Who you gonna call?

For the past week or so I have been living the lost pet nightmare. My cat, Neeve-peeve, is missing. He's a tiny, scrappy, dark gray & white tabby, and his eyes are almost completely clouded over with what appear to be cataracts, but which is actually a congenital defect of both of his inner eyelids. His vision has GOT to be compromised, but its never seemed to slow him down any. Certainly it never stopped him from tearing up the front walk and flinging himself at the screen on the front porch, where he'd hang like Velcro Cat, peering into the house until one of us would finally have to go outside & painstakingly pry him off, sharp little claw by sharp little claw. The screen now looks as if it's been sprayed by gunfire.

My search for Neeve has taken me to many places this week. I've wandered everywhere calling & calling him - contacted the animal control officer - put posters up all over town - dropped flyers in every mailbox within a 3 block radius - brought posters in to every vetinarian's office on the island - and of course, I've been out to the Potter Shelter in Middletown several times.

If you live on Aquidneck Island and have a missing animal, the Potter Shelter is who you call/where you go, plain and simple. It's pretty much the only real resource we have. We should all be grateful it exists. I adopted my last two dogs from the Potter Shelter - Dexter & the incomparable Zoe - and two of my cats passed through there on their way to me as well.

Staffed mainly by volunteers and funded primarily by donations, this no-kill shelter (their official name is the Robert Potter League for Animals) has been helping save lost and abandoned animals since its inception in1929. Their efforts deserve our deepest support. I was there the day before yesterday to drop off a photo of Neeve, and as I stood at the counter, tears in my eyes, waiting for the desk volunteer to get off the phone, I had this epiphany...these people & this organization have been directly impacting my life & impacting it for the better ever since I got to Newport. I think I may need to start doing something for them. Because when you get right down to it, when the chips are down for YOUR pet, who else are you gonna call?