Help Eric the Red Return Home

Gayle M was a long-time Care2 member who recently passed away.

I, and many others, knew Gayle through Care2, and some of us even met up with her at her home in upstate New York to visit. Sometime in 2008, Gayle went through major cancer surgery and treatment.

Another Care2 member, Lorelei Lantz, who lives in Texas, had been taking care of a new litter of kittens, one of whom Gayle fell in love with through photos here in the groups. His name is Eric the Red. Although Gayle wanted his companionship very much, the cost and logistics of transporting Eric the Red from Texas to New York seemed insurmountable. Seeing how important this was to Gayle, I started a fundraising initiative and enough money was raised to get Eric to New York to keep Gayle company during her convalescence. Eric was to be returned to Lorelei after Gayle's passing.

Gayle passed away on January 7, 2015, but neither her brother or her mother seemed to know about this arrangement, and placed Eric the Red and Gayle's other cat Mr. Tabby up for adoption with an organisation called the Animal Care Council in a nearby town. Both cats have been placed with new caretakers, unbeknownst to us.

Since most of us only just found out about Gayle's passing, we were unable to prevent this from happening. The original plan was for Lorelei to take both cats back to Texas upon Gayle's passing.

Lorelei and I both contacted Gayle's brother, explained the situation, and asked if he could contact the ACC to get the cats back (we weren't sure if they had been placed yet). As well, I contacted the ACC myself to explain the situation. The ACC wrote back to tell me that both cats had been placed and that there was nothing they could do. I wrote back again explaining that, although the original plan was for Lorelei to take both cats, it was really only Eric the Red who belonged to Lorelei, and could they possibly assist us in getting just Eric back. I offered to reimburse any money the new caretakers would have spent acquiring Eric. They said they understood the situation, but that there was still nothing that could be done.

It is true, and I understand, that once the cats have been placed, nothing much can be done about it, however, I don't think that *nothing* can be done, as the ACC said. However slim the chances, I believe it is possible for the ACC to contact Eric's current caretaker to explain the situation in the hopes that they will return Eric to his rightful owner. They've only had him for a few weeks.

Lorelei's daughter Dana was prepared to travel to New York on or about the 6th of February to pick Eric up, and I had planned to drive down from Toronto to meet them.

I am posting this story to ask as many people as possible to call or write to the Animal Care Council in support of our efforts to return Eric the Red to his owner Lorelei. We need your help with this. Maybe, if enough people call or write, this may happen.

It is important that everyone who contacts the ACC is polite and civil, as we don't want to anger them over this. They have already been contacted by a few people, but there is strength in numbers. The more who contact them, the better. We just want the ACC and the new caretakers to know how important this is to Lorelei and to Gayle, for those were her wishes, and that was the arrangement.

Here are the contact details for the Animal Care Council in Endicott, New York:

Animal Care Council
131 Washington Ave
Endicott, NY 13760

Adoption Center: (607) 786-5740

Fax: (607) 239-6551

Email: accinfo@stny.rr.com

And this is their Facebook page, which is where I contacted them:

https://www.facebook.com/animalcarecouncil

Please do what you can. We are grateful for any and all help.

Thank you.