BY YVONNE COLLERY | Four extraordinarily lucky cats who went missing for a week during the aftermath of the Second Ave. explosion are not quite “home” yet, but all are all safely recovering with their “people.”
Sebastian and Kitty Cordelia are now happily purring and snuggling up with Kathleen Blomberg at their temporary home.
My Laszlo and Lulu are doing very well, although Lulu and Catarina, one of our host cats where we are now staying, are at loggerheads and growl and hiss at each other whenever their paths cross, which is often. Laszlo has made fast friends with Angus, our other host cat, and they take nightly walkabouts side by side and have been spotted happily napping together during the day.
Sebastian, Kitty Cordelia, Laszlo and Lulu have all suffered though and miraculously survived a major disaster, but the same may not be true for Ryce, Leather Face, Sylvie and Sago.
The ASPCA and Animal Care & Control said they are holding out the most hope for Ryce at this point since he is also from our building, 125 Second Ave., which is still standing unlike the buildings that Leather Face, Sylvie and Sago came from. That being said, we believe that more can still be done and should have been done to find our cherished missing pet neighbors.
Ryce is a gorgeous young Siamese-mix cat belonging to Stuart and Kayoko Lipsky and their heartbroken 12-year-old daughter, Hannah. The Lipskys were able to take their other cat, Muffin, but were unable to find Ryce when huge burning pieces of the neighboring building were already crashing down onto the roof of the boutique Enz’s, which is next to their second-floor windows within the air shaft. The Lipskys believe that Ryce could have gotten out the smashed windows later and fallen into Enz’s space. No one has looked in there yet despite their many pleas. Hannah is a very strong and brave young girl, who has not missed even a day of school throughout this horrible time. Hannah with her sweet, brave face is an inspiration to us all.
Sylvie, a winsome and lovely Tortie, the adored pet of Nora and Matt Brooks, jumped away and hid when their roommate tried to get her out when she had to leave as her building was exploding from under her. I spoke with Matt — master puppeteer and puppet builder for Jim Henson — about five days after the explosion at the GOLES meeting held for all of the survivors. This couple had already lost everything that they had in the entire world, and yet a miserable-looking and forlorn Matt was exchanging info with us, the other pet guardians of the East Village Eight.
Leather Face, with his piercing blue eyes, a young Siamese/tabby mix (who looks very much like Ryce), is the spirit cat and beloved muse of Donald Cumming from 123 Second Ave. I met Donald at the Red Cross emergency center two days after the explosion. Donald, a very successful musician (The Virgins), had lost everything, and yet he didn’t speak a word about any of that. He was only speaking of Leather Face, a cat that he found and rescued in Tompkins Square Park two years ago. Donald has been putting up posters all over the East Village and has also paid for postcards to be sent to every apartment unit in the surrounding area. He is desperate to bring Leather Face safely home to wherever home may turn out to be. Whenever I see Donald, he is holding a picture or poster of Leather Face. Donald is showing us all grace by example.
Sago is a gorgeous 14-year-old Siamese. Sago’s poster was the first to go up after the disaster. None of the other East Village Eight people have met Sago’s people. That is because Tom Schmidt and Kim Modes were away from New York at the time of the explosion. Their friend Tom Walker very quickly put up the posters and also handed them to local people. Kudos to Tom Walker for being such a good and kind friend.
From the outset, we were pleading with the ASPCA and ACC to do a thorough search in the interior of our square block (borders being E. Seventh St. and St. Mark’s Place between Second and Third Aves.). Obviously, our side of Second Ave. was off limits, but access could have easily been gotten from the west and north parts of the block. Historically, many “alley cats” have resided in these areas, and some missing felines from days of yore have been found in some people’s gardens and returned. We were asking that catch-and-release cat traps be put in these areas. It was never done. The agencies in question said that they could not gain access. This is mindboggling since the F.D.N.Y. had all sorts of top brass working at the disaster site, and since it is the F.D.N.Y that grants access, and has access to almost every building in New York City. We, the people of New York City and the pet owners who were let down, need answers.
Some extraordinary people have been working indefatigably on behalf of us (the displaced pet guardians of the East Village Eight and our missing cats.) Cathryn Swan, of the Washington Square Park Blog not only covered our plight and individual stories, but has actively helped in our ongoing search. She has made many many phone calls to the various agencies involved, has gathered facts and has found people to help us who have expertise outside of the agencies that we have been dealing with. Another local advocate is Chrissy Hursh, a local dog walker with both feet and ears to the ground. Chrissy has relayed information about any cat that might fit the descriptions of the East Village Eight. She has combed the Web sites of all the city’s animal shelters. Chrissy also hooked us up with the Find Sugar Web site. Sugar’s people, desperate to find their beloved missing pit bull, gave the East Village lost cats space on their site. Many people also reported sightings of cats that they thought might be ours. Randi Klein of Whiskers Holistic Petcare on E. Ninth St. also linked us to her site and volunteered the Rescue Ranch as a drop-off spot. Bideawee Animal Hospital also linked our lost pets to their Web site and network.
The Villager has been very helpful to us from the get-go, unlike the mass media, which would not initially put our pleas to find our missing pets in their newspapers or on the network news. The major media only showed interest after Laszlo was saved by the F.D.N.Y., which I first wrote about in The Villager two weeks ago. At that point, the mass media were clamoring for interviews and photos of cute cats and handsome firefighters. I preferred to tell my story myself and stayed with the alternative media. The return of Kathleen Blomberg’s cats was covered by all the major papers, and later young Hannah Lipsky was interviewed, and that was very helpful, as she is desperate to find Ryce.
We who have had the joy of having had our pets rescued and returned are feeling deeply for our friends and neighbors who are still waiting, hoping and praying for some happy news. Could we not as a community help them? Let us all put pressure on our elected officials to ask the ASPCA and ACC to go into the gardens, alleys and courtyards of the interior of the block and to also search Enz’s store and basement. We, the people of this disaster, may be feeling beaten down and battered, but we are nonetheless still strong and we are as one. We need to help our smallest neighbors and we need to do it now.
