On Friday, January 24 — a bitterly cold evening — one of the worst situations imaginable happened at STOP (Stop The Overpopulation of Pets) in Mansfield, Ohio. A fire broke out in the basement of the small cat rescue. The fire department rushed to the scene and quickly put out the flames, but the cats remained in the smoke-filled house. In fact, many of the kitties in this free-range facility rushed into the basement — the very place they should have avoided. Because of the cold, firefighters had to work in shifts to rescue the cats, and neighbors pitched in to help. It took a couple of hours, but most of the 42 surviving cats were rounded up. Three died onsite of smoke inhalation.
All these cats were taken to Hull Veterinary Hospital for assessment, and that is where most of them still remain, being carefully watched for developing issues from the fire. Eighteen of the 42 cats have now been deemed stable, one of them being Fanny, the sweet-faced girl in the photo above. One of the other stable kitties, a three-legged youngster named Tracey, is being fostered by a firefighter and his family, who were already planning adopting another kitten in their care, Maddy. Another firefighter is hoping to adopt Charlie, a big Himalayan mix he personally saved from the rescue.
That leaves 39 cats being cared for, some in very serious condition. You can imagine the kind of vet bill that is being run up. And the building where the rescue was located is unusable.
Awful tragedies like this can bring out the best in everyone. Artist Bz Tat brought the plight of STOP and their kitties to the cat blogging community and word has spread. Dash Kitten, A Tonk’s Tail and Random Felines blogged about STOP. Paws and Effect and Cat in the Fridge (Crepe’s blog) both posted on their Facebook pages. Even BlogPaws did a post about the rescue. Not only did Bz Tat write a blog post, she helped out by setting up a Go Fund Me page to help raise money for the vet bills.
As of this post, the Go Fund Me page has raised $4,600 of its $10,000 goal! That is pretty amazing, when you consider that just before the fire, STOP, a local cat rescue that offered low cost spay and neuter services, was completely unknown to anyone outside of its area. It had no social media presence, just a Petfinder page. Now, this group is getting help from all corners of the earth.
If you want to help the kitties of STOP, there are several ways to do it. You can donate through the Go Fund Me Page. Or you can donate funds, food, litter or other supplies to the Hull Vet Clinic, 1300 Middle Bellville Road, Mansfield, OH, 44904. Or you can give directly to the shelter: Stop The Overpopulation of Pets Inc., 1152 Lexington Ave., Mansfield, OH 44907.
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WOW! It’s amazing how everyone pulls together when there is an animal in need! I sure hope those kitties are all gonna be okay.
It’s amazing to see the power of the blogging community. We’re so very proud of the monies raised for these poor kitties!
Oh wow what a story. Thanks for sharing.
I hope the rest of the kitties are alright. So sad to hear of the fire. I hope they raise even more then there goal.
How heart-breaking about the fire but how wonderful that they have raised that amount already with help through social media. Purring for all the kitties affected.
That’s great. Will share this on.
It’s heartwarming that social media and bloggers have pulled together to help. If not for you Sparkle, I would not have linked over the the fundraiser and am happy to see that they have over 6k now! I also read they have been helping cats for over 25 years! Everyone makes a difference. Thanks for sharing this story and inspiring me to help them too.
We are so sad fer the kitties there. But so glad some of the Beins that helped them are givin some of them Forever Homes. And we are helpin. We head-bumped/purred/pawed-at-screen/guilted TBT into sendin a money paper direct to STOP, an he doesn’t do that easily.
It’s so brilliant to see the entire blog community pull together to help animals in need!
We wishes we could bring one of them kittehs home..Mom says we will send something to help out.. 😐
Our purrs to those kitties. Life can be hard, and we wish them best luck.
Oh Sparkle, I snuck in and got the Human’s plastic card out and nudged her and nudged her…and you know what? It wasn’t even very hard cause she went right over there just like I told her to and sent those kitties some green papers! She whined a little because she just hadded to spend a bunch of green papers at the dammit-car-repair place, but I told her to shut up that this was WAY better to spend green papers on and she even agreed that it was. She’s not really so bad.
We know how pawsome and generous the blogging community is! Since we aren’t on FB, we’ll ask The Girl to spread the news about STOP too. We’re sure they will meet their goals.
That is such a terrible tragedy! The folks of the CB sure are awesome, though 🙂
Pip, Smidgen, Minnie, Hollie
This is such a tragedy although it takes a tragedy to bring people together to help. I hope all the kittehs survive and am glad that the firemen are hoping to adopt a few of them.
We hadn’t heard about this and it breaks our hearts but we’re glad people are helping out! Thanks for letting us know Sparkle!
Oh how wonderful that so many people and cats are Helping!! We want to help, too!!
Your TX furiends,
We are so glad that so many people have been able to help although the reason for it makes us so sad.
Our Mommy cries easily! She is very teary eyed for those poor kitties!♥ We hope they will raise all the funds and get all the help they need!
that terrible for them,xx Speedy
How awful! But how wonderful that they are getting the attention and help (and adoptions, too!) that they need.
Oh my goodness ! that’s terrible what happened ! Fortunately most of the cats could be rescued ! I hope that you will raise enough money for the vet’s bills !
We are donating our kitty toy allowance to Stop.
It’s so great to see all the help they are getting…
Noodle and crew
The community can achieve great things when people band together =) This is simply amazing.
Mom posted too and suggested that our blogging friends make a donation in memory of Prancer Pie, as we did. He passed on the same day as the fire, and it seemed as if that would be a good way to honor him. Thank you for the update on what is happening with the STOP kitties. That is great that they are almost halfway to their goal with the fundraising as well as kitties are getting fostered and adopted. Have a great week. Purrs and paw-pats, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
Oh how awful! Mom says we will try to donate some green papers next week.
We are delighted to hear that there are donations being sent to help the shelter and also how wonderful that the firefighters are helping by adopting some of them.
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
I am so happy they are getting some much needed help.
we didn’t know they had raised that already. we LOVE this community for pulling together to help those in need!!
Such a sad thing to have happened. But it’s amazing what social media can accomplish in the face of tragedy. We posted it on our Facebook page too when we heard about it.
Wow, that is so sad but how great that so many people have stepped up to help. We will see what we can do. How terrific that the firefighters are adopting some of the cats. We sure hope they all find homes soon.
We hope they raise all the money they need and that all of the kitties get better soon. How cool that firefighters are adopting!!
The Florida Furkids
Wow!