nary one of youse who responded in any way to our posting re: kim murphy felt the tiniest degree of sympathy or pity for her. an' g*d bless you, each an' efurrycat.
we want to make this crystal clear: WE DO NOT CONDONE HER ACTIONS IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM (past or present). (and by the way, the phrase "stupid Russian maid" pissed us off, too; you can be stupid without being identified as a Russian.)
we felt that since there was more to the story, you should see it. the pain an' fear that poor bess surely must have suffered throughout the ordeal keeps our mom from fallin' asleep at night; as kitties (an' beans who love kitties), we cannot help but be empaths who quiver at every tweaked nerve in one of our own.
our own personal stick-in-the-brain question is, "how did she continue to live for nine (9, count them) weeks without food OR WATER?" food, maybe. water? never. we just cannot (among other facets of this case) get past that "fact". we finks this would indeed be a true miracle. are there any vetties or vet techs among us who could verify that this would be possible?
granted, miracles are things that can't be explained. so was this a miracle? yes--for bess. but a tragedy? yes--that she had to experience what she did to receive it.
Adventures of four kitties of disparate backgrounds (Nitro S Pierce, Xing Lu, Igmu Sapa, & DammitJim) residing in one house with two 2-leggers (Dad & Mommer) and a lesser 4-legger (dog Cocoa). Oddly enough, all 4-leggers share the first name, "DAMMIT!" (One moreso than the others.)
9 comments:
This was a horror story and there wasn't anything the least bit comical about it. We can't explain why or how Bess survived 9 weeks without sustenance of any kind. And despite the "happy ending," we wonder whether she actually suffers serious permanent damage. If not, she truly is a miracle. And she should be taken away from the lady who thinks her history with cats is funny.
The more I think about this, the more I feel that what I wrote in my email to you is possible. I just pray I am wrong. I worked for a vet many years ago and I am pretty sure 9 weeks without water is impossible. I cannot imagine that there would have been enough condensation under a window seat to survive on.
That stupid b#$@#.
She sent us the same excuse email (we had send her a note calling her a dimwit, asking her to not ever get any animals again).
So she just has to copy and paste her excuses.
We were wondering too if this story is just not true to begin with (as for the NINE weeks!)
Who knows what ulterior motives she has with publishing this story.
If this would have been a baby she'd be in jail right now. But unfortunately our laws do not apply to ALL sentient beings but just to the brute homo sapiens....
We wonder if she pays no attention to the cat and this happened in a shorter period of time but the party thing sounded good. Hard to say and we'll never really know will we?
Why it's not likely a kitty could go that long without water, it has happened before. Kitties trapped in shipping containers have managed to survive for 3 months.
I doubt she'll ever come to the realization she should just not be around pets, no between this and the kitties flying off the balcony. This is not a miracle at all, this is just a tragedy. Yeah, very good the kitty is alive, but at what cost? How much did she suffer? I imagine it was torture, if not physically then emotionally. If there's no permanent physical damage, what about psychologically?
And really, if a kitty was missing here, window seats would be checked and rechecked and checked again, Just In Case. It's like, WTF Doood? WHY DIDN'T YOU LOOK THERE? When Buddah was mssing they even looked in the freaking TOILET with the closed lid because, hey, you never know what a kitty can do!
I'm betting she's wishing the whole thing was never made public...
Max: sorry if I jumped the gun on your comment yesterday. I work with women who are victims of domestic violence, and I guess I just had an emotional knee-jerk reaction there.
I hope there's no hard feelings and agree with you: this is about poor Bess and her rotten human.
No hard feelings?
Yeah we noticied the sneaky bit of racism about the Russian maid too. Very poor.
Overall, the tone of the article was glib, couldn't-care-less for anything other than garnering some cheap sympathy and giggles for a dinner party anecdote. I think that's what annoyed us most about it. The journo' would have been paid well for that article, so to us it reads as profitable exploitation of the misfortunes of an animal at the hands of an airhead animal owner.
In my experience the 9 weeks were either a real miracle of survival or most likely there was some water (probably from condensation) forming in that window box. How that much condensation could gather inside a presumably heated home is never going to be established. Cats that have survived inside metal shipment containers for 3 months are also in truely terrible shape when found, and inside a metal shipment container at sea, there is going to be way more moisture than in an interior window box.
If the journo' had taken a different tone in recounting the story, I think there would have been a very different response. Less concentration on bragging about her ditzy lack of responsibility for her animals with warnings to others and more about a serious effort to bone up on practical animal safety would have given a better message.
In the email that is doing the rounds about this, one of the responses calls for a less judgemental reaction to the journo'. That's a fair point. Punishment rarely achieves anything other than fear of more punishment. However, I think it's fair to assume that the author of the article hadn't realised fully that the tone of her writing gave a very poor impression of her as an animal guardian and the responses to her story that we have read, should certainly set her thinking. I'm sure many of us have made howling mistakes in our own histories as animal guardians, but do we profit from our ignorance with giggly boasting about how our animals suffered? No, I'd moot that we learn, quietly and thoroughly how best not to make avoidable mistakes again.
This story would have brought less harsh judgement if it had been written without the need to show off vaguely embarrassed giggles and get a pat on the head to confirm what a cutesy, quirky little airhead the journo' is. Irresponsibility isn't cute. Bess learned this the hard way. I hope her recovery continues and I hope these responses encourage her owner to learn about animal safety, realising that the care of companion animals is a serious responsibility, one that she is not cut out to fulfill.
Wuudler's Mum.
Wuudler's Mum wrote a very good well-thought out comment. Had the tone of the article been more serious and contrite over this, there would have been a less harsh reaction.
But I still can't believe she never looked in the window seat. I mean, indoor cat owners crawl the floor, check the fridge and freezer, look in every nook and cranny, knowing it takes but a second for a cat to nip inside -- even an area deemed too small for it.
I have been reading emails and posts about this story. Yes, every pet owner has regrets over mistakes made -- and hopefully learned from. But the tone and genre of this story raises lots of questions.
Jan
I was striken, absolutely STRICKEN after reading poor Bess' story. I cannot wait to get home from work and cuddle my furbabies- just cause I CAN.
I agree that the lashing out against the writer would have been less had the tone of the article been a more cautionary one. I, too, am amazed that Bess survived as she did.
I am also turned off by the Russian comment- a published journalist should know better than that. Just distasteful.
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