She was found by Kelly, our daughter Amber's co-worker from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.

During Kelly's evening walk she saw this tiny kitten crawling out from a wooded area.

Kelly checked around to see if she was the only one, and indeed she was. Kelly scooped the kitten up and carried her for the remainder of her mile walk.

Kelly is a “cat” person and has 3 indoor cats of her own. Kelly texted Amber that she had found a kitten on her walk and desperately wanted to keep it, but Kelly was unsure of the health risk of introducing a stray kitten to her three indoor cats.

After hours of text messaging correspondence, Amber and Kelly both felt it would be best for Amber to get the kitten in the morning. Kelly made the hard decision to keep the kitten in her garage where she knew it would be safe from predators for the night.

The next morning Amber took personal leave, drove to the university, met Kelly and returned to her home to check out the kitten. First on the agenda was to see if she would eat. That hurdle was passed.

She ate dry kitten food so that was a plus. The kitten’s eyes were red and sore. That was the next issue to deal with. Amber bathed her checking for fleas and ticks and again was fortunate that she was bug -free, or so she thought.

She noticed a sore near her backside and thought something didn't look right. Arriving at the vet they agreed it was indeed not right, she had a hidden abscess with maggot activity.

I know it sounds gross but it is more common than you think. After surgery and several days in kitty ICU the vet released the kitten to Amber's care.

I called Amber for an update, she informed me the kitten was fine and she just named her Maggie May. I knew immediately Amber was keeping the kitten because once Amber names an animal … she's keeping it.

You can come to your own conclusion, why the name Maggie May? Was it with those nasty maggots, or the fact that she was found on May Day?

If you know Amber and her fondness of old fashioned names and her sense humor you would agree that Maggie May is the perfect name.

Maggie May became part of Amber's rescue animal family consisting of cats: Ozzie, Astaire, Oscar and her recently acquired lop eared rabbit Percy, rescued from the previous owner’s frying pan. That’s a story for another time.

Amber also has a dapple dachshund named Luna who was adopted from York Adopt a Pet on a previous visit to York.

Anyone who is friends with Amber on Facebook has seen videos of her menagerie and knows that all are spoiled, especially Luna who is spoiled rotten.

She has as many outfits as I have shoes (and that is a lot). Thankfully, Amber lives on an acreage and has room for additional rescue animals. All is well that ends well and Maggie May is very lucky to have found her forever home with a loving family in the hills of Northwest Arkansas.

On a note closer to home, mark your calendar for May 18 and May 19. York Adopt a Pet is holding its annual garage sale. It will start Friday, May 18 at noon and will run until 7 p.m.

On Saturday the 19th we will be open at 8 a.m. ending at noon.

The garage sale will be held at the shelter and items are coming in daily. There is something for everyone:

Household items, furniture, dishes and decorative items, kitchen and small appliance, toys, collectibles, antiques and holiday items. All proceeds go toward the care of the dogs and cats at York Adopt a Pet.

Several weeks ago, I heard about the dog at the veterinarian's office that had been brought in over the weekend by some people that found her wandering around.

Due to her advanced age and poor health, I knew York Adopt a Pet would not be able to adopt her, but I wanted to meet her anyway.

She spent about four days recuperating at the clinic and the staff soon realized that she was a very sweet dog and was making progress every day. However, with nowhere to go, a decision had to be made on what to do with her.

As I have said many times, I have a special place in my heart for older dogs. I love their wisdom and how much they seem to appreciate everything you do for them and how they take life slowly.

After meeting the female black lab mix at the clinic, I decided I would foster her and we would take it one day at a time. She willingly went with me and jumped right into the car.

I set up a place for her in my sunroom … a back porch with lots of windows with a pet door that leads into my fenced-in back yard.

She was happy to explore the back yard and to meet my dogs. The dogs didn't seem to be very interested in her.

They sniffed her back where it had been shaved. There was a large open sore where the maggots had burrowed into her skin.

They seemed to avoid her after that, but they were respectful, almost as if they knew she was old and in poor health.

I found Maggie to be very loving and affectionate. She enjoyed me rubbing her ears and talking to her. She ate well and seemed excited to get doggie treats. She would take them to her dog bed and guard them before finally eating them.

  But as the days went by, I soon realized that Maggie had no control of her body functions. She was soiling all of the dog beds and blankets I had put down for her.

I was washing several loads a day to keep her in fresh bedding. It soon occurred to me that her loss of control was probably why her owners banned her from the house, because she had all of the traits of having been a housedog.

If she had been tied or confined to a small area, she would have been forced to lie in her own waste and it could have been why she developed the maggots in her body.

After five days, I realized that this was no life for Maggie. She didn't like soiling her blankets and I almost felt it was robbing her of her dignity.

I agonized over what to do and finally I took her back to the clinic and a decision was made to spare her any more discomfort in life.

Maggie crossed over the Bridge in comfort with caring people around her. She was able to win my heart in a very short time. I just wish her owners had not put her in a position in life that she had to endure such hardship at her advanced age.

They should have been the ones at the clinic saying goodbye to her and making the final decision on her life.

Thank you to Gloystein Veterinary Clinic for helping Maggie to feel better and to enjoy her last days enough that she could spend beautiful afternoons outside watching the squirrels.

I knew she was happy when I watched her stretch out on the grass soaking up the warm sun. She received kindness, comfort and love her last days on earth. Still ... it makes me sad.

She should not have had to go through this.

Bless you Maggie.

What is it about her that everyone wants? 

She has been here less than a week and she gets a home. 

Oh sure, I know she is beautiful.  She seemed very nice and loving too, but what about us? We have names, Jovie and Jinx. We have hopes.

We are not alone. There is Diane, Wesley, Holly, Justin, Milo, Ramona, Molly, Beulah and the list goes on and on.

We are big, we are small, we are long hair, we are short hair, we are young and we are old. The one thing we have in common, we are all black.

It is spring now, the season I hate the most.  It’s time for cute little kittens.  Nobody will give me a second look, they will all want a kitten.  Adorable, playful, cute and funny. 

I feel sorry for the little orphans. I really do.  It is a rough beginning with many of them not making it.  I was one myself, my siblings and I.

We lost our mother when we were two weeks old. 

They were lucky and were adopted.  But me and Jovie are still here, at the shelter.  Hey- what about us?

Summer won’t be any better.  It will still be all kittens, and maybe a few beauties and big handsome guys. 

People come to look at all of us through the big glass window. 

Look at that big yellow cat over there... or look... the white one with the lion cut!  What about me? 

Please, just look at me!

Fall, maybe this next fall I will get my chance.  But I’ve been here for 2 years already, and there are so many of us here. 

I look around the room and quickly count 20 others that look just like me. 

Some of them have been here longer than I have. Several were adopted from us and for different reasons, had to be brought back to the shelter.

Beautiful, sleek, shiny coats with great personalities that love to cuddle and play. 

What about us?  Anyone?  

What do I need to do to get noticed, paint pink spots on my coat?  Must I learn to tap dance?  Then you would look at me as a circus clown and still wouldn’t want me. 

All I ask is for a warm bed, food and water and a few toys, and I promise to love you.  I will follow you, sit in your lap, play silly games to make you laugh. 

I will even leave the birds and dogs alone.  Just take a look at me!  

But you want the calico one, or the snowshoe or siamese , maybe the yellow and white one.  Oh look at the white kitten.  

What about me?

Just because we may all look alike, doesn’t mean we are.  Some of us are big and fat, some are small and petite. 

Some love to be cuddled, others like to curl up on the sofa and be left alone. 

We play, we hope, we dream.  We want a home of our own too.  Why should the color of my fur be the determining factor on if people want me or not? 

It is hard enough to compete with 70 cats, but when 20 of them look just like me... what are my chances?

When will I get to be special and find a home?

Signed,

Discouraged and lonely black cats

This article was written by our cat photographer and dedicated cat volunteer.

Thank you Diane Wolfe for addressing the needs of our 20 plus black cats who are patiently waiting for their forever home.

We have a special adoption fee for any of our beautiful black cats!

Soon there will be little ones tagging along behind. I have come across several empty robin eggs, so I know there are babies in the trees being cared for by busy parents.

Judging by how much of my bird seed is being eaten lately, there must be lots of new families in the nests above.

I know that some of the wildlife that live in town can often be a pest, but this is not the time of year to relocate them, for many of them have babies that would starve if you were to move the parents.

Jake, a Golden Retriever/Airedale, must have experienced some spring fever recently, because he wandered away from his home near McCool and ended up in the water at nearby Spring Lake.

The people that found him realized he was an older dog and got him out of the water and brought him to York Adopt a Pet.

As one might expect, at this time of year, he had a lot of ticks, which we treated him for and got him settled in his kennel with a warm blanket and some food.

As it turned out, Jake was claimed by Bill Dunavan and he filled me in on the history of him. He was adopted from us at the old OLD city pound on south Blackburn Avenue sixteen years ago as a ten-week-old puppy.

Bill said we had two puppies to choose from and he had two little girls that each wanted one, but he felt one was enough for the two of them. This was a wise decision.

Two pups to train at one time can be a handful. I asked Bill how Jake could have ended up at Spring Lake. 

He said the dog loves to go to the nearby creek, but it was nearly dry, so he thinks he was searching for some water to lay in and must have kept going until he found some.

From the way Bill described Jake, I concluded that he must have been a very dedicated watch dog.

He would never go inside a dog house, because he had to see everything around him. He stayed out in snowstorms and seemed to like it.

Bill always fixed something warm for him to lay on and that is where he slept. He was fearless.  He hated skunks and you would have thought after getting sprayed several times that it would cure him of going after them, but it didn't.

One time three St. Bernard's came on the property and he went after all three. They would just roll him, but he kept going back over and over until finally the dogs just wandered off.

Bill said one Saturday he was watching the Nebraska football game on television and heard a terrible ruckus.

He ran outside and could see Jake fighting with a coyote. Bill said it was the worst thing he had ever seen.

It was a brutal fight and he knew it was a fight to the death. There was no way he could break it up, so he just had to wait it out. Jake emerged as the winner after tearing the windpipe out of the coyote.

The amazing thing about that story is the fact that Jake was around twelve years old when this happened!

Bill said that Jake has been a good dog. He loves people and has never caused any trouble on the farm. That is, until now. He wants to wander away.

He is deaf now and it is not an option to let him continue to do so, for he would surely get struck by a vehicle. He has to be tied now and naturally, he is not happy about it. But, it is done out of love for him.

It sounds as though it is doubtful he will have to go through another Nebraska winter.  Sixteen is very old for a dog of that size. But he is one tough dog and he might just prove me wrong.

We had some wonderful dogs that came out of the old pound. I didn't think there were any still alive, so it was a treat to meet Jake again.

If I dig through my old Adopt A Pet photos, I would surely find his picture taken as a puppy. Thank you Bill for taking such good care of a dog that we adopted to you many years ago.

We wish this for all of our dogs as they go to their new homes.

And Jake, even though you are restricted now, you can still enjoy the sounds and smells of spring and you can stretch out in the sun and soak up the rays on your weary body and dream of chasing down a big fat skunk!

Several weeks ago I wrote about Mary Margaret. She was the blind cat that I had been fostering for almost a year and a half.

She was not only blind, but we discovered within the last couple of weeks that her teeth were deteriorating and she needed to have 10 of them pulled.

Through her blindness, and her painful mouth Mary Margaret handled it all with grace and most important with trust.

Her adoption began several weeks ago when her story was printed in the York News-Times.

It was then added to York Adopt a Pet's web site www.yorkadoptapet.com.

Melissa, from Friend, who saw the story on our web site called and asked if she could send the article to a Facebook page of Oskar the Blind Cat.

This originated from a blind kitten found in a rural area of Iowa by a young couple from Omaha.

They made several YouTube movies and if you want a feel good moment check them out. Go to search and enter Oskar the Blind Cat. They had so many followers they decided to give Oskar his own Facebook page.

His page is not only about Oskar and his soul-mate Klaus, but also stories of other cats in need. When Mary Margaret's story was put on his Facebook page, she generated over 60 comments.

One of those comments was from Jessica in Mississippi who sent a donation that covered Mary Margaret's dental vet bill.

Another comment was from Amy who lives in Denver and was interested in adopting a special needs cat such as Mary Margaret.

Amy and I corresponded for several weeks, waiting until Mary Margaret recovered from her teeth extractions.

I had to make a decision, was Amy the right one for Mary Margaret?

If it wasn't for our local York News-Times, our Adopt a Pet website, Facebook, Pet Finder and e-mails, Mary Margaret would still be at my house in foster care … still waiting for her own home.

Tonight she is in her forever home. Her finding a home was ONLY possible because of the media which includes the internet.

I emailed Amy one last time the night before I was meeting her. I wrote, “Tonight is my last night with Mary Margaret ... she will always be in my heart.

IF FOR ANY REASON in the future you cannot care for her I will come and get her. Any emergency that would arise I promise to come for her.

I know this is a good thing for Mary Margaret or I would never have brought her to this point.”

Finally the morning arrived. I suggested that I meet Amy in North Platte to save her an additional 400 miles. I also wanted to see how Mary Margaret would travel.

So on the Saturday before Easter I loaded Mary Margaret in her carrier in the front seat of my van.

Being blind she relies on sound and smell. She meowed several times and hearing my voice reassured her. She soon settled down and slept most of the way.

Meeting Amy in North Platte put all my fears to rest. It was the right decision.

Amy is the right person to give Mary Margaret her second chance. It was a longer trip coming home, her carrier sat empty beside me and there was not that familiar meow, but it was the right decision.

I have had several e-mails from Amy telling me Mary Margaret is settling into her new home.

I have received pictures of Mary Margaret sitting on Amy's lap and she looks happy and content. Yes it was the right decision.

To Amy from Denver, thank you for opening up your heart and your home to this special need cat.

Thank you Melissa, Friend, Neb., for putting it on Oskar's Facebook. Thank you Jessica from Mississippi for your donation.

And thank you Oskar the Blind Kitten from Omaha who helped another blind cat achieve the same happy success story you had.

Last, but not least, thanks to cyber space and our ability to tell the stories, and show the pictures of our cats which are either residing at York Adopt a Pet or are in foster homes.

Everyone made the right decision and now Mary Margaret has her own home with Amy.

It has been three weeks since I lost my African Hairless dog, Kunta, and the transition of him being absent in our lives has been interesting.

Shoe, being the wise old dog that he is, sniffed Kunta's body, showed immediate acceptance and went on about his life as normal.

Darlin, on the other hand, seemed to take it much harder.

The first night she left my bed to sleep on Kunta's blanket and rarely left it the next day. She wasn't interesting in eating and only picked at her food for a week.

In the meantime, I washed all of the blankets and dog beds and sprayed Fabreze around the places where Kunta slept. I wanted to remove his smell the best I could.

I didn't want my dogs to grieve. If a dog grieves too long, sometimes they may forget what they are grieving about, but will still remain sad.

For awhile, I didn't even say his name out loud. I knew I had to break the pattern that Darlin was falling into, so I changed her routine.

I started taking her with me when I took Shoe to Adopt a Pet to be a greeter dog. I let her come inside, something she had not been able to do before.

She delights in getting to run around the lobby and has made some new friends. She is eating again. I guess it is working.

I didn't realize until after Kunta was gone just how much he kept things in order around my house.

He was the alpha dog. My foster dog, Ming, the Shar-Pei, came to me with no training, and Kunta gave her stern warnings when she would run to the front door when visitors or my boarder dogs would come.

Kunta taught her to keep her distance so they could come in the  door. He always had a protective nature about him. Now Ming is back to her old habits and we are going to have to work on that.

Dogs live such short lives, much shorter than we would like. But I have found that when you lose a pet, the grieving is very real and painful, but the process is mercifully much shorter as well.

I don't like to grieve. No one does. It robs you of everything that should make you feel good about life. But it is part of the process of moving on. My dogs and I have had our grieving period.

As far as I can tell, the dogs have forgotten him. Kunta lives on in their memory bank, and if he were to miraculously appear, they would be deliriously happy to see him.

But that memory is not going to be triggered, because he is not coming back, so they will be fine. That is the way you would want it to be.

I have had people tell me they would not get another dog because it is too painful to lose them.

Nonsense. The joy and benefits of having a pet and the unconditional love they give you far outweighs the sadness of losing them.

I had 12 great years with Kunta and will be sad again when I lose Shoe and Darlin, but I would never hesitate to get another dog.

As for now, I am enjoying watching Darlin enjoy her new life of getting to go in the car and visit Adopt a Pet.

Life is good!