer who put him in contact with league. The driver said his boss wanted the truck back empty.

The league said the food is a big help since the shelter has been at capacity for several weeks with about 150 animals.

As for the truck driver, the league did not take down his name or other information.

Consumers should keep Evamist, a spray used to alleviate menopausal hot flashes, away from children and pets, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned.

Evamist, which contains the estrogen hormone estradiol, has been reported to trigger premature puberty in children and mammary gland enlargement in pets.

Since 2007, the agency has received eight reports of exposure to children and 2 reports of pets affected.

The spray is applied to the forearm, between the elbow and wrist.

If accidental exposure occurs, the affected area should be washed immediately with soap and water.

Small pets are particularly sensitive to this product, the FDA said.

ALYSON HOGE

GUEST COLUMNIST

Ever since I can remember, I have loved horses.

It is a love that — just like what is experienced in a long, successful marriage — is tested time and time again. In the end, it is the love that keeps you moving forward, no matter the difficulties encountered.

In 2001, I put my beloved gelding down. He was the last of five horses I’d had off and on in my life, starting at age 15. I didn’t think I’d ever have horses again.

I had never lived with my horses, always boarding them elsewhere. I was determined that if I ever had horses again, I would live at the same place with them. But my husband didn’t want to move outside the city.

And then one day, on the banks of a bayou in Shreveport on the Memorial Day weekend of 2003, my husband asked: “Do you still want to live in the country and have horses?”

Within two years, we bought land and built a house and barn. Our first horse was a mustang colt, followed by a Thoroughbred mare who had been starved by her previous owner. She had been rescued and was in someone else’s custody for a year when I became her foster parent, and then owner. She was in pretty good shape when she arrived, although her coat was still dull. (It’s shiny now.)

The last horse to arrive was a pitifully underweight 18-month-old paint colt who also had been neglected by his previous owner (another person, not the Thoroughbred’s owner — just to make the point that this happens too much) and whose growth to that point had been deeply affected by lack of food. Hip bones, backbone, ribs all stuck out. His neck and body were each underdeveloped and short, and were especially odd-looking compared with his really long legs, legs that were too long for the rest of him, which told you that at his age, he would have been much bigger had he had a proper diet.

He had already put on 50 pounds in the short time he was under a vet’s care. When he arrived at our place, he was 13.2 hands (54 inches at the top of the shoulder) and weighed 575 pounds. Four years later, he’s 15.3 hands (63 inches) and double the weight. And his proportions are normal.

I know without being privy to the specifics of their cases that both the Thoroughbred and paint would have been fine without horse feed if their owners had simply provided adequate forage, either good pasture or hay.

The bulk of a horse’s diet should be forage. The lucky horse owner has at least one acre of good-quality grass per horse. (Not weeds, not tree bark, not dirt.) If you don’t have enough pasture, then you have to supplement with hay. (Not deer corn poured on the ground once a week.) And because horses have sensitive digestive systems, you have to make sure that the hay is good quality and free from mildew. What’s good enough for a cow might not be good enough for a horse. That’s why the classified ads may refer to “horse-quality hay.”

Our grass is okay, not great, and we don’t have much acreage, but our next-door neighbor has graciously allowed our horses to graze on her pasture.

I start feeding hay when there isn’t much good pasture left – typically, from mid-October to mid-April: six months, about 26 weeks. In the past, I’ve bought $30 round bales and hauled three at a time with a friend’s trailer. My cost, including gas but excluding wear and tear on my truck, is about $100 a load. One round bale lasts a week. I also usually buy up to 100 square bales, $3 to $4 apiece, for those times when the weather is too poor for the horses to go out. The horses will eat two square bales a day.

Last winter, I spent about $625 to haul 18 round bales and about $325 on about 100 square bales. We’ll round up and say it was about $1,000.

This year, I’m buying my hay from someone who can deliver it. Each round bale costs $46. It’s more expensive, but the hay is much better-looking than last year’s. It’s so good I should be able to cut back on the feed expense, which right now is about $13 every three days, or close to $125 a month ($1,500 a year).

But my hay cost is going to be higher this winter for another reason. Just like most everyone else in Arkansas, this summer’s heat wave killed our grass. Much of the rain that fell was north or south of us. Our pasture – never great to begin with – dried up a couple of weeks ago. Luckily, it came back somewhat after four rains in the last 10 days.

I put out hay Aug. 17 – two months early – when the pasture appeared dead. If I have to feed a $46 bale every week from now until mid-April, about 34 weeks, this winter’s hay expense will go up about $500, to nearly $1,600. If the pasture stays green, then I won’t have to feed as much hay.

Like I said earlier, I should be able to cut back on feed, which would save up to $500. The bottom line is probably going to be about $2,500 in hay and feed costs, or roughly $800 per horse. Those aren’t the only costs associated with horses, but food is one of the biggest expenses.

As my husband says when a jewelry commercial comes on TV: “Your diamond ring is down at the barn.”