Gift to Puffy Paws is the cat’s meow

Posted by Nancy Guenther Chapman on February 8th, 2010 at 12:01 pm,
with photos by Nancy Guenther Chapman

Chrissy Kingston checks out the Jeep Chero­kee donated to Puffy Paws Kitty Haven by Rob O’Reilly of Cape Haze.

Weeks ago, Puff Paws Kitty Haven ben­e­fited from national gen­eros­ity via Cakewrecks.com.

Now the home-based cat haven has been given trans­porta­tion by a Cape Haze man.

Rob O’Reilly said his dona­tion of a 2000 Jeep Chero­kee was moti­vated by the strict no-kill pol­icy at the Haven and the Kingstons’ will­ing­ness to take care of cats infected with feline AIDS.

“I’ve tried to res­cue cats in Cape Haze and Placida,” said O’Reilly. “I would res­cue them to ani­mal hos­pi­tals, but the vet­eri­nar­i­ans  put them to sleep if they have feline AIDS. Rick and Chrissy will take in feline AIDS kit­tens. … They can have a nice life. A kit­ten with AIDS can live from one to eight years.”

O’Reilly recently gave three kit­tens to Puffy Paws, a 501 ©(3) non­profit. Sarge, Priscilla and Runt were liv­ing around the BP gas sta­tion on Placida Road, and now reside with the Kingstons in their home on Lake­view Lane.

O’Reilly said he and other peo­ple try to help the many feral cats that live around Placida Road, from The Fish­ery Restau­rant and envi­rons. He said it seems there are always lit­ters of kit­tens around.

“Half get run over by cars,” he said.

Trap­ping them is only par­tially suc­cess­ful, as their sur­vival is in ques­tion once they get a check-up. If they have AIDS they are con­ta­gious and are a dan­ger to other cats in a con­ven­tional shel­ter, and will be put down right away.

“I’ve got two kit­tens in my house,” he said. “Their mother was run over by a car on 775. Hope­fully I’ll get them adopted. … I can’t build a shel­ter out of my house.”

Rick and Chrissy Kingston have more than a 100 cats in their home, where they keep cats with AIDS or feline leukemia quar­an­tined from the gen­eral population.

“They’re really good peo­ple,” said O’Reilly. “That’s what they do for their life.”

O’Reilly remem­bers tak­ing a kit­ten who was born out­doors to a hos­pi­tal and he didn’t like the results.

“It broke my heart see this adorable lit­tle kit­ten being put to sleep,” he said.

He said the $12,000 Puffy Paws got in the Decem­ber wind­fall from Cakewrecks.com wouldn’t last long. Kingston con­firmed that it is already gone, used to pay for many surg­eries for his felines, includ­ing many spay­ings and neu­ter­ings fror kit­tens that have been dropped off recently. He also said that one kit­ten, Shadow, had had an eye removed because of a hematoma.

The kit­tens came from Lake­land. Many are in the feline leukemia quar­an­tine room.

O’Reilly was aware that the Kingstons needed trans­porta­tion, as they were down to one car. Nei­ther would go very far with it.

He wishes they could find local spon­sors for their efforts.

“I wish one of the clubs would take them on,” he said. “Maybe a woman’s group.”

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