Gloria Noble Johnson Cougar Ridge

 

Dear Gloria Noble Johnson,  You asked me if I thought there was no reason to breed exotic cats and it sounded like your thoughts on that are evolving.  I am early on in that process and thought that sharing how this belief has come to be may aid you in the unfolding of your path.

 

I always loved cats and knew I would do something for them someday but I left home at 15 and was a street urchin for two years before marrying an auto mechanic.  The next decade was spent as most probably are:  raising a family, earning a living and being too tired at the end of the day to do anything but collapse on the couch.

 

By the time I was 23 I was divorced and still raising my daughter (two of the children had been his from a previous marriage) and earning a living.  I felt more and more that something really big and expensive was going to become my burden, but had no idea what it was, so I worked 7 days a week and reinvested every penny we didn’t have to have for food.  Being caught up in the rat race I didn’t spend any time thinking about the big picture.

 

I remarried at 30 and started the sanctuary the next year.  The evolution of the sanctuary was pretty average.  We had a pet bobcat and when we went in search of another one discovered 56 that were going to be slaughtered at a fur farm and brought all of them home.  Unable to give personal attention to 57 lynx we placed them in homes where possible.  We bought out two more fur farms and began asking everyone who had cats about how to care for them.

 

We met all the people you usually meet at that stage:  The breeders, the dealers, the users, the “educators” and the exploiters who all had very polished media sound bites that they had rehearsed for years to justify what they did.  To newbies like us, who knew nothing of the facts, it all sounded very noble.  We met Robert Baudy, Darrell Atkinson, Doc Antle, Peter Caron, Judy Watson and on and on I could go for pages.  They seemed to be the experts and there was no one else to ask.

 

Zoos wouldn’t talk to “the private sector” and most of the places calling themselves sanctuaries explained that they had to breed and sell in order to support all the cats they already had bred and not sold.  The “educators” quoted famous people by saying that “people will only save what they love” indicating that by taking animals to schools, flea markets and shopping centers we were teaching people to care about animals and that would ultimately save them.  We fell for all of it.

 

Then one day we were at an exotic animal auction and I recognized a cat being sold.  I knew he was a kitten I had raised and placed in what I thought would be his forever home.  We bought him and brought him home and I began microchipping all of our cats.  Never again was I going to wonder if a cat of ours had wound up on that downward spiral.  People began asking me to take back cats we had placed and I always did.  I began to realize, that unlike me, when people committed to an animal, it only meant that they were committed as long as it was fun or at least convenient.  My husband was suffering from Alzheimer’s by now and was totally irrational.  I couldn’t stop him from breeding and selling, but I started sneaking cats to the vet and having them neutered.  He could pair up cats until the cows came home, but they weren’t having any kittens.

 

I lost him in 1997 when I was 36 and our assets were tied up in court (and obliterated I might add) over the next six years.  The cats were costing me 400,000.00 a year, but the courts would only allow 150,000.00 of my business earnings to go to the cats each year for the six years.  My daughter was 17 and graduated 2 years early so that she could help me care for the cats.  All of my time was spent trying to figure out ways to keep the cats fed.

 

Finally in 2003 it was over and my new life had begun with Howie who I just married last November.  He was a retired Harvard MBA and lived frugall