The Spokesman-Review from Spokane, Washington • 28

By Jim Sparks Staff wan It looks like a big kitchen. There's a microwave, a television, a Norelco coffee maker and counters coyered with orange Formica. But there are two pints of blood in the refrigerator, and you don't want to know the contents of the white garbage bags in the back freezer. This is Spokane's Pet Emergency Clinic, open all night long. Some of its customers: the dog skinned by a train, the dog with paws lopped off by a thresher, dogs shot with pellet guns.

The clinic was started by veterinarians who wanted to sleep at night. "It was an instant business, like add water and stir," says Jeff Duenwald, a veterinarian at the clinic since it opened in 1977. Located just behind the The Outdoor Sportsman at E21 Mission, the clinic is open from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. weekdays, noon Saturday to 8 a.m.

Monday, and 24 hours on holidays. It is the city's only emergency pet clinic open at night. In summer it gets crazy. Pet owners back up in the waiting room with the Peo SUNDAY, NOV. 1, 1987 pie and Sports Illustrated magazines, trying to determine which pet is most injured.

"If it's really busy, they'll even sort themselves out, they'll do triage for us," says Duenwald, who operates the clinic with his partner, Terry Brown. Twenty-seven veterinarians are shareholders in the corporation, which turns a profit. Since the clinic opened, it's treated 62,000 cases, mostly dogs and cats, but also panthers, a cheetah, turtles, parakeets, even ferrets. Duenwald avoids snakes if he can, and once turned down a tarantula with a broken leg. Dog and cat fights supply many of the wounded; so do loose pets hit by cars.

Last Wednesday, work started about 5:50 p.m. with Spike, a black Labrador whimpering from the porcupine quills in his left shoulder. Duenwald and his assistant, Donna Palagonia, put Spike under THE SPOKESAW4-REYIEW 'We get to save more animals than any other clinic in town, but we also lose more because we just see anesthesia, shaved his shoulder and plucked the quills. Before midnight, Duenwald will treat a Doberman on tranquilizers, a cocker spaniel hit by a car, a cockapoo with seizures, and a Corgi that has gored a raw wound in its itchy haunch. He will also cut into the uterus of a Brittany spaniel, delivering a dead puppy by Caesarean section.

His assistants will put to sleep a tiny golden retriever puppy stricken by seizures. "We get to save more animals than any other clinic in town, but we also lose more because we just see more," Duenwald says. "So many people have a bad experience here because we see these horrid things and there's no way to fix it." The Doberman with shaky legs had eaten three tranquilizers spilled on the floor. The pills are used to sedate dogs on the 4th of July not one of Duenwald's favorite Spokant Chtonittt holidays. This year he treated a malamute cross that picked up an M-80 in its mouth.

"The whole side of his face was blown off." Duenwald flushes the Doberman's stomach with liquid charcoal to soak up the drug. Pets seem drawn to drugs, and the attraction can be fatal. "Tylenol kills cats," Duenwald says. Anti-freeze isn't much better. "Anti-freeze is sweet.

Dogs and cats eat it, and it ruins their kidneys." Pets also sample marijuana and other narcotics. Their owners rarely come clean about the cause. The clinic once treated a dog with a 106-degree temperature and seizures. The owner blamed it on Sudafed, but later changed her story, explaining that the dog ate the dollar bill she used to snort cocaine. At 8:12 p.m., Steve Reich walks into the clinic with Abbey, a Brittany bitch that can't give birth.

Duenwald X-rays the dog, and puts the milky image on the screen. "It's like Reich exclaims, looking at the bulge of one large puppy. The oxytocin Abbey took earlier still hasn't induced labor. "If it doesn't work within an hour (See Pet clinic on page 2) BPA workers, family and friends of Julie and Mike Weflen gather for a briefing before stearching Devil's Gap area Saturday. By Anne Windishar Staff writer Static sputtered louder than the anxious voice on the radio, but Lt.

Earl Brown still heard the one thing he was hoping he wouldn't. "We've had an accident," the voice crackled Saturday morning. "A guy fell off the rock." The three faces in the mobile command post fell at the news, another setback in the frustrating search for Julie Weflen. "That's all we need," said Brown, the on-site commander for the Department of Emergency Services. Then, to the radio operator: "We can't get him out of there with an ambulance, can we? Get Lifebird out there." The injured man, Jack Cross, was in good spirits when the helicopter whisked him off to Deaconess Medical Center for X-rays.

Cross was later listed in satisfactory condition, but his 40-foot fall was frightening to even the most experienced searchers on the scene. Brown and volunteers from the Civil Air Patrol, Red Cross, Explorer Search and Rescue, Winter Knights Snowmobile club and some ham radio operators spent Saturday scouring the rugged land called Devil's Gap north of Reardon. The search was spurred by three tips to the Secret Witness program, all suggesting Devil's Gap might be a good place to search for Julie Weflen. Sheriff's detective Jim Hansen said two of the calls may have been made by the same person. He's not sure if the caller was involved with Weflen's disappearance.

The 28-year-old woman was reported missing almost seven weeks ago, when she apparently was abducted from a Bonneville Power Administration sub station northwest of Spokane. An extensive land, air and water search by the Sheriff's Department proved fruitless. Weflen's family and friends took over from there. The last few weeks have been unrewarding. The family has stopped searching the area where Julie disappeared, but they haven't given up.

"I don't expect her to be here," said Weflen's husband, Mike Weflen, who joined the search Saturday. "I guess it's good to check things out though, so we don't have to wonder about this spot. "But I still feel she's alive," he added. The command station, a remodeled motor home, was joined in the parking lot outside the Washington Water Power substation across from Devil's Gap by as many as 40 other vehicles. Horses, four-wheel-drives and off-road vehicles added to the clutter.

More than 100 people milled about the dirt lot some wanting to find Weflen, others hoping desperately that they wouldn't. "You're riding around, looking for something. But at the same time you don't want to find her," said Linda Gustin of the Winter Knights, a club that assists primarily in searches when snowmobiles are needed. On Saturday, the group was on horseback, tramping through the thick brush and following beaten paths that seemed to lead nowhere. "I'd say it's become an obsession for many people," Brown said.

"We know Julie is somewhere out there, but we just can't find her," he said. "That's frustrating for not only for the family, but for law enforcement as well." (See Weflen on page 2) Staff photos by DAN PELLE Don Miller and Mike Weflen, right, review map of area. Veterinarians offer these suggestions to keep your pets In good shape: CONTROL YOUR ANIMAL fights and car accidents bring in the Pet Emergency Clinic's most traumatized pets. USE CARE in handling injured animals they bite. VACCINATE PETS many illnesses could be avoided.

KEEP PETS from drinking antifreeze symptoms are drunkenness, then vomiting. KEEP DRUGS inaccessible, and learn what is best for pain. Tylenol will kill cats. IF "EXOTIC" PETS like birds and gerbils look sick, bring them in quickly for treatment. They're fragile.

CLEANSE PEISsprayed by skunks with a tomato juice bath. EMENSIIIIM PAGE B1 OBITUARIESB4 Sudden hardship can put family on streets By Kerry Godes Staff Ref Abused children, divorced women and the elderly are hitting the streets of Spokane in ever-increasing numbers, a panel of social workers, activists and researchers said Saturday. Contrary to the stereotype of the homeless as bums, derelicts and hobos, today's street people often are yesterday's "respectable poor," said Louisa Stark, president of the National Coalition for the Homeless. Also contrary to popular belief, Stark said, the majority of homeless are not transients but longtime residents of the communities where they live. "These people are our neighbors, or they have been our neighbors," she said.

"They are of us, they're not different from us." Speakers at the conference, cosponsored by Gonzaga Law School and Church Women United, blamed a lack of low-income housing, inept social service programs, broken homes and unemployment for the growing number of new poor. Sudden hardships such as a medical crisis or loss of a job can plunge a family living on the borderline into a vicious circle of poverty from which it might never emerge, said Jean Deno Smith, a social researcher specializing in women's issues. Calling herself a "staunch capitalist," Smith nevertheless called for a more democratic capitalist society that would "rebuild a country that doesn't generate poverty." She also criticized "workfare" programs for the poor and unemployed, saying most of those who need such assistance are "too old, too young or too feeble to work." Children turned over to foster care agencies after being emotionally or physically abused at home often end up on the street, said Marilee Ro loff, director for the Volunteers of America Crosswalk Program for street youth. "Why was the abused child taken out of the home? Why not the abuser?" she said. "It happens over and over and over again and I just don't understand why.

The children are made homeless." Because of laws that close most missions and shelters to minors, Spokane faces an increasing need for youth shelters, she said. But Roloff said she fears that giving minors more legal rights or opening (See Homeless on page 2) Cheney's Sixth Street surely no place to cat around Connie Griffith's kitty had disappeared. She hadn't had it long enough to even come up with a name, but it still struck her odd that her pet could vanish so fast. She walked the block and called and called. No luck.

Then a neighbor took her aside and clued her in about what happens when cats stray too far on Sixth Street in Cheney. It's a picturesque place, Sixth -4'1E1) Street: A place lined with leafy maples and birch trees, surely one of Cheney nicer neighborhoods, where homes cost between and To a feline, however, the block DOUG between Union and I is the CLARK equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle. Kitties may wander in, Columnist but they rarely find their way out. 01m11.11'. "I'm one of the old-timers here and in a six- or seven-block radius, we're the only ones with a cat who didn't lose one," said Ginny White, a former Cheney councilwoman well-versed in the catastrophic disappearances on Sixth Street.

"The only reason we didn't lose ours is that it was too old to leave our yard." Others, she said, weren't so lucky. "A lot of the people who lost cats were young parents with young kids. The cats were pets and I can't tell you how it has caused all sorts of anxiety around here." The source of the mystery has become a legend on Sixth Street. It is centered, say Ginny and her neighbors, on a spotless brick home on the north corner of Sixth and Here you will find one Donald Strode, a crusty, 70- year-old, retired wildlife biologist with some strong, if not peculiar, opinions about dealing with cats. "Since I came out of the closet about this, the stories have abounded," Strode said.

"Every cat that disappears in Cheney has been blamed on me." Strode, a man not without a certain glib charm, paused to chuckle. "And I take credit for all of them. After all, I have a certain reputation to keep up with. Most any cat lover can tell you where I live." Donald Strode makes no bones about his war on what he calls promiscuous roaming cats. For nearly a decade, he has caught an untold number of the animals in metal traps that he baits with liver and places in his yard, usually at night.

To Strode, the animals are not pets but trespassers, uninvited guests who get what they deserve. "I'd just as soon have a Holstein cow or a camel as well as a cat prowling around," he said. "It makes no difference to me. I just resent having animals roaming around on my property. "I have a high territorial imperative and my turf is my turf." Although the cats take the brunt of his action, his real beef is with pet owners who let their domesticated animals loose.

His stand, as one might imagine, has not made Strode a popular guy. "We've been silently hoping he would move away," said one neighbor who knows of Strode's trapping. Carolyn Williams, who lives next door to Strode, said she lost Licorice, a treasured family pet, to Strode nine years ago. "I've been watching what effect it's had on my children, what effect it's had on me. It's been terrible.

You try to forgive a person, but I haven't spoken to him in a year." Jean Beal lost Muffin and Butch. "They made it pretty fast over to Don's after we moved here." Scott Ketron said he lost Charlie to Strode, then rescued Meowzer from a trap inside Strode's garage one night. "I heard my cat yowling so I went in and got it. Maybe I was trespassing, but I didn't care. He's not a pleasant person." The list of victims goes on and on.

Of particular aggravation to cat owners is their belief that Stode executes the animals and hauls their remains away. Strode won't admit to killing the animals. Asking him what exactly happens to them, however, evokes another chuckle. "Oh, well," he said, "I guess that's just a mystery." Not to everyone. One person, who asked not to be identified, said she has seen frozen cat corpses in Strode's freezer.

"He keeps them there until he can get around to disposing them," she said. Strode denied the charge. But, he added quickly, "On second thought, I might want to claim that one because of my reputation, but I'd better refrain." Oddly enough, Strode said he loves wild critters of all kinds. Squirrels and bird feeders abound in his yard. He said he even admires cats.

It's the owners he can't stand. "It's a sad situation. I guess maybe I shouldn't be living in a town." No ordinances or laws make it illegal to catch cats or, for that matter, any animal that enters your property. Strode's enemies, however, say that baiting the traps only encourages the animals to trespass. That may well be, said veterinarian Bill Holleman, but "it's done on his own property and he uses humane traps.

He's about got all the holes plugged." At least he does as long as his furry victims are of the homeless variety. Intentionally destroying a neighbor's cat, said Cheney's City Attorney Steve Miller, could get Strode in deep kitty litter. "That person is going to be responsible not only for the cost of the animal, but for the mental pain and suffering" of the owner, Miller said. "I wouldn't want to face a jury on something like that. You certainly don't get the right to kill a cat simply because it wanders onto your property." Donald Strode, however, is a stubborn man.

He doesn't much care who owns the cats he nabs. Woe to those who come prowling. "People come crying and say that their cat is part of their family. Well, hell," growled the man who catches cats, "I tell 'em, I don't want your kids down here, either." Nas. i I I 1 1 0 0 0 1 Jr 8 Clinntic lls hope for pets alter hours Tips for Pets.

1 Veterinarians offer these suggestions to keep your pets in I By Jim Sparks holidays. This year he treated a malamute good shape: Staff wan 'We get to save more animals than any other clinic in cross that picked up an M-80 in its mouth. I It looks like a big kitchen. "The whole side of his face was blown off." CONTROL YOUR ANIMAL There's a microwave, a television, a town, but we also lose more because we just see more. Duenwald flushes the Doberman's stom- fights and car accidents bring in the Norelco coffee maker and counters coy- ach with liquid charcoal to soak up the Pet Emergency Clinic's most ered with orange Formica.

drug. Pets seem drawn to drugs, and the traumatized pets. i But there are two pints of blood in the pie and Sports Illustrated magazines, anesthesia, shaved his shoulder and attraction can be fatal. "Tylenol kills refrigerator, and you don't want to know trying to determine which pet is most in- plucked the quills. cats," Duenwald says.

Anti-freeze isn't USE CARE in handling injured the contents of the white garbage bags in jured. Before midnight, Duenwald will treat a much better. "Anti-freeze is sweet. Dogs animals they bite. the back freezer.

"If it's really busy, they'll even sort Doberman on tranquilizers, a cocker span- and cats eat it, and it ruins their kidneys." 1 This is Spokane's Pet Emergency Clinic, themselves out, they'll do triage for us," tel hit by a car, a cockapoo with seizures, Pets also sample marijuana and other VACCINATE PETS many open all night long. Some of its customers: says Duenwald, who operates the clinic and a Corgi that has gored a raw wound in narcotics. Their owners rarely come clean illnesses could be avoided. the dog skinned by a train, the dog with with his partner, Terry Brown. Twenty- its itchy haunch.

He will also cut into the about the cause. The clinic once treated a KEEP PETS from drinking paws lopped off by a thresher, dogs shot seven veterinarians are shareholders in the uterus of a Brittany spaniel, delivering a dog with a 106-degree temperature and with pellet guns. corporation, which turns a profit. dead puppy by Caesarean section. seizures.

The owner blamed it on Sudafed, antifreeze symptoms are The clinic was started by veterinarians Since the clinic opened, it's treated His assistants will put to sleep a tiny but later changed her story, explaining drunkenness, then vomiting. who wanted to sleep at night. "It was an 62,000 cases, mostly dogs and cats, but also golden retriever puppy stricken by that the dog ate the dollar bill she used to KEEP DRUGS inaccessible, and instant business, like add water and stir," panthers, a cheetah, turtles, parakeets, seizures. snort cocaine. learn what is best for pain.

Tylenol says Jeff Duenwald, a veterinarian at the even ferrets. Duenwald avoids snakes if he "We get to save more animals than any At 8:12 p.m., Steve Reich walks into the clinic since it opened in 1977. can, and once turned down a tarantula with other clinic in town, but we also lose more clinic with Abbey, a Brittany bitch that will kill cats. Located just behind the The Outdoor a broken leg. Dog and cat fights supply bechuse we just see more," Duenwald says.

can't give birth. Duenwald X-rays the dog, IF "EXOTIC" PETS like birds and Sportsman at E21 Mission, the clinic is many of the wounded; so do loose pets hit "So many people have a bad experience and puts the milky image on the screen. open from 5 p.m. to 8 a.m. weekdays, noon by cars.

here because we see these horrid things "It's like Reich exclaims, looking gerbils look sick, bring them in quickly for treatment. They're fragile. Saturday to 8 a.m. Monday, and 24 hours Last Wednesday, work started about 5:50 and there's no way to fix it." at the bulge of one large puppy. The oxyto- on holidays.

It is the city's only emergency p.m. with Spike, a black Labrador The Doberman with shaky legs had eat- cm Abbey took earlier still hasn't induced pet clinic open at night. whimpering from the porcupine quills in en three tranquilizers spilled on the floor. labor. "If it doesn't work within an hour- CLEANSE PEISsprayed by In summer it gets crazy.

Pet owners his left shoulder. Duenwald and his assist- The pills are used to sedate dogs on the 4th skunks with a tomato juice bath. back up in the waiting room with the Peo- ant, Donna Palagonia, put Spike under of July not one of Duenwald's favorite (See Pet clinic on page 2) AIIIIIIIIIIM tt SUNDAY, NOV. 1, 1987 THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW Syphon, Cljanilt PAGE B1 EEa 0 0 A OBITUARIESB4 0-- Spokane t. it 4 poverty cs, a i 7 I k'''- 71., --d" alltaSift 41 4 it; la.t '4'1 A' I 1 If '''''') I hits home 7.........4.,, (,,,, I tt 4 46,..4.

i el Sudden hardship can 1 'Air. elt, 'a ''-iel' i 4 -ri .1.11 A i 1 1. 1 0..0,0 illito, I it I 1 4r' -N. A kit 1 I ar LIN'y- (- tp. I a i 1 ir IF I '4; ''ff; ,0,, if- rto, 1 4 i 1417,, I i 1 put family on streets No- I i go, i 1 1 li ti i i' ,1 I l't 'C'''' 0 '''''14 By Kerry Godes 1r i 's A i 7 Staff writer $4 1 It 1 i Abused children, divorced worn- o.t4 0 i Cr it.

7 en and the elderly are hitting the 'i-- IN.V, 4 I 1, A i 'I, 4- -I loon )i streets of Spokane in ever-increas- ing numbers, a panel of social It. ii, workers, activists and researchers iflott said Saturday. i 4, I -''''4 Contrary to the stereotype of the .040,,,,.,,,, 1 3 444 I ,:10 homeless as bums, derelicts and 4 i 4 i hobos, today's street people often 4 i 'f- 4,,,,, are yesterday's "respectable poor," 4 .0,,,,.. Ns i said Louisa Stark, president of the National Coalition for the Home- 1 i qf o' fS I 4k 1 le te less. i 4 1' 't l' Also contrary to popular belief, Stark said, the majority of home- 4.

it A fe less are not transients but longtime -t, residents of the communities where 4 11 .1 II N' 4 they live. "These people are our neighbors, BPA workers, family and friends of Julie and Mike Weflen gather for a briefing before Staff photos by DAN PELLE earching Devil's Gap area Saturday. or they have been our neighbors," she said. "They are of us, they're 't not different from us." l' Speakers at the conference, co- 4 Another search turns up sponsored by Gonzaga Law School 1 'r and Church Women United, blamed a lack of low-income housing, inept )' .1. 4 social service programs, broken 4.

1 homes and unemployment for the little-and no Julie weflen 1 growing number of new poor. Ili 7 I I Sudden hardships such as a medi- 4 A cal crisis or loss of a job can plunge 1 By Anne Windishar station northwest of Spokane. An extensive land, air 4 a family living on the borderline Staff writer and water search by the Sheriff's Department proved ,...7 4 (No, into a vicious circle of poverty from which it might never emerge, Static sputtered louder than the anxious voice on fruitless. Weflen's family and friends took over from i said Jean Denoo Smith, a social the radio, but Lt. Earl Brown still heard the one thing there.

1 researcher specializing in women's he was hoping he wouldn't. The last few weeks have been unrewarding. The "We've had an accident," the voice crackled Satur- family has stopped searching the area where Julie Calling herself a "staunch capi ,9 issues. day morning. "A guy fell off the rock." disappeared, but they haven't given up.

Ni for Julie Weflen. "I guess it's good to check things out though, so we tl The three faces in the mobile command post fell at "I don't expect her to be here," said Weflen's hus- 1,, il talist," Smith nevertheless called that or would eh a i 1 capitalist a ap i et ao lai t. a the news, another setback in the frustrating search band, Mike Weflen, who joined the search Saturday. .1 societ ieaty 4 "That's all we need," said Brown, the on-site corn- don't have to wonder about this spot. try that doesn't generate poverty." i- 7 121 mander for the Department of Emergency Services.

"But I still feel she's alive," he added. I 4 tt She also criticized "workfare" of there with an ambulance, can we? Get Lifebird out was joined in the parking lot outside the Washington i Then, to the radio operator: "We can't get him out The command station, a remodeled motor home, i 3 programs for the poor and unem- l-- ,.4. 4 ll ployed, saying most of those who there." Water Power substation across from Devil's Gap by 0 need such assistance are "too old, The injured man, Jack Cross, was in good spirits as many as 40 other vehicles. t4 li I too young or too feeble to work." when the helicopter whisked him off to Deaconess Horses, four-wheel-drives and off-road vehicles 1 I i' A i Children turned over to foster Medical Center kr X-rays. Cross was later listed in added to the clutter.

More than 100 people milled 4 re. I care agencies after being emotion- 4 4,, satisfactory condition, but his 40-foot fall was fright- about the dirt lot some wanting to find Weflen, ally or physically abused at home i ening to even the most experienced searchers on the others hoping desperately that they wouldn't. .00 robot', l', i set i 0 often end up on the street, said i Marilee Roloff, director for the scene. "You're riding around, looking for something. But 1 1, Brown and volunteers from the Civil Air Patrol, at the same time you don't want to find her," said Volunteers of America Crosswalk 1 11 Red Cross, Explorer Search and Rescue, Winter Linda Gustin of the Winter Knights, a club that as- 4 i kt, Program for street youth.

Knights Snowmobile club and some ham radio opera- sists primarily in searches when snowmobiles are -T "Why was the abused child taken 4 out of the home? Why not the tors spent Saturday scouring the rugged land called needed. ,11. ,1 0" Devil's Gap north of Reardon. On Saturday, the group was on horseback, tramp- 1' 1,, 14 abuser? she said. "It happens over and over and over again and I just The search was spurred by three tips to the Secret ing through the thick brush and following beaten 4.

1 3 I I s-- don't understand why. The children Witness program, all suggesting Devil's Gap might paths that seemed to lead nowhere. i be a good place to search for Julie Weflen. "I'd say it's become an obsession for many peo- are made homeless." Sheriff's detective Jim Hansen said two of the ple," Brown said. Because of laws that close most calls may have been made by the same person.

He's "We know Julie is somewhere out there, but we i. missions and shelters to minors, not sure if the caller was involved with Weflen's dis- just can't find her," he said. "That's frustrating for Spokane faces an increasing need appearance. not only for the family, but for law enforcement as for youth shelters, she said. But Ro- The 28-year-old woman was reported missing al- well." ...4., is, loff said she fears that giving mi- most seven weeks ago, when she apparently was ab- nors more legal rights or opening ducted from a Bonneville Power Administration sub- (See Weflen on page 2) Don Miller and Mike Weflen, right, review map of area.

(See Homeless on page 2) AIIIIIIIMMESIIIIMEIMINIEMO Cheney's Sixth Street surely no place to cat around Connie Griffith's kitty had disappeared. around here." domesticated animals loose. His stand, as one might because of my reputation, but I'd better refrain." She hadn't had it long enough to even come up with The source of the mystery has become a legend on imagine, has not made Strode a popular guy. Oddly enough, Strode said he loves wild critters of a name, but it still struck her odd that her pet could Sixth Street. It is centered, say Ginny and her "We've been silently hoping he would move away," all kinds.

Squirrels and bird feeders abound in his vanish so fast. She walked the block and called and neighbors, on a spotless brick home on the north said one neighbor who knows of Strode's trapping. yard. He said he even admires cats. It's the owners called.

No luck. corner of Sixth and I. Carolyn Williams, who lives next door to Strode, he can't stand. Then a neighbor took her aside Here you will find one Donald Strode, a crusty, 70- said she lost Licorice, a treasured family pet, to "It's a sad situation. I guess maybe I shouldn't be and clued her in about what year-old, retired wildlife biologist with some strong, Strode nine years ago.

living in a town." happens when cats stray too far on if not peculiar, opinions about dealing with cats. "I've been watching what effect it's had on my Sixth Street in Cheney. "Since I came out of the closet about this, the children, what effect it's had on me. It's been No ordinances or laws make it illegal to catch cats It's a picturesque place, Sixth stories have abounded," Strode said. "Every cat that terrible.

You try to forgive a person, but I haven't or, for that matter, any animal that enters your Street: A place lined with leafy I j- disappears in Cheney has been blamed on me." spoken to him in a year." property. Strode's enemies, however, say that baiting maples and birch trees, surely one 14, Strode, a man not without a certain glib charm, Jean Beal lost Muffin and Butch. "They made it the traps only encourages the animals to trespass. of Cheney's nicer neighborhoods, paused to chuckle. pretty fast over to Don's after we moved here." That may well be, said veterinarian Bill Holleman, but "it's done on his own property and he uses where homes cost between "And I take credit for all of them.

After all, I have Scott Ketron said he lost Charlie to Strode, then and a certain reputation to keep up with. Most any cat rescued Meowzer from a trap inside Strode's garage humane traps. He's about got all the holes plugged." To a feline, however, the block DOUG lover can tell you where I live." one night. At least he does as long as his furry victims are of between Union and I is the CLARK Donald Strode makes no bones about his war on "I heard my cat yowling so I went in and got it. the homeless variety.

Intentionally destroying a equivalent of the Bermuda what he calls promiscuous roaming cats. For nearly Maybe I was trespassing, but I didn't care. He's not a neighbor's cat, said Cheney's City Attorney Steve Triangle. Kitties may wander in, Columnist a decade he has caught an untold number of the pleasant person." Miller, could get Strode in deep kitty litter. but they rarely find their way out.

lolmollimln animals in metal traps that he baits with liver and The list of victims goes on and on. Of particular "That person is going to be responsible not only for "I'm one of the old-timers here places in his yard, usually at night. aggravation to cat owners is their belief that Stode the cost of the animal, but for the mental pain and and in a six- or seven-block radius, we're the only To Strode, the animals are not pets but executes the animals and hauls their remains away. suffering" of the owner, Miller said. ones with a cat who didn't lose one," said Ginny trespassers, uninvited guests who get what they Strode won't admit to killing the animals.

Asking "I wouldn't want to face a jury on something like White, a former Cheney councilwoman well-versed deserve. him what exactly happens to them, however, evokes that. You certainly don't get the right to kill a cat in the catastrophic disappearances on Sixth Street. "I'd just as soon have a Holstein cow or a camel as another chuckle. "Oh, well," he said, "I guess that's simply because it wanders onto your property." "The only reason we didn't lose ours is that it was well as a cat prowling around," he said.

"It makes no just a mystery." Donald Strode, however, is a stubborn man. He too old to leave our yard." difference to me. I just resent having animals Not to everyone. One person, who asked not to be doesn't much care who owns the cats he nabs. Woe to roaming around on my property.

identified, said she has seen frozen cat corpses in those who come prowling. Others, she said, weren't so lucky. "I have a high territorial imperative and my turf Strode's freezer. "He keeps them there until he can "People come crying and say that their cat is part "A lot of the people who lost cats were young is my turf." get around to disposing them," she said. of their family.

Well, hell," growled the man who parents with young kids. The cats were pets and I Although the cats take the brunt of his action, his Strode denied the charge. But, he added quickly, catches cats, "I tell 'em, I don't want your kids down can't tell you how it has caused all sorts of anxiety real beef is with pet owners who let their "On second thought, I might want to claim that one here, either." l' i go.