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October 6, 2007

A visit to the cathouse

Cnv0005.jpg More than two dozen cats have come to Rolling Dog Ranch with blindness, neurological disorders and other disablities -- but this isn't one of them.

This is Ash, (to the left) one of the cats that moved to the ranch with Steve and Alayne.

Recently he showed up with a broken leg, possibly the result of getting stepped on by a blind horse.

Now, he's recuperating in the cathouse, a 300-square-foot building with an attached outdoor enclosure that's also known as "Hoedad’s House," named for a cat Smith had found starving  in Sri Lanka.

Its other occupants include Blind Bobby from Billings, a big orange and white cat who has memorized his way around the building; Wobbles, who has cerebellar hypoplasia, but doesn't let that stop him from playing with other cats, and the dogs; and Lulu, a one eyed black cat from Helena.

“A one-eyed black cat doesn’t stand a great chance to get adopted," Smith said.

Together, the cats spend their days playing, or lolling in the sunshine.

Though Alayne is allergic to them, the ranch now houses about 10 cats, including these two, who don't let having little use of their rear legs stop them from having some fun. The video (below, click it twice) is from the Rolling Dog Ranch webswite -- via Youtube.

(Tomorrow: The humans behind the haven)

Posted by John Woestendiek at 7:08 AM | | Comments (0)
        

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About Jill Rosen
Jill Rosen is a reporter at The Baltimore Sun. During her nearly 20 years in journalism, she has covered news and features — including a surprising number of stories that involved animals. There were the dog Christmas carolers in State College, Pa. There were the hounds who toured with a production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The story of a preschool teacher at Baltimore’s Father Kolbe School who had to replace her class guinea pig, who died over the winter holiday. A harrowing tale of what it was like to make homemade pet food ...

Though her clean freak of a mother refused to allow her to get a dog, she has had a number of pets through the years, including goldfish named Bob and Fingle, a betta fish named Ichabod, a wild rat terrier named Wendel, who she shared with a roommate, and, currently, sweet, sweet kitties named Leo Sesame and Milo Pumpkin and a little rescued pup named Teddy Bean. She, Leo, Pumpkin and Teddy Bean live in Baltimore.
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