April 9, 2007 — The St. John Animal Care Center (ACC) provides 80 20-pound bags of cat food monthly to residents who maintain feeding stations throughout the island. These caring men and women bring food and fresh water daily to 28 feeding stations. And every day the homeless cats and kittens come out of the bush for their guaranteed meal of the day.
It’s a wonderful sight to see these beautiful creatures come from all directions. They are black, gray tiger, white, black and white, orange and glorious combinations of colors. And miraculously they do not fight. They’ve learned there’s enough for everyone.
Most of the bush cats at the St. John feeding stations have already been trapped and taken to the local vet, where they’re tested for feline leukemia, spayed and neutered. Typically they’re returned to a feeding station closest to where they were trapped. Some of these kitties are shy, others are learning to trust a human and still others are already tame enough to be kept at the ACC shelter in Cruz Bay for adoption.
Frequently, a bush cat forms a friendship with another cat and soon the two travel together for their entire lives. Sometimes the two — of no set gender — admit a kitten or teenager cat into their company, thereby providing the friendship that these domestic animals otherwise lack when they haven’t a home with a human.
Two such “bonded” cats — years past kittenhood — have been coming to the feeding station at Bordeaux Mountain for a long, long time. They aren’t very spry anymore and in their advancing years are losing some of their teeth. The mistress of the Bordeaux station noticed that these two of her charges were failing. She felt it was time for them to come to the shelter.
However, there was a potential tragedy. The shelter was declared full. No room at the inn. The kitties, tame after years of association with humans, needed a home.
In typical St. John fashion, the coconut telegraph sprang into action. Kathy Reutlinger, the feeding-station mistress, called Paula Myles. Paula is a long-time St. John animal advocate who has a family of cats and dogs at her Susanaberg home. Paula had heard that the former manager of the ACC shelter — Johanna Chawziuk — might come back for a brief visit. Paula referred Kathy to Johanna’s hostess, who gave Jo’s telephone number in New Hampshire to Kathy. Kathy called Jo and plans for the rescue mission began.
Johanna, who recently returned to serving Delta Airlines as a flight attendant, sandwiched St. John into her flight schedule. As a senior flight attendant returning to Delta after several years on furlough, Johanna has the priority to fly international routes. Her visit to St. John was a short vacation between flying to Moscow and Mumbai, India. With only a few days on island, she came prepared with two empty Sherpa bags.
Complex orchestration was required to capture both bush-cat friends, get them to a vet for rabies shots and health certificates, keep them confined until T-Day (travel day) and find an animal-friendly taxi driver to get Jo and her charges from Red Hook to the airport.
Pet-friendly taxi-driver Rachel was booked for a tour and couldn’t meet Jo at Red Hook, so Kathy undertook her first barge trip to St. Thomas and the airport. Stewardess Jo was soon back in the air en route to Boston and her home in New Hampshire where Tulip — AKA Pudgely — and Smitty are joining the other St. John rescue cats at Jo’s cottage in the woods. They will get immediate vet care for whatever ails them — although false teeth are not guaranteed. But tasty soft food will ensure that they receive proper nourishment in their old age.
God bless Johanna, Kathy, Paula, Rachel, Nancy Lewis and John Diehl (who built the feeding stations), Pirate Bill, Maia Mongie, Jeannie Petrovich and all the other St. John feeding-station masters and mistresses who faithfully care for their bush families.
“Keep 'em Flying” was a famous World War II slogan. Our St. John kittens, cats, puppies and dogs have earned their wings. Let’s hope for more flight attendants and visitors to take them to snug homes, soft cushions, fresh water and boundless food.
Elaine Campbell
St. John
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