Some thoughts on abandoned pets here

The presentation during the city council meeting last month definitely opened my eyes with regards to how serious the problem was regarding the number of stray and abandoned dogs, cats and other pets in the local area. I felt very upset knowing we have so many people who simply kicked their pets out of their home versus finding ways to deal with the challenges that led up to those actions.

While I’m not much of a gambler, I’d likely wage good money that one reason why we have so many feral and stray pets wandering through town may involve the number of airmen stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base. During my military career, I saw many of these military families abandon these animals versus finding ways to either find them new homes to live or to simply bring them along to their next duty station.

Having moved from one base to another during my 25 years in the Air Force, I personally dealt with the challenges associated with owning pets. It began while my wife and I first got married 34 years ago.

After we moved into our first apartment in Great Falls, Mont., we brought with us my wife’s feline “daughter.” Jasmine was just a kitten when my wife first adopted her, and we made it a point to ensure she stayed with us.

While I expected our household to remain a one-cat family, those plans quickly changed once we visited the pet store at the shopping mall in town. It was here that I bonded with a Siamese-Himalian kitten, who we immediately adopted.

With my wife tucking him within her winter coat since we lacked a cat carrier to bring him home that evening, we chose to name him Jasper. Oddly enough, his name represented a type of alliteration since the first letters of his name matched those of his feline sister.

Together, our cats represented a source of love and companionship that grew once we gained the chance to move into the military housing area at Malmstrom Air Force Base. That love definitely grew much larger once our daughter, Nichole, was born, and she took time to spend time with our cats when the opportunity presented itself.

Three years later, my family and I faced a challenge of sorts when I received orders to Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. While I knew the drive from Great Falls to Colorado Springs would take several hours to complete, it didn’t stop my family from finding a way to ensure Jasmine and Jasper came with us.

The idea of abandoning them was simply out of the question.

For the next two years, our cats remained a key part of our family, which grew once again once we welcomed the birth of our daughter, Elizabeth. However, we started noticing that Jasper started having some medical problems several months later.

Taking him to a local vet to see what was the problem, I faced some horrifying news. My feline son had developed a form of cancer, and it was only a matter of time before his suffering would worsen before he eventually passed on.

Fighting back tears, I had to give the vet permission to permanently end his suffering.

However, we still had Jasmine, and she provided me with a way to help overcome the sadness I dealt with. But our time with her suddenly changed once I received orders that would send my family and I to Misawa Air Base, Japan.

My wife and I faced the challenges of not only having to fly overseas with both of our daughters, but we had to figure out what to do with our feline child. Eventually, we agreed that my wife’s mother would welcome Jasmine back into her home.

Once again, we placed our beloved cat in a safe carrier and transported her back to Montana where she was born and raised.

After my family and I got settled in our temporary home located a few miles away from Misawa Air Base, it seemed clear that we missed our cats. Our household seemed a bit empty despite the fact we had two daughters and learned that we had a third child on the way.

Things changed once again after my wife started to take time to volunteer at the animal shelter on base. She provided needed care and attention to many cats and puppies whose owners chose to abandon them as they prepared to move to their next military assignment.

It was here that Brenda fell in love with a kitten whose mother had just given birth to him as well as his other siblings. It seemed the one that thing made him stand out was his tail, or the lack of a tail that is.

Like some cats, his tail was just a stub less than an inch in length. I think that’s what convinced my wife to adopt him when he was old enough.

However, we felt that our cat, which we named Kosh in honor of a character from the science fiction show Babylon 5, needed someone else to remain with him. That’s when my family saw a pure black kitten up for adoption at a separate event held on base just a couple of days later.

We didn’t hesitate to give her a forever home as we named her Delenn after another character on that same television show. Together, Kosh and Delenn bonded with my family and I. At the same time, we knew one important thing: Regardless of where we would eventually move once our time in Japan ended, we would do everything needed to bring both of them with us.

Once I received orders to Minot Air Force Base, N.D., my family and I immediately began figuring out how to bring Kosh and Delenn with us. That included talking to base officials who organized the flights from Misawa to airports in the United States.

The only thing we needed to do was ensure both cats were safely placed in cat carriers that included food and water for them to consume during the 14-hour, non-stop flight. Once we landed, my family and I immediately dashed to the baggage claim area, where we heard Kosh meowing before we found the cat carrier where Delenn was waiting.

Granted, we ran into another problem with regards to having our cats come with us on our flight from Seattle to Minot, but we never gave up. There was no way we would simply abandon our feline children.

Kosh and Delenn quickly overcame their anxiety related to the plane flights and returned to their normal routine during the five years we spent together at the base commonly referred to as the “home of the chosen frozen.” For the longest time, I was convinced our family would remain a two-cat household.

However, that changed one memorable day when Elizabeth and I stopped at a pet store one weekend to take a quick look at what was there. Call it coincidence or call it fate, but we saw a tiny kitten needing a forever home. We gave him some needed attention, and he showed signs he wanted to stay with us.

Having to leave him at the pet store, my daughter and I rushed home to tell the family what we saw. Without any hesitation, my wife and the rest of our family immediately grabbed their shoes and coats, and we made a beeline back to the pet store.

Within a matter of minutes, we adopted our third feline child that we named Zathras.

While my family and I continued to spend time with our cats as much as we could, my life took an unexpected turn when I ended up leaving them behind in 2005 after I received orders to serve a one-year remote tour of duty at Kunsan Air Base in South Korea.

With my family staying at Minot until I returned, we packed up our household once again as we prepared to move to what became our permanent home in Mountain Home. For the next several years, Kosh, Delenn and Zathras remained with us before they eventually grew older and passed away.

However, my family and I agreed that we wanted to make our home a place where future generations of feline children would come to live. The ones who joined us in recent years, all of whom were strays or were abandoned, continue to give us the love we need.

– Brian S. Orban