How Blind Cat Rescue in St. Pauls answered the call when neglected cats lives were at risk

Members of a Robeson County animal rescue group made a 1,100-mile roundtrip journey to Ohio recently to collect a dozen sick cats from a sanctuary there that law enforcement said had neglected more than 40 animals.

Ohio woman, Sophia Kartsonis, the director of Our Farms Sanctuary in Tipp City, Ohio, is charged with several counts of cruelty to companion animals after Ohio law enforcement and animal control found 119 cats in one room, WTDN Dayton reported. Authorities seized 43 cats with respiratory infections, according to the Ohio news station.

Samantha Steffens, executive director of Blind Cat Rescue in St. Pauls , said she heard about the Ohio cats on July 18 and the following day she and her shelter manager Allison Aguilar were on the road. The deciding factor was when they got word that one of the cats remaining at the sanctuary, a blind calico named Terra, was at risk for euthanization. They left July 19 for Ohio to bring back as many cats as they could fit into their rental vehicle, Steffens said.

"Within 29 hours of us making that decision ... we took the nine-hour trip there, picked them up in the morning and brought them back,” Steffens said.

More: Cumberland County shelter stays full, which leads to euthanasia. What can be done?

She said when she and Aguilar arrived at the Tipp City sanctuary, many of the cats were hiding and there were no signs of enrichment toys. Volunteers told Steffens and Aguilar that the sanctuary was cleaner than usual.

Steffens said she suspects the director of Our Farms Sanctuary fell victim to a "'trying to save them all' mindset.”

She said when she and Aguilar got back to St. Paul, she was surprised at how quickly the cats acclimated to their new home.

"You would think after a nine-hour ride they would not be too happy about being sent to a different place," Steffens said.

But once the animals were let loose at the Blind Cat Rescue nonprofit, "they all took their little lap around and they started dive-bombing the cat nip beds."

More about Blind Cat Rescue

Blind Cat Rescue was first built in 2005 with the goal of finding a safe place for blind cats who were deemed not adoptable by regular shelters and were going to be euthanized. In 2011, a second shelter was built to house cats positive for feline leukemia or feline immunodeficiency virus.

The sanctuary is meant to house the animals for life, meaning that the cats living at the sanctuary are not up for adoption. Steffens said Wednesday that Blind Cat Rescue has about 70 cats under their care.

To donate to Blind Cat Rescue & Sanctuary visit blindcatrescue.com/donate.htm . Visit them on Facebook at facebook.com/BlindCatRescue .

Public safety reporter Joseph Pierre can be reached at jpierre@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: How Blind Cat Rescue in St. Pauls answered the call when neglected cats lives were at risk