Help! 250 Cats Have Disappeared!

Read this Response gingerly...we might give him a heart attack... even from here!
Poor written skills also...is there no one to proof read his letters..is this how poor the city of Antioch is??? This guy is making me sick! Poor me syndrome.

Catarina,

I appreciate the time you took to email your concerns to me.

I am fully aware of my oath of office. I have taken numerous oaths of allegiance, having served in the United States Navy for 24 years, including 5-1/2 years at the National Security Agency Representative to the Defense Language Institute.

You cite your suspicion that the missing cats in Antioch are "being perpetrated by humans in order to use them for laboratory experiments." There is no evidence of that. Had there been, it would have been pursued by our Police Department.

Antioch is the only city in Contra Costa County that operates its own Animal Shelter at a great expense to our General Fund. I don't hear your praise for Antioch having done that. I also don't hear your praise for Antioch entering into an agreement with ARF or the unfunded mandate of the Hayden Bill to hold animals longer.

Where is your outcry with the other cities that do not have animal shelters and rely on the County Animal Shelter in Martinez? Does the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office expend resources for missing cats as you expect of Antioch?
Me: Oh and look at this crap!!!
NOTHING????

In a city with 94,304 residents, a couple hundred missing cats in nothing. Cats are not housebound. They roam constantly. I know, as I have two cats (both neutered/spayed) that we adopted from an Animal Shelter. I also have dogs, who get along great with the cats.

Until cats are licensed and pay the same licensing fees as dogs, the City of Antioch will not have the resources to expend on this issue.

Our Police Department has more pressing issues dealing with the health, welfare and safety of our residents. They don't even have the resources to respond to vandalism to our residents vehicles. 55% of our General Fund goes to the Police Department.

With our limited resources and priorities, I can only suggest that the local residents who have "lost" their cats do their own detective work; and, if they can identify a culprit(s), then present that evidence to our Police Department.

Respectfully,

Arne Simonsen

Well how about that! LOL....I think my response to that is:

Dear Jewel Cat....
I held my reply due to the fact that I thought it would be quite intersting that you print this out and show it to the reporters that were so gracious to come to your aid...I do have a nice reply but, I will not let it pass my little grey box over here until I hear your thoughts. I would like to speak with one of your reporters. Perhaps you can give me a number of thiers to call myself. I do not like getting a verbal lashing and I am well equipped with a rebuttle that will knock him on his Pro-Antioch keister.:laughing2: Boohoo! He really takes himself seriously doesn't he...tell me, is Antioch the next NY city or something? The next "HUB" shall we say of America????LOL Please reply ....Thank you. :

Dear Jewel Cat:

I haven't heard from you.....so, I'm going to hold off on this rebuttle. I do hope you don't think I would go as far as to insult the individual anymore than I already have. I would rather make peace with him, try to enlighten him upon matters that he seems to overlook due to lack of experience.

Talk to ya soon....f/y/i...I wasn't poking fun at the City of Antioch, only trying to make some reference as to his position. He just appears so stuffy!

Take care & God Bless

Just haven't had a chance to get back to you, Catarina. I will try to post an answer this morning.

Catarina,

Before we go to the media with this I think we should find out if anyone else has received a response from our city.


Has anyone that wrote a letter, or placed a call, or sent an email to the City of Antioch received a response? If so, please let me know. If possible please send me a copy of the resonse you received.

Thank you

Dear JewelCat...with your permission I would like to send this:




Dear Ms. Simonsen;

I would like to commend you on your all of your oaths that you have taken for your country. I do believe you are entitled for proper recognition. I am not attacking your past accomplishments.

You are also correct in stating that I have no idea what the city of Antioch has done or hasn't done for itself. Yet, you have no idea what I've done for neighboring counties, so please, the foundation on which you hold your dramatic rebuttal is unwarranted. I too have my own career highlights (which I do not need to expound upon) and I do not appreciate your verbal lashing.

Quoted from your email: I would like to highlight: "a couple of hundred missing cats is nothing..."

In a city with 94,304 residents, a couple hundred missing cats in nothing. Cats are not housebound. They roam constantly. I know, as I have two cats (both neutered/spayed) that we adopted from an Animal Shelter. I also have dogs, who get along great with the cats.

Until cats are licensed and pay the same licensing fees as dogs, the City of Antioch will not have the resources to expend on this issue.
End of Quote

Many victims of petty thievery, arson, kidnapping, rape, murder so on so forth, leave no trace of evidence. What type of evidence are you looking for? A cat describing the human that tried to catch him/her?

Animal Abuse is a crime Mr. Simonsen and I know in my heart that one of my greatest possessions in being a women is trusting my own intuition. I can see the real crime here is the City of Antioch finds itself exempt from these investigations. Probably because of the attitude you displayed so adamantly above. There are 250 neighborhood pets missing. You called that nothing! No matter how many hundreds, is nothing? I pray that you will keep an eye on your loved ones. I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart.

Good luck Mr. Simonsen,

Sincerely,

Catarina Wyatt

Wow! I sure would like to be a fly on the wall when he receives your letter. You have a great way with words and I look forward to the day when we hopefully can meet each other. Until then, thank you for everything!

I am attaching a file to this post and I hope that everyone will read it.

When our two littles ones, PeeWee and Betty Boop, disappeared on Christmas weekend, I was devastated. I went through all of the motions to recover our lost pets which was the most difficult part for me as you have to do these things with a constant flow of tears in your eyes.
During this time there was much, if anything, that brought a smile to my face, that is until I stumbled upon this poem. Whe I read this poem it was the first time in weeks that I truly felt a smile on my face and a glimmer of hope that someday they would return.

I now carry this poem with me everywhere I go. I hope all of you will enjoy as much as I did.

I haven't gotten a response yet. I wonder if I deleted my message instead of sending it. I'm still a klutz with E-mail. Should I try again, or wait a while longer?

Can you check your "sent" folder? You know, the folder that holds all of the emails you have already sent? Normally your email program has an "inbox" folder, a "drafts" folder, an "unsent messages" folder, a "template" folder, a "trash" folder, and finally a "sent" folder. First check your "sent" folder then check your "trash" folder.

But by all means, do not expect a response from any of them. Catarina was lucky, or shall we say unlucky, to garnish a response from one of our city council members. They didn't even have the professional courtesy of responding with a "yes" or a "no" to an invitation I sent to each them to join a conference call I set up especially for them. And conference calls aren't cheap! Only one of them had the decency to respond and he is the only council member who is supporting our plight.

But thank you very much for writing to them. So far, I have only heard from you and Catarina, whether or not anyone else has written a letter, I don't know. I can only hope that they have.

JUST UPDATING EVERYONE, THE TOTAL IS NOW 288 CATS THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED!

Hi Jewelcat

I was shocked to read your post, and can't believe this is happening in my own "back yard".

I also live in East County. I watch the KRON news each evening when I get home. We subscribe to the Times, which we read every day. I have seen/heard nothing of this until now. When were these articles published? I'm thinking that we need to contact the reporter who covers the Antioch area and re-ignite her interest.

Also, if Gary Bogue were aware of this I know he would devote some of his popular column to this problem.

Please let me know if there's anything I can help with.

I had written a letter and stuck it in my draft folder. It is to your mayor, and I just re-checked it and added to it and sent it. Here is a copy:

My name is Mary Anne Miller and I live in Sweet Home Oregon. I am a native Southern Californian though, and for the last 14 years, I have been active in rescuing abused and abandoned cats. Recently, through a cat newsletter that I belong to, I became aware of the disappearance of over 300 cats from your city.

I read with interest (and disbelief) statements made that 200 missing cats is "normal" because they "stray". Well sir, they do stray, but they do not stray far, unless it is mating season and the irresponsible owners have not spayed or neutered their cat. Then they go off in a quest for the female they scent in the wind. But they do no vanish in great numbers such as the ones in your city appear to be doing UNLESS they are being stockpiled in great numbers by people with evil intent and being sold for research.

The attitude of the gentleman that have responded to this dilemma, and it is a dilemma Sir, has been an almost apathetic shrug, so what, it is only a cat. True, a cat cannot vote, but their owners can, and you may very well have a problem on your hands especially if you are considering running for another term. No voter likes to see an official dismiss their problems and mock their pain. Plus, with the advent of the Internet, this story is no longer a local issue, it has been sent out by others all along the network, and I am sure you have been deluged by emails by now. If not, you soon will be as will your constituents.

I am sure you are proud of your city, and you may have done great things in helping to establish an animal shelter, so why drag your feet and whine that there is no "proof" of said crime and have your constituents say that the police have "more important things to occupy their time" then the disappearance of cats"? If these were missing children, and I am sure some of the owners feel like their children are indeed missing, you wouldn't hesitate to find the person behind this.

Someone is taking great advantage of your apathy Honorable Sir. They are stealing all the cats they can get their hands on and you are letting them get away with it! This does not speak well of an elected official, and I am sure the repercussions as this story continues to have a life in cyberspace, will cause you some (I hope) twinges of conscience and you will hopefully do the right thing, and light a fire under the police department for them to start an investigation. I have seen what evil people do to helpless cats, please do not make these felines more helpless than they already are by sitting back and resting on your laurels and ignoring this problem.


Sincerely,

Mary Anne Miller
Sweet Home Oregon

To: Mary Ann, Sophie, & Ray

Terrific letter Mary Ann! And I should have known that a fellow Sweet Home, Oregonian would write such a powerful letter.
You meet people in the strangest places, don't you? Although, I was born in Santa Monica, I lived my first six years on this earth in Sweet Home, Oregon. My brother and sister were born there (Portland and Lebenon Hospitals). We even still keep in contact with one family that still lives in Sweet Home, they were neighbors on our street. It is indeed a small world!

Thanks for all of your support!


Sophie $ Ray,

I will be glad to fill you in on the details of the media exposure which does include several Gary Bogue columns, but first, where in the East County do you live? You can send me a personal email if you don't want to post this information publically. I am curious, because this is the problem I have been facing.
As much media exposure as we have had I consistantly run into people who don't know anything about what is happening here and haven't heard about it from anybody else. You see, that is because our police dept and our city leaders have chosen to ignore the problem, or better stated, they have chosen to believe in an old wives tale which tells them that 300 cats disappearing from families in their community is not a problem it is just normal cat behavior? Our own police dept and our own city government have been doing everything in their power to down play these horrible tragedies.
I just might need some help in the very near future and if your offer still stands, please do send me an email to let me know exactly where you live. I can't be in every location out here and I now have some helpers located in different East Co.Co.Co. areas and I could always use more help.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Thanks

Jewelcat

Hi Jewelcat

I am in Pleasant Hill.

I am going to be out in Antioch this weekend for a birthday celebration. If it's alright with you, I would like to make copies of the article(s) and pass them out to the people I'll see. If OK, please advise the date that the "best" article or best overview of the problem was published and I will go out at lunch and copy it onto a bright paper.

This tactic worked for my coworker who was facing a neighborhood problem that wasn't getting enough media exposure or attention.

Please keep us updated on this problem. I cannot believe these people!!! Jewelcat-you said you think you know who is taking them. If you can't tell us, I understand that you don't want to clue them in but do you have any idea what they have them for??????? It is killing me!

Unfortunately, Steph, if I told you the reason that our suspects are taking the cats then everyone will automatically know who our suspects are and we can't take the risk of leaking out this information.

Believe me as soon as I am able I will let everyone know what we have uncovered.

Jewelcat

Latest up date. The new total is now 297 cats missing.

Horrific Find! My neighbors across the street, just informed everyone that of the sudden their cat became mysteriously very ill last weekend and finally their kitty just couldn't hang on any longer and he died yesterday . . . he had been poisoned!

Hi Jewelcat

I'm sure you are busy with all of this and have not had time to reply to my earlier posts. I understand how that can be, but would like to ask again that you reply to this with some information, as I would like to help.

Because of the procrastinating pack rat that I am , I happen to have the past two months Contra Costa Times (give or take a few issues) in my recycle bin. I hadn't heard from you, so I looked over the front pages of them. Unfortunately I could not find the front page stories on your missing cats.

I'd like to know when the front page articles ran in the Contra Costa Times, and/or the dates that Gary Bogue mentioned this in his column. I have mentioned the cat disappearances to a couple of people I know in Antioch, and unfortunately they have not heard anything about this. I hope you understand my need to have something "on paper" to show them.

As I said in an earlier post, I will be out in Antioch at my cousin's for a birthday celebration this weekend. Their neighbors and some friends will be there, and I'd like to alert them of this problem. Almost everyone has a cat and I'm sure they want to protect them as best they can.

I look forward to hearing from you soon!

Dear Sophie,

I did respond several times. I tried to submit my reply to you about three times for but some reason my reply would not post to the message board. The only way I could get my reply to you was to send you a personal email which apparently you did not receive.
The front page story I referred to was written and published in The Antioch Ledger newspaper which is delivered to local residents as a part of the Co.Co. Times. I explained in my email to you that if you are a resident of P.H. then more than likely you did not receive this edition of the Antioch Ledger. You can find a copy of this article at the Co. Co. Times web site www.hotcoco.com or you can click on this link to read the story,
http://www.contracostatimes.com/comm..._20010420.htm.

Please bear in mind that much has happened since this story ran in the paper, but most of the information is located throughtout the threads connected to my message posting here at The Cate Site.

PLease let me know if you have any trouble with the link to the newspaper story and I will try another method.

Thanks for your help!

Hi Jewelcat

Thank you for your prompt reply. I did not realize you were trying to get in touch with me. I checked for a personal message but it says I have none.

Thanks for the link. It looks like a couple of the articles ran 29th December and 20th April in the Ledger Dispatch. Armed with this knowledge, I am off to the library at lunch to retreive hard copies of the newspapers to photocopy onto a bright colored paper. I will pass these out to my Antioch people and give them extra copies to pass around their neighborhood.

Thanks for your persistance on this issue.

Let me know if there's anything to be done locally.