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Jean-Luc St-Amour, 17, is a timid kid who needs a wheelchair to get around. The Grade 11 student has spina bifida, a permanently disabling birth defect of the spine.
Friends don’t come easy, though he has a good one in Leo, the cat his mother, Christine McNulty and her fiancé, Stéphane Lafontaine, got him more than a year ago when it was just a kitten. Leo has been therapeutic for the teen. The black-and-white tabby has helped Jean-Luc come out of his shell a bit at home and at school, say the couple. They say Leo can sense when Jean-Luc is due to arrive from St. Peter High School in Orléans, and waits at the door for him.
Jean-Luc says Leo gives him “a sense of comfort if I’m sad or depressed. … If (Leo’s) around, it helps.”
But Jean-Luc and Leo have been separated since Nov. 30. That’s when Leo got outside through an open doorway at the family’s home. Unknown to the family at the time, Leo was picked up soon after by the city bylaw department and taken to the municipal animal shelter operated by the Ottawa Humane Society on Hunt Club Road.
Leo the cat disappeared and was taken in by the Humane Society. The city’s bylaw and regulatory services department now says it is “prepared to work with the the family to reach an acceptable agreement in order to facilitate the release of the animal.”
At least Leo was safe and sound at the shelter, but for Jean-Luc, it would have been best had his cat just come home before bylaw picked him up. His cash-strapped family did not have $207 to cover Leo’s stay at the shelter and some veterinarian care for its teeth.
McNulty and Lafontaine determined on Dec. 2 that Leo was likely at the shelter after viewing photos of stray cats on the society’s website, and Lafontaine says he went there the next day. After identifying the cat, he was told the $207 had to be paid by 8 p.m. that day or Leo would become city property because it had been there for three full business days. Once it belonged to the city, the OHS could put Leo up for adoption.
Lafontaine says he pleaded with a woman working at the shelter. He says he explained why an exception had to be made in releasing the cat even though he couldn’t pay right then and there. He would be good for it eventually, he said. Lafontaine is unemployed and has 22-month-old twin girls with McNulty, who is a stay-at-home mom caring for three of her older children, including Jean-Luc. She and the five children live in subsidized housing.
Lafontaine says he was politely rebuffed by the woman at the shelter. He says she acknowledged she was touched by his story, but couldn’t help him because the society has to collect city-imposed shelter fees before releasing an animal.
The OHS operates the shelter under a contract with the city, and cares for injured, lost and homeless animals that are brought there.
Lafontaine says he tried to contact OHS authorities after he was turned away on Dec. 3, but didn’t get far. He did get through to the shelter after finding out that the adoption fee for cats was $170 and asked if he could “adopt” Leo if he could come up with that amount.
No, he was told.
He says he is willing to work five to 10 hours a week as a volunteer for the shelter to get Leo back for Jean-Luc.
“I am seeking a holiday miracle that would return Leo to Jean-Luc,” Lafontaine writes in a letter sent this week by e-mail to the Citizen, Orléans Coun. Bob Monette and the OHS.
OHS spokeswoman Natalie Pona says the society does not comment on “previously-owned cats” and referred The Public Citizen to the city. She did say there was nothing on Leo’s file that indicated the cat was abused.
Monette says he contacted OHS executive director Bruce Roney, who told him he would look into the matter but reminded the councillor the fees are imposed by the city and not the society.
Bylaw officials are now involved.
“It is at the discretion of the city, not the OHS, whether or not to waive fees,” says a response to The Public Citizen, attributed to Linda Anderson, chief of the city’s bylaw and regulatory services. “In this case, (the department is) prepared to work with the the family to reach an acceptable agreement in order to facilitate the release of the animal.”
Though he had not yet heard from the city, Lafontaine was relieved to hear that the city was open to having Jean-Luc reunited with his cat. “That’s great,” he said before he being directed to a bylaw official to contact.
Is something bothering you? Please contact: thepubliccitizen@ottawacitizen.com
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Friends don’t come easy, though he has a good one in Leo, the cat his mother, Christine McNulty and her fiancé, Stéphane Lafontaine, got him more than a year ago when it was just a kitten. Leo has been therapeutic for the teen. The black-and-white tabby has helped Jean-Luc come out of his shell a bit at home and at school, say the couple. They say Leo can sense when Jean-Luc is due to arrive from St. Peter High School in Orléans, and waits at the door for him.
Jean-Luc says Leo gives him “a sense of comfort if I’m sad or depressed. … If (Leo’s) around, it helps.”
But Jean-Luc and Leo have been separated since Nov. 30. That’s when Leo got outside through an open doorway at the family’s home. Unknown to the family at the time, Leo was picked up soon after by the city bylaw department and taken to the municipal animal shelter operated by the Ottawa Humane Society on Hunt Club Road.
Leo the cat disappeared and was taken in by the Humane Society. The city’s bylaw and regulatory services department now says it is “prepared to work with the the family to reach an acceptable agreement in order to facilitate the release of the animal.”
At least Leo was safe and sound at the shelter, but for Jean-Luc, it would have been best had his cat just come home before bylaw picked him up. His cash-strapped family did not have $207 to cover Leo’s stay at the shelter and some veterinarian care for its teeth.
McNulty and Lafontaine determined on Dec. 2 that Leo was likely at the shelter after viewing photos of stray cats on the society’s website, and Lafontaine says he went there the next day. After identifying the cat, he was told the $207 had to be paid by 8 p.m. that day or Leo would become city property because it had been there for three full business days. Once it belonged to the city, the OHS could put Leo up for adoption.
Lafontaine says he pleaded with a woman working at the shelter. He says he explained why an exception had to be made in releasing the cat even though he couldn’t pay right then and there. He would be good for it eventually, he said. Lafontaine is unemployed and has 22-month-old twin girls with McNulty, who is a stay-at-home mom caring for three of her older children, including Jean-Luc. She and the five children live in subsidized housing.
Lafontaine says he was politely rebuffed by the woman at the shelter. He says she acknowledged she was touched by his story, but couldn’t help him because the society has to collect city-imposed shelter fees before releasing an animal.
The OHS operates the shelter under a contract with the city, and cares for injured, lost and homeless animals that are brought there.
Lafontaine says he tried to contact OHS authorities after he was turned away on Dec. 3, but didn’t get far. He did get through to the shelter after finding out that the adoption fee for cats was $170 and asked if he could “adopt” Leo if he could come up with that amount.
No, he was told.
He says he is willing to work five to 10 hours a week as a volunteer for the shelter to get Leo back for Jean-Luc.
“I am seeking a holiday miracle that would return Leo to Jean-Luc,” Lafontaine writes in a letter sent this week by e-mail to the Citizen, Orléans Coun. Bob Monette and the OHS.
OHS spokeswoman Natalie Pona says the society does not comment on “previously-owned cats” and referred The Public Citizen to the city. She did say there was nothing on Leo’s file that indicated the cat was abused.
Monette says he contacted OHS executive director Bruce Roney, who told him he would look into the matter but reminded the councillor the fees are imposed by the city and not the society.
Bylaw officials are now involved.
“It is at the discretion of the city, not the OHS, whether or not to waive fees,” says a response to The Public Citizen, attributed to Linda Anderson, chief of the city’s bylaw and regulatory services. “In this case, (the department is) prepared to work with the the family to reach an acceptable agreement in order to facilitate the release of the animal.”
Though he had not yet heard from the city, Lafontaine was relieved to hear that the city was open to having Jean-Luc reunited with his cat. “That’s great,” he said before he being directed to a bylaw official to contact.
Is something bothering you? Please contact: thepubliccitizen@ottawacitizen.com
查看原文...
