After days of waiting to hear back from the juvenile officer who said he would help us with Cleo’s case, we finally heard back... He is not interested in helping us, nor is the rest of the police department. MHS says this is out of their jurisdiction so they can’t help either. We need to find a way to get justice for what happened to Cleo, no matter how you look at it, it was animal abuse. I didn’t want to post all the details publicly, b/c we wanted to give the police a chance to handle this discretely, without getting the public involved. But as we can now see, the police don’t care. We need the publics help to find a way to bring justice to this situation. To put pressure on the Clinton Township Police to do something, to help us find someone willing to work on this case so we can prosecute. Here are the details of what happened: Last Friday, 07/25//14, Cleo’s foster family was outside in their yard when a friend of the foster mom’s son (an 11 year old boy) came over to pick up her son to go hang out. While the foster mom, her son and her family were on the back/side porch, the foster mom’s mother, came into the house to get something out of the kitchen and saw the “friend” laying on her granddaughter’s bed, playing with Cleo. She thought nothing of it, and went back outside. After about 10-15 minutes, the foster mom’s son was done talking to his family and went into the house to get some things out of his room so he and his “friend” could leave. The “friend” was no longer in the house, he had already left and went back down the street to his own home. The foster mom’s son then heard something crying/mewing and after some looking around discovered the noise was coming from underneath one of the Captain Beds (bed that has shelves/storage built in). He opened one of the drawers and behind it found Cleo, laying almost lifeless in a pile of diarrhea, with his sister Sassy licking his face. He pulled Cleo out and ran to get his mom. After seeing the condition Cleo was in, his foster mom called me and then rushed him to the ER vet. I met her at the vet, and we spent almost 3 hours there while Cleo was in the back getting x-rays, fluids and oxygen. Cleo was in such bad shape that if he wasn’t hospitalized over night, there was a high chance he might not survive. His gums were pale, he was in lots of pain, he could not stand up on his own and his x-rays showed a broken rib. Obviously we didn’t have the $800 to leave him overnight, but thank God, Courtney from Pfl Rescue was able to step in and help us save Cleo. Cleo was hospitalized and left over night. After dropping Cleo off at the vet and going our separate ways, me and his foster mom were on the phone trying to figure out what could have happened. THERE IS NO WAY CLEO COULD HAVE ENDED UP UNDER THAT BED ON HIS OWN! The only logical explanation we could come up with was that the 11 year old boy who was at their house, waiting for the foster mom’s son, must have hurt the kitten and then hid him under the bed, HE WAS THE LAST PERSON SEEN WITH THE KITTEN. Then 15 minutes later he was gone and the kitten was found in this condition. At this point, we were thinking, hoping and praying it was just some sort of freak accident and the kid maybe was too afraid to be held responsible so he hid the kitten and left. At 3am, the ER vet took Cleo off of oxygen and he was able to eat a bit on his own and finally started showing signs of improvement, so they ran bloodwork and retook the x-rays. This time when they took the x-rays, Cleo move slightly and due to this movement they were able to see that there were actually 3 broken ribs. The next morning, Saturday, 07/26/14, at 9am I picked Cleo up and the rescue had us transfer him to their vet, for further hospitalization. By 10:30am Cleo was back on oxygen because his heart rate had gotten so high that they became very concerned about him. They then went over bloodwork and saw that his kidney and liver levels were far to high to be from trauma. As I was walking out of the vet’s office, I received a call from the foster mom, saying her daughter was cleaning up in her room and found an almost empty bottle of Febreze tucked away under her bed skirt. The foster mom keeps all her cleaning supplies tucked away, she has a 2 year old and makes sure everything is out of reach. This bottle couldn’t have ended up in her daughter’s room by accident. After begin told this information, I turned around and went back in to talk to the vet, who said that if he was force fed something like Febreze, that could account for the high liver and kidney levels. I then went to the home of the kid we believe to be responsible for this. I spoke to him and his mom, who both denied this to be the kid’s doing. The kid claimed he never even saw Cleo when he was at the foster’s home. But when I pointed out that the grandma saw him playing on the bed with Cleo, he just said “oh.” Then his mom got very angry and defensive, stating that she’s “never seen him hurt an animal.” I pointed out that from what I was told they’ve never had pets. Instantly she replied with “Sure we have”. Her own son looked up at her and in front of me said “when have we had pets?” The conversation was getting no where, the kid wouldn’t confess and his mother was becoming overly defensive. So I left. I then got a call from the vet updating me on Cleo, saying he is doing better and is able to be taken off oxygen. Then they informed me that whatever happened to him, caused him to have lacerations under his tongue. I asked if that could have happened from the kid trying to pour the Febreze down Cleo’s throat, and they said that would be very possible- combining that with the fact that his kidney and liver levels were too high to be from trauma alone, we do believe this is what happened to him. Not to mention, once he was released and at my home on Sunday, my mom asked me why the kitten smells like air freshener (not yet knowing what had happened to him). After the conversation with the vet, I went to the foster mom’s home, where her daughter kept complaining about still smelling cat poop in her room. She started searching her room and found that her closet (that is always shut) had diarrhea in it and clothes all over the floor. When she picked up the clothes, she found that the shelf in the back of the closet was broken and had diarrhea smeared on it as well. From all this, what we can conclude is that the kid first tired to pour the Febreze down Cleo’s throat, then he tried to hide him in the closet, and in the process hit him against the shelf- breaking the shelf and breaking 3 of Cleo’s ribs. Then he took him out of the closet, shoved him and another kitten behind the shelf under the Captain Bed and ran away. There honestly isn’t any other explanation to what could have happened. But because no one physically saw the kid doing this, the police are not willing to help us. THINK ABOUT IT PEOPLE, HOW IS A KITTEN GOING TO POISON HIMSELF, BREAK 3 RIBS, SMEAR DIARRHEA ALL OVER A CLOSET AND THEN HIDE HIMSELF UNDER A CAPTAIN BED?! This could only have been done by a person. The foster mom’s family was all outside when it happened. 15 minutes before Cleo was found, the 11 year old boy was the last person seen with Cleo. It’s not that hard to realize he did this. We do know he’s had some history of being a “troubled” kid. But because it was something he did at school, the school told us we aren’t able to release that info unless it is subpoenaed. The officer who was supposed to be working on this case even suggested that maybe the other kitten did this to him. Really?! If my 17 lb cat can’t hurt a 4 lb kitten by body slamming it, I doubt one tiny 3 lb kitten could hurt another kitten like this. The boy who did this needs to be locked up. Give this kid a few more years and it’ll be someones child he does this to. IDK why his parents won’t realize what kind of monster they are raising. This has been so incredibly frustrating and messed up, and it cost well over $1000 to save Cleo’s life. If any of you know someone who could possibly help us prosecute this kid, contact me. Something needs to be done.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 20:01:02 +0000
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