Rolling Dog Farm Blog

One of our supporters, Steffanie G., had seen an appeal from an animal rescue group in Beirut, Lebanon.  The group, called Beirut for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or BETA, was planning to fly a dozen or so cats to the U.S. for placement in mid-October, and they were looking for homes for them.  (Best Friends in Utah had helped BETA bring 300 dogs and cats to the U.S. last year.)  One of the cats was blind, and Steffanie wanted to know if we’d be able to take it.  His name was Popeye.

Now, we’re of the view that there are enough disabled animals right here in North America that desperately need help.  Every week we have to turn down anywhere from four to ten animals — and sometimes, in a really bad week, far more — because we’re at our "manageable" limit of 80 disabled animals.  But Beirut was one of the (many) places overseas I spent my childhood, and I was impressed with the effort BETA was making to find homes for its animals … so we agreed to take Popeye.

Two weeks ago, a BETA member named Maggie flew to Boston with the cats in tow.  A wonderful lady in Providence, Rhode Island, Sue T., had arranged to give Maggie and feline crew a place to stay on arrival.  Sue held on to Popeye for us until we could fly him out to Montana on October 16.  Then the day before his flight out West, he became sick with an upper respiratory infection, and Sue rushed him to her vet.  With some medications and a lot of loving care from Sue, Popeye became much better quickly, and we rescheduled his trip for the following week.  On Tuesday the 23rd, Sue drove Popeye to the Providence airport to catch his flight, only to discover that the outbound flight had been canceled.  So then I made new reservations for this Saturday.  (Third time’s a charm.)

Yesterday morning Sue headed to the airport again with Popeye, and this time everything worked just fine.  Popeye flew from Providence to Atlanta and then to Salt Lake, and finally to Missoula on the last Delta flight of the night.  I picked him up at the Missoula airport about 11:30 p.m.  Popeye thought it was insanely cold when I carried him out of the terminal to the truck — yet it was a balmy 33 degrees.  I said, "Middle Eastern boy, this is nothing, just wait!"  When we arrived back at the ranch around 1 a.m., it was 17 degrees.

In anticipation of Popeye’s arrival, we moved Tibby and Fibby out of the isolation cottage and into the cat house yesterday.  We spread blankets on the floor, and the two youngsters are doing well … everyone’s getting along splendidly.  The wobbly brothers, Smokey and Charlie, also moved out yesterday, and are now happily dancing and prancing with the rest of the gang who stay at our house with Alayne and me.

Thus Popeye spent his first day at the ranch in the bright and sunny iso cottage.  He’s not yet sure where he is and what’s happened, but he was quite comfortable in my arms when we took the photo above.  He has keratitis, which is an inflammation of the cornea.  His eyes are an odd blue/gray, which you should be able to see in the photo.  I’m concerned he may have something else going on in addition to the keratitis, because his eyes look larger than normal.  So he will get a complete ophthalmology work-up by our vet, Dr. Brenda Culver, at Montana Veterinary Specialists in Helena.

Thanks to several kind and compassionate people — Steffanie, Sue, and the BETA folks — Popeye is ready to start his new life in Montana!

(Click on photo for larger image.)