I hope this letter finds you well.

It has recently been brought to my attention that some of my behavior over the course of our time together has been less than exemplary. I feel it is remiss of me not to address this.

You’ll understand that recognition of these actions is in no way a LEGAL acceptance of guilt, and is inadmissible in any court. It is merely a missive to set the record straight. 

Firstly, let me explain the whole bird incident. You and I are very different creatures, Feeder. To me, that bird represented a gift: a fine gift, an extraordinary gift. A gift for you from me. A token, albeit a bloody one, of my sincere gratitude.

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You discarded the last gift I caught you, so now you only get store-bought gifts. Persian cat and toy mouse by Shutterstock

I thought you would appreciate being surprised with it in your bed and that I had already opened it up for easy access to innards. I had no idea your new female companion had such an attachment to it, so I can only suggest that, in the future, she should secure her vulnerable, delicious pets more durably. Though, from what I understand, she will not be troubling us again. In my opinion, you had a lucky break. A bird? As a pet? There is something very wrong there.

I think many of the other problems that have arisen between us are down to our divergent senses of humor. While you enjoy the comic stylings of Rob Schneider and Mike and Molly, my funny bone is considerably more sophisticated. And so while you don’t recognize the humor attached to leaping onto your lap, claws extended and screeching wildly while you watch Friday the 13^th Part 5 with a date, I’m afraid that I do.

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In retrospect, my actions during your movie date night were reprehensible. Ragdoll kitten in popcorn bucket by Shutterstock

I had no idea your reaction would be that extreme, and I obviously extend my sympathies to the young lady who suffered the nacho cheese burns. Perhaps if you’d stuck to the low-fat diet that had been recommended, we wouldn’t be in this mess. But, as the sages state, comedy is never universal. Perhaps one day you will catch up with me and understand my jokes and japes. I pray that day comes soon.

Now I know you feel that those mucus-matted balls of hair that I regurgitate are quite unpleasant. You are not alone in this. We all do; you are not special. I would just like to point out that this is a MEDICAL condition.

If you carried a similar sort of affliction -- for instance, if you had a lacerated shin (for which I apologize; it was a case of mistaken identity) or a heavily damaged scalp (again, I’m sorry; from that angle your new haircut did resemble a small mammal), I would not judge.

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I can't help it if I have to produce hairballs occasionally. Sphynx cat with woman's shoe by Shutterstock

It just so happens that I needed to cough up this unfortunate by-product of illness, right at the moment I was passing your cereal bowl, shoes, and your former fiancée's neck, hair, and quiche. (How is Linda, by the by? Are you still in touch?) Though I obviously cannot be blamed for this, I do realize it is not conventionally wholesome. 

Finally, I suppose we must rake over the coals of what you only refer to as (rather dramatically in my opinion) "the Incident." I recognise now that it was not a good day and no one emerged from it covered in glory.  All I know is that I was tricked -- TRICKED -- into entering a small meshed box.

Once caged, I’m afraid I entered a highly emotional state. I am not proud of this. But, you will remember that last time I was similarly boxed I was taken to a place where vile things were done to my body. I was never the same again. I could only assume that once that box was reopened, a similar fate awaited me. And so my subsequent violent actions, upon release, were entirely in pre-emptive self-defense. I felt obliged to latch myself onto the nearest available surface. Unfortunately that proved to be your mother’s face. 

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I urge you to reconsider the cage option in favor of this. I may not be responsible for my actions. Cat in pet carrier by Shutterstock

How was I supposed to know? I wasn’t even told that you had a mother. I haven’t seen my mother for years and you don’t hear me bleating about it. I know I do constantly make that noise which sounds like bleating, usually in the early hours of the morning into the ear of yourself or anyone sleeping nearby. But that has nothing to do with anything parental.

But I would now like to draw a line under the Incident. I know the rest of that festive season was quite tense and tear-filled. And, in my defense, I was finding particles and skin and flesh under my claws for days afterwards. I don’t know what your mother is made of, but it is really quite adhesive.

And so, in conclusion, for all the terrible, though perfectly justifiable, behavior listed above, and for that whole thing with the litter box/wool cap confusion, I am truly sorry. I hope we can now move on.

Thank you for your time.

Your cat,

Professor Friskers

P.S. That name explains a lot as well.

Okay, this isn't strictly a cat story, so I hope you'll forgive me for that. But it is the story of a humane society that saved more than 3,500 animals last year — 2,039 of which were cats.

Not only have this shelter's efforts saved lives, they've brought national attention — and a big prize.

Last year, the Greater Androscoggin Humane Society in Lewiston, Maine, decided it would participate in the ASPCA's $100K Challenge. To increase their adoption numbers, GAHS launched Facebook and Twitter campaigns and began posting videos of animals available for adoption on its YouTube channel.

Staff hosted adopt-a-thons, inviting other animal shelters to participate, helping animal rescues across the state of Maine to save lives and find loving homes for the cats (and dogs) in their care.

Because GAHS has done such extraordinary work to adopt out the animals in its care, the shelter has plenty of empty cages, so it brings dogs and cats from shelters in other parts of Maine, and even from other states.

In the past, the humane society has had 120 cats or more waiting for homes. "Right now, we're down to three cats for adoption," GAHS operations manager Zachary Black said last week in an interview with the Lewiston Sun-Journal. "We've never seen that."

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An employee took this photo of people waiting at the shelter's doors. This is a regular sight at GAHS these days. Photo from the GAHS Facebook page

People literally wait for hours outside the shelter's doors in Maine's frigid winter weather to adopt the pets they want.

Although some of the shelter's marketing efforts included waiving adoption fees for senior cats and drastically reducing fees for other animals, the humane society hasn't slacked off on its adoption policies and guidelines. People who want to bring a cat or dog home still have to fill out an application and have their references checked.

The result? GAHS triumphed in the $100K Challenge. It won first place in the Northeast and third in the entire nation, and got a grant of $20,000 from the ASPCA.

Winning the first-place rank in the Northeast is a huge deal, considering that this shelter, serving a population of about 107,000 in a largely rural county of almost 500 square miles, was up against competitors like the Animal Rescue League of Boston; the Animal Rescue League and Washington Humane Society in Washington, D.C.; and two animal shelters in Philadelphia.

It really is amazing what creative use of social media and working with other shelters can do to bring safety and love to homeless pets.

I work for a nonprofit myself, and a good part of my job involves social media outreach. GAHS's success with Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can teach all of us a thing or two (or three, or more) about how to achieve goals that may have seemed unreachable through the creative use of the social web.

Just when I think there's not a whole lot to celebrate here in Maine, a story like this makes me proud to be a Mainer. The shelter's staff and volunteers exemplify the hard work, dedication, compassion, and ingenuity that makes Maine a wonderful place to live.

Check out this video of one of the GAHS cats that is — er, was — up for adoption. Sumi (now named Sumo) has found a loving forever home. And when you see her in action, you'll know why.

(In a reader? Watch the video here.)

Don't get me wrong: Every cat I've ever loved has been more than willing to snuggle with me! But with one another? Not so much. Until 2006, that is.

About six months after I adopted Dahlia from my local shelter, I woke up one morning to find her sitting next to her big brother, Thomas, basking in a sun puddle and watching birds through my large picture window.

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Spring 2007: Thomas (the tabby) and Dahlia enjoy a moment of togetherness.

I thought that was cute, but it was nothing compared to the heart-melting sweetness to come.

Shortly after I moved into a new apartment, I came home from work to find this:

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Dahlia and Thomas snuggle on the bed

I can't even tell you the amount of self-control it took me to resist the urge to squeal out loud.

But that was only the beginning.

As the years passed, Dahlia and Thomas only got closer and adored each other more and more with the passing of each year. At least once a week, I'd find them together in blissful tangles of paws, heads, and tails, sleeping contentedly or licking one another in all those places a kitty just can't quite reach, each purring with delight.

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Close-up snuggle

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More snuggles

I even made a video of them engaging in one of their mutual grooming sessions.

(In a reader? Watch the video — and feel your heart melt — here.)

Just last weekend, Thomas and Dahlia spent almost an entire day snuggling together. Every time I looked at them, they were in a cuter pose. I bravely resisted the urge to take photos and destroy this endless series of precious moments, telling myself that at least once I should leave the lovebirds alone and let them enjoy their special time.

My Top Cat, Siouxsie, however, has always resisted the urge to cuddle with other cats. But Dahlia is even winning Miss Tough-Nut-to-Crack over with her charms. I've caught the two of them in acts of what I call deniable snuggling: that is, being in physical contact but making it appear as though it only happened by accident.

Do you have the fortune of living with feline snuggle buddies? Dish, and share links to pictures or videos of the feline lovefests taking place in your home.

In a beach town on an island off the Florida Panhandle, Alan Kelly is taking care of eight homeless cats.

I guess he knows how it feels to have nowhere to go, because Kelly himself is homeless. But despite his own situation, he's providing for his feline family with the help of a local animal charity and friendly area residents.

Kelly became homeless when he moved from Massachusetts to Florida six years ago in search of work. He had a gig as a maintenance man, but that only lasted a few months.

For three years now, Kelly has spent his days drinking beer and caring for the cats.

He first got help from employees of an area grocery store, where he was cadging hot dogs to feed them. Yep, that's right: He fed the cats before he fed himself. Even in his befuddled state, he clearly knew that food is as important to the cats as beer is to him — and his compassion led him to help them. Just goes to show you that even a homeless alcoholic has a good and caring heart.

(Okay, the article I read didn't specifically state that Kelly is an alcoholic, but if you drink all day, I'd say the odds are pretty good that you are, in fact, an alcoholic.)

Some time ago, two women stopped by his hangout on Okaloosa Island's boardwalk and offered to have the cats spayed and neutered. He helped round up the cats, and now all eight of them are healthy, vaccinated, and microchipped. To this day, a local animal rescue group provides Kelly with food for his clowder.

Area residents seem to enjoy the cats' company, too. They give Kelly money to buy cat food and, when he reassures them that the felines are healthy and up to date on their shots, some even stop to pet them.

Kelly says there aren't many human relatives left in his family, so he's taken to considering the cats his babies. And apparently, the cats feel the same way.

The cats really love him, said Chris Patterson, general manager at the Black Pearl restaurant at the Boardwalk. They hear his footsteps and come running.

When you're homeless, there's probably not a whole lot to smile about. But for Kelly, I guess those eight cats, whose antics bring joy into his life and others who visit his world — I guess that's a good reason not to completely waste away in Margaritaville.

Love and Peace's life has taken some bizarre twists and turns, but it seems that his roller-coaster ride has finally come to a stop — in the lap of a doting computer engineer.

Four months ago, the 8-year-old tabby suffered a brutal accident that left him with a broken back. The family who adopted him — four years ago, after his original owner was killed in a traffic accident — couldn't afford the veterinary care needed to save his life, so they surrendered him to the Oregon Humane Society.

When the vets first saw Love and Peace, they weren't sure he would be able to recover. X-rays revealed he had a fractured vertebra in his lower back, and he was crying from the excruciating pain.

But the spinal fracture, in the last vertebra before his tail, was low enough that the lucky kitty didn't suffer any neurological damage. If it had been any higher, it might have led to permanent paralysis.

For the first four weeks, Love and Peace was kept on a backboard in a small kennel so that he wouldn't move and worsen his injury. Then he went to a foster home for six weeks, where he was kept on strict cage rest. His foster family spent hours with him, sometimes even sleeping overnight next to him to keep him company.

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Brian Coss fell in love with LP after hearing his story.

Then in mid-December, he came back to the shelter, ready to be adopted. And that's where Brian Coss came into the picture. He'd read about Love and Peace's story and fell in love — and the rest is history.

Love and Peace (or LP for short) is now settling into his new home and gradually getting to know Coss's other cats, Smokey and Gata. I don't know where Coss learned how to properly introduce new cats, but he's doing everything right — and as a result, I'm sure LP will be getting along with Smokey and Gata in no time at all.

What does this story prove? First, never say die: Some cats can and do recover from broken backs without surgery; and second, real men love cats.

Piglet is a cat on a mission.

The 11-year-old Sphynx is an ambassador of good cheer at nursing homes, hospitals, and health clinics, where her purr and the smooth chamois texture of her skin assuage children's fears and bring out pleasant memories for seniors who need a reminder of the unconditional love offered by an animal friend.

Debbie Polelli of Colorado Springs, Colo., met Piglet some time ago. Polelli had a couple of cats in her home, both of whom were rescues. She wanted to add another cat to her family, and she set her heart on a Sphynx because of their gregarious and friendly nature. But she didn't want to buy one from a breeder, so she sought out Sphynx rescuers in her area. She learned about Piglet, who was in a shelter in Estes Park, about four hours from her home, and she knew she'd found a match.

As a long-time cat caretaker, Polelli thought she was going to be in for hundreds of miles of mournful arias. But it was strange. She was really calm and didnt freak out like cats do.

A few weeks later, she took Piglet to a party at her mother's house, where she mingled with the guests and thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing.

When she saw a TV show about therapy animals, Polelli thought, "I bet Piglet could do that."

She and Piglet attended a two-day animal-assisted therapy training workshop, where her temperament, aptitude, obedience, and relational skills were tested. Then Piglet had a trial run, where she was exposed to typical encounters like being awkwardly held and petted and having to deal with loud noises. Piglet sailed through and got her certification as a therapy cat. She's one of only four certified therapy cats in the entire state of Colorado.

On a recent visit to the Village at Skyline, Piglet, dressed in a holiday sweater and her therapy animal harness, greeted the elderly residents with her typical charm and kindness, bringing smiles and compliments from everyone she visits.

Although we're more familiar with therapy dogs, it's obvious that good-natured and unflappable cats like Piglet are equally capable of being excellent therapy animals.

But it's not just the therapy cat angle that excites me here — it's the fact that Polelli sought out a Sphynx rescue group rather than a breeder to bring Piglet into her life.

There are rescue groups for just about every kind of purebred cat you can imagine, so if you have your heart set on a purebred but ethically you believe that rescue is the right choice, you can have the best of both worlds. If you're interested, you can start by Googling purebred rescue groups and checking Petfinder for cats of the breed you want.

If you live near Colorado Springs and you want to see if your cat can make it as a therapy animal, Polelli and Kathleen Kelley, an instructor from the Delta Society, will be holding pet therapy classes and giving certifications to those that meet the qualifications. E-mail Polelli for more information.

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Jackson Galaxy wearing a t-shirt that says "Real Men Love Cats"

What makes a guy like Galaxy, whose life started with a theater degree and a dream of making music for the masses, become a cat-loving guy with a knack for solving bizarre kitty behavior problems? What does he do when he's not filming episodes of the show? What's his greatest passion in life?

And how did this mass publicity campaign, which I've decided to call the Week of the Cat Daddy, come to be?

Well, it all started on December 29, when Kate Benjamin of the Moderncat blog wrote a post about the upcoming premiere of My Cat from Hell. The closing words of her post were, "I want you to be watching on January 7, but I want to help you spread the word to others outside the inner circle of cat lovers."

This call to action inspired a whole bunch of bloggers, myself among them, who had watched the three episodes of the first season, to do what we could to promote the show. After all, the whole reason the show was renewed is that cat lovers all across the country, and probably all around the world, contacted Animal Planet and begged them to bring Galaxy back for another season.

You might think that if a whole bunch of people are writing on one subject, interviewing the same individual, that the same content would appear in every single one of those posts. But that wasn't the case at all each blogger had a different angle for her (all the bloggers who participated are women) story, and each one showed a different facet of America's favorite cat daddy.

So who blogged and who wrote about what? Read on!

Sally Bahner of Exclusively Cats started the ball rolling on December 29 with her post, "Tune in Jan. 7 for Jackson Galaxy Redux."

Hot on her heels was Ingrid King, author of the award-winning website The Conscious Cat. On December 30, she shared her interview about what My Cat From Hell viewers can expect in Season 2.

After a brief hiatus for the New Year's weekend, my interview, "More Than Meets the Camera: An Interview with Jackson Galaxy," went live. Multimedia blogger and animal welfare advocate Lisa Richman wrote about the amazingly positive impact a show like this can have to save feline lives.

Wednesday saw a blitz of publicity including a post on Catster's The Cat's Meow blog;an interview by Deb Barnes of the award-winning Zee and Zoey blog, in which Galaxy recounted some of his most intriguing cases;and an article on the Anipal Times website.

On Thursday, Angie Bailey of Catladyland shared her interview in a post with the intriguing title "My Cat from Hell's Jackson Galaxy Talks Cats, Music, Zen, and Airplane-Weeping."

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Jackson Galaxy holds one of his rescued cats.

On the same day, another award-winning blogger and cat rescuer, Robin Olson of Covered in Cat Hair, wrote "Jackson Galaxy Is My Copilot," in which she and Galaxy discussed how Galaxy figures out what's causing the strange behavior ("In some ways, Jackson IS like Dr. House, but he's NOT a fictional character.") In another cool twist of fate, Robin and her rescue allies in Georgia had just pulled a cat from a high-kill shelter and put together a plan to bring him north to her home in Connecticut, where he stands a much better chance of adoption. She decided to name this huge white love-kitty Jackson,in honor of her favorite cat behaviorist.

And this morning, Sparkle the Designer cat, another of my favorite feline bloggers, wrote her own post about the upcoming premiere. I'm sure more Jackson Galaxy articles will appear today, too, and I'll post them here as I find them.

This just in: Blogging cat Gracey, The Tiniest Tiger, just shared her interview with Jackson Galaxy on the importance of letting cats be cats -- and engaging in frequent play sessions!

Caroline Golon of the Happy Litterbox website has announced that Galaxy is going to share his "litterbox wizard" skills every Friday and answer readers' questions about their feline friends' cat-box issues.

Also today, the amazingly talented (as in, I wish I'd had my act together like that when I was a senior in high school) Rachel Shubin posted her interview with Jackson Galaxy in her blog, We Have a Situation; and Mousebreath editor Karen Nichols shared a video interview in her post, "Jackson Galaxy says, 'Hunt. Catch. Kill. Eat.'"

I should point out here that none of us were paid to do these interviews and write these posts. We did it because we believe in what Jackson Galaxy is doing and we want to support his efforts and his show because in the end, all of us want to save cats' lives and help them find good homes (or live in well-managed colonies, if they're feral cats).

Stock up on snacks and kitty treats and get ready for an awesome evening. The season two premiere of My Cat from Hell airs on Animal Planet tomorrow, Saturday, Jan. 7, at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time. There's even going to be a Twitter party during the show; if you want to join, use the hashtag #TeamCatMojo.

The people who found Deuce roaming around near their Oklahoma home last August thought he'd been a victim of animal abuse. Both of his back legs were missing below the knee, and he only had three-quarters of a tail.

The good Samaritans brought the poor kitty to Quail Creek Veterinary Clinic in Oklahoma City. Somehow the cat, who was given the name Deuce, had managed to survive on his own for at least a month despite his grievous injuries. Other than being malnourished — I imagine it's pretty tough to catch mice when you have to chase them with only two of your four legs — the cat was in remarkably good health.

Because of the nature of Deuce's injuries, veterinarian Beth Ruby, who treated him, said the injuries don't appear to have been caused by an evil-minded human. Instead, she suspects that he had an unfortunate run-in with farm machinery. Cow farms are all over the place in the area where Deuce was found, and it wouldn't be a surprise if he got run over by a combine or a mower. And given the size and noise created by those machines, it's pretty likely the farmer wouldn't have seen Deuce or heard his cries.

As the cat's story spread, he won the hearts of people all over the country. But to one Oklahoma City resident, Deuce's story was more than just a blip on the TV screen.

"It just tugged at my heart strings.I felt so sorry for him," said Stephani Coker, who lives with three other cats, one of whom is missing a leg."I just wanted to give him a forever home.I knew I could love him."

A vet tech at the Quail Creek clinic took Deuce home and nursed him back to health. Two and a half months ago, Stephani got her wish. On October 6, she adopted him. And now he's thriving in his forever home.

On Dec. 31, Stephani made a comment about Deuce on the KOTV news website: "He is doing absolutely wonderful and is just like any other kitty. He gets around great and doesn't dwell on his injuries. He loves to play and, in fact, the laser light is his favorite toy."

Stephani says the cat has given her a different perspective on life. "After everything he's been through and he's just happy to have somebody love him. That's it." She's looking into training the amazing two-legger as a therapy cat.

And they lived happily ever after.

Here's the video from the original story about Deuce:

(In a reader? Watch the video here.)

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LOLcat: cat in carrier with the caption "Quarantine cat poses no threat."

After more than 100 years of forcing cats, dogs, and ferrets to endure a six-month quarantine to prove that they don't have rabies, Britain's pet import policy has finally caught up with the rest of the European Union. Now, animals coming from other EU nations and listed countries like the United States and Australia can enter as long as they have had a rabies vaccination 21 days before they travel and have an up-to-date "pet passport."

The U.K. has been free of rabies for a very long time, and understandably wants to keep it that way. But the old rules were designed in the 19th century, and veterinary science has advanced tremendously since then. Rabies vaccinations are standard procedure in the U.S. and many other countries, which has reduced the population of domestic animals with rabies to almost nil.

"It's time we changed these outdated rules which have caused hardship to generations of pets and pet owners, and those who rely on assistance dogs, with too many animals cooped up unnecessarily," said Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman.

But if you do travel to Britain with your cat, there are still rules you need to follow. You'll need to get your cat microchipped to identify it, have her vaccinated against rabies after she gets the microchip, and get an EU "pet passport" for her. See the complete rules and information about how to get a pet passport at the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) website.

Check with the airline you're using to see if it requires a health check before traveling. For most airlines, this needs to take place 24 to 48 hours before departure.

There are a limited number of approved airlines (and approved points of departure and arrival) for transporting your cat to the U.K., and almost all of them will require that your cat be transported in the cargo hold. Check with the airline to make sure you use an approved cat carrier, and get the documentation you need to prove that you have a reservation for your cat.

Even though you'll still have to jump through a bunch of bureaucratic hoops before you bring your cat to the U.K., at least you won't have to leave your sweet puss in the hands of the Customs Service and their veterinary staff for six months!

"Good on ya!" as they say in the U.K.

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Kitty News Network Top 5 Heart-Warming Humans graphic

Every year, thousands of people work hard to rescue cats and provide sanctuary for those who might not be considered adoptable due to age and/or disease, often using their own financial resources to pay for all the necessary care for these amazingly special animals. This list is in no way meant to slight those individuals because their everyday, low-key heroism never ceases to move me -- sometimes even to tears. The individuals listed here are exemplars of the love and compassion that every single rescuer brings to his or her work.

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A Navy sailor with one of the rescued kittens

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Four members of the feline "underground railroad" at BlogPaws 2011

#4: The members of the feline "underground railroad." These individuals rescue cats from high-kill shelters in the southern U.S. and bring them north, where they are more likely to find good homes. I had the pleasure of meeting a couple of them in person at the 2011 BlogPaws conference. While we were getting educated and inspired, chatting with our friends, and enjoying great food and drink, Maria and her fellow "underground railroad" transporter, Bobby, were racing up the East Coast, just ahead of Hurricane Irene, to deliver Amberly and her five babies into the care of my fellow cat blogger, Robin Olson, founder of Kitten Associates, a small Connecticut-based rescue. Robin and her partner, Sam, left the conference early so they could get home ahead of the storm, and arrived just in time to batten down the hatches and get the kittens the veterinary care they needed. The story ended well: Amberly and the kittens have since found wonderful, loving forever homes.

These everyday heroes went to incredible lengths and even risked their own safety to make sure a cat and her five kittens escaped death in the high-kill shelters of Georgia and now have a chance to find a loving home.

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Some of the cats rescued from Henry County AC&C

On Monday, November 21, Shelton, the founder and director of FurKids, Georgia's largest no-kill, cage-free shelter, called Henry County to check on the kill list cats' status. She found that 15 of them were still there, waiting for their number to come up. And she opened her heart, and her cat flap, to every single one of those death-row kitties.

Samantha Sheltons miraculous act didnt just save those cats lives. It gave more time to the ones still at the shelter, the ones still to arrive. Thank you, Samantha. The Thanksgiving gift you gave those 15 cats is an example of the wonderful things one person can do.

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Willow

#2: Wendy Matthews. In February, Wendy was checking out her regional Craigslist postings when she saw an ad for a free crippled kitten and decided to answer it. When she found out that the family had never named her and only called her "Cripple," Wendy's heart opened for this sweet kitten who didn't stand a chance without her help. She brought the twisty-legged cat home and gave her the name Willow because "a beautiful girl deserves a beautiful name." Wendy quickly adapted her home to Willow's special needs, but she discovered that the cat was walking on her ankles and developing sores that could become severely infected. At her own expense, she took Willow to a veterinary orthopedist, who eventually told her nothing could be done to straighten the cat's legs. But Wendy didn't give up: she started a Facebook page to share Willow's story, and soon gifts and medical supplies began pouring in. Eventually, Willow's fans raised enough money for a special wheelchair so the cat could run around without hurting herself. Not only that, but Willow's disability inspired Wendy to start Leggings for Life, a loosely knit (pardon the pun) group of people who crochet leggings for cats and dogs that need protection for their own crippled legs.

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Adlai Grace

But Wendy's story doesn't end there. In August, Wendy heard about a 4-week-old kitten that had been abandoned by a dirt road. The kitten had suffered severe spinal trauma that left her paralyzed and incontinent. She decided she couldn't ignore the tiny cat's needs, so she stepped in and adopted this abused and abandoned baby, whom she named Adlai Grace, for "God is just."

Wendy started Adlai on a regimen of physical therapy to strengthen her limbs and a daily diet of tons and tons of love and affection. The pair of them made frequent vet visits to see what could be done to help the kitten recover. The abuse she had suffered made Adlai's spine so twisted that she was unable to move her back and her ribs caved in on her heart and lungs, which caused her to have episodes of serious breathing difficulties.

Adlai only survived for 56 days. But those 56 days were filled with love, tenderness, and caring in the arms of a woman who was willing to do anything and everything to help her recover. Wendy started a campaign called Justice for Adlai Grace; she and her friends are raising money for a reward for any information leading to the identification and arrest of Adlai's abuser.

In the end, the legacy Adlai left for Wendy, me, and all the other people who had cheered for her progress, melted when we watched the sweet videos her caretaker shared, prayed for her, donated to the fund for her medical care, and shared her story around the world is this: Love wins.

Thank you so much, Wendy. The world needs more people like you.

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9-year-old Jamarea Mills fought off a knife-wielding bully to save this kitten.

And the #1 heart-warming hero of the year is Jamarea Mills! This amazing 9-year-old boy fought off a knife-wielding bully to save the life of a kitten that was being beaten to death. Jamarea and his brothers were in a neighborhood park, playing with a stray cat, when a 12-year-old boy came along, grabbed the kitten, and started beating it with a log.

When the older boy took out a knife and threatened to cut the cat, Jamarea knew he couldnt stand by as the bully killed the kitten. In an act of incredible bravery, he ran in and took the knife away from a boy three years older than him.

The children picked up the seemingly lifeless kitten and put it in a cardboard box to take it home and get help. An adult called the authorities, and an animal control officer came to the childrens aid. The cat was treated for injuries including a broken leg and a bruised abdomen and lungs. Unfortunately, the kitten died from his injuries, but the legacy of a 9-year-old boy's act of heroism lives on.

Please take some time to thank these wonderful people for their acts of heroism, big and small. And don't forget to thank the rescuers and heroes in your community whose stories don't make the news; their courageous and compassionate acts are just as important as the ones I've shared here.

After a saga full of twists and turns, a cat lost at Edmonton International Airport has been found, safe and sound.

George escaped from his kennel at the airport on Sept. 23 when ground crew personnel were unloading baggage from an Air Canada flight. Two months later, the airline found a cat matching George's description frozen to death and informed his owner, Vanessa Summerfield, of that fact.

Because she couldn't travel the 270 miles from her home in Fort McMurray, Alberta to identify the cat, she asked a volunteer in the area to do so before it was cremated.

It turned out that the frozen cat was a female, and didn't look that much like George after all.

So the search was back on.

Last week, Hope Gulseth of Leduc, a residential area about five miles from the airport, found a thin and hungry black-and-white cat on her doorstep. After three days, she was able to coax the cat indoors.

Her husband began searching online to see if anyone was missing a cat. He found a Facebook page dedicated to the search for George, which led him to Summerfield.

"It's unreal," Summerfield said in a CBC radio interview "I don't even know what to think right now."

I know what to think: George and Summerfield are going to be reunited just in time for Christmas.

As we know all too well, this isn't the first time a cat has gotten lost at an airport. A lot of people respond to stories like this by saying, "Well, people just shouldn't take cats on airplanes." But the problem is, people who need to travel with their cats really don't have other options.

Sure, if you're going on a short trip, you can leave your cats in the care of a trusted friend, family member, or pet sitter. But what if you need to make a major move?

In the U.S., pets are forbidden on all national train services and bus lines (although they may be allowed on some regional carriers).

Pet transportation services do exist, but they're not available to all that many people because they generally only serve certain major cities.

Not everybody is able to drive to their destination, and even if they did, traveling by car is no guarantee of safety.

You can't tell people to leave their cats at home if they're moving, that's just plain cruel. Would you tell someone they should leave their children behind because they might get lost? I think not!

So, just how are you supposed to safely bring your beloved cats with you when you move?

The fact is that despite the high-profile stories of cats lost during air travel, for every tragedy there are thousands of other pets whose journey ends safely.

Every activity in life is a risk. When you have to travel with your cats, all you can do is be prepared and do everything you can to minimize that risk. Be sure that your cat's carrier is sturdy. Be sure that your cat has identification — collars with tags, microchips, whatever. Have your cat's vet records and recent photos with you, just in case your cat does go missing during your travels. But accidents can happen to even the best-prepared travelers, so try to refrain from judgment and guilt trips when they do happen. It's called an accident for a reason.

Traveling with cats has been on my mind a lot because I'm planning a cross-country move. Although I have the luxury of being able to drive to my destination, if I could travel by train or bus with my cats, I'd much rather do so. The idea of leaving a 3,000-mile drive to someone else certainly is appealing. But how many other people would consider ground travel a good option?

Although I understand why cats are forbidden on buses — there really is no safe place to stow a cat on a bus — do you think it's possible to convince Amtrak or other national rail carriers that the cost for setting up cat-safe baggage compartments would yield a good return?

What would you suggest, beyond the obvious measures I mentioned above, to keep cats safe during long-distance travel? Would you be willing to lobby for ground carriers to allow pets? And would you be willing to pay more — and take more time — to ride a train with your cats than you would for a flight to your destination?

Opie the cat needed a miracle.

The 12-year-old Siamese cat had been living with kidney disease since the tender age of 4. He was doing fine until late this summer, when he began to show that he was in the end stage of his illness.

His caretaker, Catherine Addy-Bernstein, knew she had a serious decision to make.

Without any treatment, Opie — who had seen her through the recent loss of several family members and her oldest cat — would have at most two months to live.

Opie had a good chance of spending many more years with Addy-Bernstein if he could get the treatment that would save his life: a kidney transplant.

Feline kidney transplants cost $12,000 to $16,000. But Addy-Bernstein had pet health insurance and she knew that Siamese cats are known for their long lifespans — up to 20 years, and sometimes even more — so she decided to go ahead with the surgery.

The most beautiful thing about this story is not the incredible sacrifice she made on Opie's behalf. It's the fact that in the process of saving her own cat's life, she saved another cat too.

When a cat needs a kidney transplant, surgeons look to local animal shelters to find a donor match. The person who owns the recipient cat must adopt the donor cat, too.

In Opie's case, the lucky winner of the transplant lottery was Cadbury, a gorgeous black cat who was on death row at a Philadelphia animal shelter.

And now, three months later, Opie and Cadbury are best buddies. They enjoy one another's company, and sometimes they're even seen grooming one another. "The [cats] have a special connection," says Addy-Bernstein. "I've heard it's the same with human transplants."

Who knows why the cat had been afflicted with such a terrible problem at such a young age? The article I read didn't specify the type of kidney disease from which Opie suffered, but Siamese cats do have a greater than average chance of inheriting genes that lead to kidney disease.

Shelling out 12 grand to get a cat a kidney transplant may seem ridiculous to some people, but honestly, if I had the money and one of my cats needed it, and my vet told me that my baby would enjoy a good quality of life after the surgery, I'd probably do the same thing. I'd be glad to save another cat's life in the process, too.

If you want to learn more about Opie, he's going to be featured on the Animal Planet TV series Must Love Cats in early 2012.

Over the weekend, rumors swept the Internet that Halo, the pet food company co-owned by TV personality Ellen De Generes, was planning to introduce a line of vegan cat foods. Many cat lovers, myself included, were horrified at the possibility. I even answered a question on my cat advice blog from a reader who had heard the rumor and wondered if it was even possible for cats to be healthy on a vegan diet.

It turns out that my readers — and cat lovers in general — have very strong feelings about diet and nutrition. The comments piled in, from pro- and anti-vegan diet readers, and although I was gratified that the post "got legs" and was shared more widely than any column I'd written in the last eight years, I was starting to have my doubts about the truth of the rumor and I worried that my post was inadvertently spreading misinformation about Ellen's plans.

When I found the source of the rumor, a celebrity gossip blog in the Chicago Sun Times, Ithought, "Uh-oh."

The point of the article I wrote was not that Ellen was planning to launch a vegan cat food line, but about the importance of a healthy, species-appropriate diet for cats. Nonetheless, I began to worry that more people were talking about the Halo vegan cat food rumor than anything else.

A couple of my fellow bloggers, one of whom is actually a publicity consultant for Halo, took it upon themselves to ask Halo directly if the company planned to introduce a vegan diet for cats, and the answer, straight from the horse's mouth, came in a tweet from Halo: "Just to set things straight, Halo is NOT introducing a vegan cat food! Cats need animal protein and we are advocates for optimal nutrition for all pets."

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Halo's tweet: Halo is NOT planning to introduce vegan cat food.

Although vegan cat foods do exist, we can rest assured that Halo is not going to create one. Since Halo, with its celebrity owner and spokeswoman, is such a big deal in the pet food market, I'm gratified to know that although Ellen herself is a vegan, she has no plans to make the company impose her dietary ethics on obligate carnivores.

Halo does plan to introduce a vegan dog food, but that's not such a huge deal to me. Dogs are omnivores and they can do okay on a healthy, nutritionally balanced meat-free diet.

If you do hear the rumor about Halo's alleged vegan cat food line, please share this post and help spread the truth.

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Not only did the Knesset (parliament) vote to ban the surgery, they imposed stiff penalties for violators including a fine of about $20,000 US and up to a year in prison.

Israel joins Australia, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Finland, Estonia, the Netherlands, German, Switzerland, and Austria in the community of nations that officially outlaw declawing or consider it inhumane.

Although several cities in California have banned declawing, the surgery is entirely too common in the United States, where an estimated 25 percent of cats are declawed.

Why is declawing so popular in the U.S.? I think it has a lot to do with a lack of understanding. The term calls to mind a simple and permanent snipping of the toenails and certainly doesn't make anybody think of the reality of the surgery — an amputation of the end joints of all the cat's toes.

I've seen this ignorance in action. A few years ago I was in my office with a couple of other people. One of them mentioned that her daughter wanted to get a cat, but she was concerned that it would wreck her expensive leather furniture. The other person told her, "Well, don't worry, you can just have its claws taken out."

My eyes went wide. I took a deep breath and tried my best not to rise up in righteous rage — after all, people don't respond well to opinions expressed in anger — and said, "You could do that, but before you do, you should know what declawing really involves." I calmly described the procedure and told her that most shelters in the area won't adopt cats out to people who plan to have them declawed.

The woman said, "Really?"

I explained that scratching is a natural behavior and there are plenty of ways to train a cat to scratch on appropriate surfaces.

The man said, "Well, my cat's declawed and he's just fine."

Contrast that with another one of my good friends who, on the advice of her veterinarian, had her cat declawed and spayed at the same time. This cat was 17 at the time and, fortunately, had adapted to life with amputated toes and not developed any behavior problems. "If I'd known back then what declawing really is, I'd never have had it done," she told me.

I like to think that my friend's reaction is much more common than the careless, throwaway "advice" from the man at my office.

If we can't get declawing banned in the United States, maybe by telling the truth about declawing — in a reasonable tone and without guilt-tripping or being judgmental — we can bring that 25 percent down to zero percent, one cat at a time.

And as more countries and advocacy groups join the call to ban declawing, maybe the United States will be next to take an official stance on outlawing this grisly surgery.

The roaming cats of New York City need winter shelters, and who better to design and build them than the super-creative individuals in the city's architectural community?

That's what Leslie Farrell thought. So she created Architects for Animals, which brings together feral cat advocates and architects with a soft spot for homeless kitties.

Architects for Animals' biggest fundraising activity is an annual designer cat shelter showcase and contest. Architectural firms donate their time and labor to create an array of avant-garde mini-houses where community cats can come in from the cold.

After the winner is chosen, the shelters are donated to feral cat colony caretakers throughout New York's five boroughs. Proceeds from ticket sales for the event are donated to the New York City Feral Cat Initiative, a joint program of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals and Neighborhood Cats, two nonprofits whose goal is to solve the feral cat overpopulation crisis through a citywide trap-neuter-return program.

This year's Architects for Animals Giving Shelter exhibition was held on Dec. 6 at the swanky Steelcase Showroom in midtown Manhattan. Check out the photos from the event and the array of creative kitty houses. The winning entry, created by Kathryn Walton, founder of The American Street Cat, and Co Adaptive Architecture, was a yellow structure that looks an awful lot like a movie theater popcorn box, but is warm and well insulated.

I imagine that the architects who designed the shelters don't have all that many opportunities to just go wild and really stretch their creative wings. After all, high-rises and office buildings all have to be built within a certain set of specifications — understandably so, because nobody wants their multimillion-dollar tower to come crashing to the ground — and there really aren't all that many astonishingly wealthy individual homeowners who can afford the services of high-end architects. The designs of feral cat houses, on the other hand, are limited only by the imagination.

I doubt that the four-legged members of the lucky community cat colonies will realize their new shelters are wildly creative buildings designed by high-end architects with a progressive vision of housing for all creatures. But hopefully these intriguing structures will cause the occasional New Yorker to stop for a moment and turn their eyes to the tens of thousands of feral cats needing shelter and care.

Here's a video from the 2010 Giving Shelter exhibition. It's worth watching, not only for the chance to see more incredible cat houses but for the excellent sound-bite-size discussion of why TNR is so important.

(In a reader? Watch the video here.)

After the saga of Jack the Cat, who went missing at JFK Airport this summer, I think we could all use a cat-lost-in-airport story with a happy ending. Now, thanks to an airline, an airport, and a pet detective, we've got one.

On December 3, a woman flying from Tucson to Seattle with her cat, Wenty, went to pick up the cat from the baggage claim area and received a closed but empty pet carrier instead.

I'm sure Jack's story must have weighed heavily on her mind as she began the search for her missing cat. The next day, she found the website for the Seattle-based Missing Pet Partnership (MPP) and asked them for assistance.

There were four places Wenty could have gotten lost: the airport in Tucson, the baggage hold of the Alaska Airlines plane in which the pair flew to Seattle, and the ramps and baggage area of Sea-Tac Airport. MPP mobilized a crew of volunteers and a cat detection dog and contacted Alaska Airlines to seek permission to search its hidden infrastructure.

Not only did the airline grant MPP full access to the baggage areas and ramps (accompanied by an Alaska Airlines supervisor, of course), but they were even willing to dismantle equipment if necessary to get Wenty back to her caretaker.

But the airline went even further than that: When MPP asked to search the plane on which Wenty had flown, they were willing to ground it when it got back to Seattle late that night and find a replacement aircraft so the the search team could take as long as they needed to look for Wenty in the baggage hold and any other nooks and crannies.

Kat Albrecht of Missing Pet Partners wrote in her blog that although Karma, the cat detection dog brought in by the crew, did catch a faint whiff of cat near an Alaska Airlines conveyor belt, the dog's response wasn't strong enough to justify pulling the machine apart. The team searched for three and a half hours but failed to locate Wenty.

But early on Monday, December 5, something wonderful happened. Because Alaska Airlines had alerted staff at all other airlines about Wenty, everyone was on the lookout. When a United Airlines employee spotted a pair of white paws under a baggage carousel, he got down on the floor and was able to catch Wenty.

After a trip to the emergency vet for a checkup, the greasy and thirsty but otherwise healthy cat was reunited with her owner.

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Two days later, Wenty was reunited with her caretaker.

Now that's the way an airline should respond when they lose a passenger's animal companion. If American Airlines had done the same thing, Jack would still be alive.

Given, Sea-Tac is a much smaller airport than JFK. Given, Alaska Airlines is a much smaller airline than American. And given, Seattle has a much more laid-back and open-hearted "vibe" than New York. (Full disclosure: I love Seattle so much that my cats and I are planning to move there — by car, of course.) But still, Seattleites are busy; employees at Sea-Tac don't exactly have hours to sit around and update their Facebook pages, either; and even small airlines have rigorous schedules and requirements in order to get their passengers from Point A to Point B. In spite of all this, they made the time to do all the right things.

Maybe Alaska Airlines learned a few things from American's string of bungles in Jack's situation, or maybe they would have stepped up and done what needed to be done anyway. But whatever the case, I'm delighted that Wenty will be home for the holidays and that it took less than three days to find her, thanks to the diligence of pet detectives and an airline that was willing to go the extra mile — many extra miles, actually — to get a passenger reunited with her precious four-legged friend.

With the terrible economy and the resulting chaos and dysfunction, so many families are in crisis today. Whether they're facing homelessness, dealing with a serious illness, or fleeing from abusive relationships, people have all they can do just to keep their own bodies and souls together. Unfortunately, pets are often the forgotten victims of this multipronged tragedy.

As the so-called great recession continues to grind away, families rendered homeless by foreclosure or eviction are forced to surrender their beloved pets to shelters — where they're often euthanized if they're not adopted quickly.

But at least for some felines and their families, there's a light in all this darkness.

Laura Pople had been an American Red Cross shelter worker, volunteering to help in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The biggest heartbreak for many families who survived the disasters was that in addition to losing all their material possessions, they lost their animals too.

Pople decided she couldn't just stand by and watch. In 2008, she opened Seer Farms in Jackson, N.J., and started its Out of Crisis program.

Seer Farms is different from many other sanctuaries. It's a people-centered animal sanctuary, as the organization says on its website, and its goal is to keep pets and their families together during difficult times.

The sanctuary provides a temporary safe home for cats that are facing homelessness. Right now, about 100 cats are living there until their caretakers can return to claim them. They belong to people recovering from serious illnesses, soldiers serving overseas, and victims of the economy or of domestic violence.

Every single day, volunteers and kennel assistants visit each cat and make sure to play with them and offer love and affection. Owners are welcome — and encouraged — to visit their feline friends and be responsible for their veterinary care.

About 80 percent of cat owners eventually return for their feline friends.

What happened to the people who left their cats in Seer Farms' care? I imagine we'll never know. Maybe it's taking longer than they thought to get back on their feet. Maybe the grief of losing their cat friends was so profound that they couldn't stand to go back and visit. Maybe they didn't care all that much in the first place — but somehow I doubt that, considering they made the effort to place their cats in a sanctuary where they wouldn't be killed and they probably had every intention of coming back to get their pets.

One thing is certain, though: Even after the economy fully recovers, the need for places like Seer Farms will continue.

People are still needing to go into the hospital, said Pople. Theres still domestic violence situations.

Most of the rescuers I know have said they'd love to be out of a job. In a perfect world, there wouldn't be unwanted animals and people unable to take care of their beloved pets. There wouldn't be overcrowded shelters where animals are killed for the crime of simply being born. There wouldn't be shelter workers who suffer every day from the pain of having to kill these animals. But it's not a perfect world. Far from it.

Every day I'm thankful for the people who work hard to take care of animals in crisis, who do their best to find homes for the unwanted, and who care for sick and dying pets with care and compassion, ensuring that they know love and kindness for at least part of their lives. All of you deserve medals, because you're heroes in my book.

The stereotypical male country singer is a macho dude with a macho dog. But every once in a while, a strange thing happens: That dog-loving macho dude's heart is captured by a tiny, purring fuzzball.

That's just what happened to singer Jimmy White.

I'd never even heard of this guy before I got a press release about his advocacy on behalf of pets in shelters. Lots of musicians and actors speak publicly about the importance of adopting your next pet from a shelter — think of that tear-jerking ASPCA ad featuring singer Sarah McLachlan or the numerous public service announcements by famed animal advocate and former game show host Bob Barker — so my first thought was, "That's nice, but so what?"

I kept reading anyway, because you never know what gems you'll find buried in a press release. And wouldn't you know, I found one. White recorded a song called "Good Friends Are Hard to Find," which appears on Bands4Bella, a 17-song musical compilation fund-raiser for the Bella Moss Foundation. And that song was about, of all things completely unexpected, a cat! I mean, I expect goths and other musicians of the mopey persuasion to sing about cats — but not country singers.

Smoke, a gray tabby Maine Coon look-alike, found his way into White's life in October of 1983, when his wife brought the tiny 6-week-old fuzzball home. Being a dog person at the time, White confesses that he was annoyed by the kitten and pretty much dismissed him out of hand. But later that evening, he fell asleep in front of the TV — and when he woke up, there was Smoke, nestled in his beard.

I ask you, who couldn't fall in love after that?

As the years went by, Smoke's antics brought the pair ever closer. "He barked and played baseball, climbed the Christmas tree, sat next to me on the couch on his rear end, like a little child, his head leaned against me, fast asleep," White wrote in his bio.

Then, per the standard country-music storyline, White's wife left him. She couldn't take Smoke with her because no cats were allowed at her new home — not even for visits.Smoke became White's closest friend and ally, sharing every waking hour with him as he worked at his home-based business.

In 1991, Smoke developed diabetes. White vigilantly cared for him, administering two insulin shots each day and monitoring his beloved feline friend for any signs of illness. He also started writing a song about the deep and loving bond he and Smoke shared. "I knew I could never do it once I lost him. And I didnt want the song to be about loss. I wanted the song to be about love," White wrote.

That song was "Good Friends Are Hard to Find."

On Sept. 24, 1995, Smoke succumbed to his illness. He died in White's arms, covered in the beautiful veil of the love he'd known all his life.

"Today is September 24, 2010. I am crying as I write this, on the 15th anniversary of his death," White wrote in the final paragraph of his bio. "Sometimes I forget how much it hurts. But I don't mind the pain, he was so worth it. I'll always love you, my Smokerboy."

We all know that feeling. We've all been there.

And now, many years after his death, Smoke's legacy is helping the Bella Moss Foundation raise funds to educate veterinary practitioners and pet owners about the early detection of MRSA and other drug-resistant infections in animals.

What a wonderful way to pay tribute to a cat that meant so much. Thank you, Jimmy White — and thank you to all the other artists who contributed to the Bands4Bella compilation.

Here's the video of "Good Friends Are Hard to Find":

(In a reader? Watch the video here.)

I just found out about a nonprofit animal rescue group that held a photo contest.

Big deal, right? Things like this happen all the time, right?

Well, when I looked a little deeper, I found a couple of things that made this particular rescue group and this photo contest special.

The St. Francis Hospice for Cats in Derby, England, cares for elderly cats and cats with chronic illnesses and terminal conditions. When I viewed the shelter's list of residents, I found that the vast majority of them are FIV-positive, and they were taken in from other organizations that couldn't house them because of the potential threat of contagion to other cats.

Of course, I know that FIV is not in any way an instant death sentence and, unlike feline leukemia, it can't be transmitted by casual contact. But still, I can understand why most animal rescues would be hesitant to house FIV-positive cats.

The fact that St. Francis is living my own dream — I too hope to open a sanctuary and hospice for FIV-positive cats and those with other chronic illnesses — makes this organization special to me.

But what about that photo contest?

It was actually a pretty clever idea: It made use of social media and new technology to add a cool twist. In The Cat's Whiskers Instagram Photo Challenge, people were asked to share photos of that most adorable kitty feature that they manipulated using the free Instagram iPhone app. They asked participants to use hashtags and usernames to increase the contest's visibility on the Statigram website, where the photos were hosted. Other fans were asked to check out the submitted photos and vote for their favorites.

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One of the finalists in the Instagram photo contest

As far as I can tell, there were no prizes. It was just something fun to do. And people participated.

There were hundreds of entries and apparently thousands of votes.

Many nonprofits are struggling to figure out how to use social media to raise awareness and potentially raise funds. I know because my "day job" at a nonprofit revolves around web content management and social media campaigns. I've come to realize that there are a lot of unknowns, fears, and concerns among nonprofits when it comes to the world of Facebook, Twitter, blogging, and photo and video sharing.

The St. Francis Hospice photo contest is a threefold winner. It features lots of cool cat pictures taken by hundreds of cat lovers, some of whom were probably thousands of miles from England; it was done by a very special cat sanctuary; and it represents a nonprofit social media success story.

I'm sure St. Francis Hospice never imagined that their tiny rescue and fun photo contest would gain the attention of a US-based handmade cat accessory creator and distributor and a blogger at the world's largest online cat-loving community. But social media is funny that way: you never know what's going to "go viral" and attract attention far beyond the boundaries of your own community.

The contest deadline had passed by the time I learned about it, and it seems the group is still deciding on which of the four finalists has the winning photo. But I'd encourage you to check out the gallery of entries, because some of them are truly awesome.

If you're involved with a cat rescue group, don't be afraid to host a contest like this yourself. It makes for a great "friend-raiser," as we say in the unfortunately jargon-plagued nonprofit world — and getting the word out about the cool stuff you do can have far-reaching results.

While most Americans were sleeping soundly on Thanksgiving morning, with visions of turkey feasts and football games dancing in their heads, firefighters, police, and animal rescue personnel were busy saving a tiny life.

Around 4 a.m. last Thursday, an El Cajon, Calif., resident heard pathetic mews from a 3-inch electrical conduit and called for help. Emergency Animal Rescue personnel responded first, but couldn't get the kitten out of the pipe, which ran several feet into the ground.

Then the police came to help. They couldn't do much, so they called the fire department. Soon, almost a dozen people were on the scene.

At first they tried to tempt the cat with tuna, in hopes of getting her to a place where they could reach down and grab her with the tools they had on hand. That effort failed.

Then the firefighters MacGyvered a catchpole using a slim jim (the lock-picking tool, not the meat jerky treat), a cable, and some duct tape. Now that's ingenuity at its best.

Between the tuna and the improvised catchpole, the kitten was pulled, squirming and screaming, from her prison, three hours after the rescue effort began.

The kitten may not have been terribly thankful as she was pulled out of the hole with a noose wrapped around her, but after she calmed down I'm sure she was grateful to be free.

There's no such thing as a holiday when you're a firefighter or a cop, so these guys were already sacrificing time with their families to be available to keep the city's residents safe — even the four-legged ones. Thanks, fellas. You rock!

Now this sweet black-and-white kitten has even more to be thankful for: One of the police officers involved in the rescue has adopted her.

Here's the news story from NBC San Diego:

(In a reader? Watch the video here.)