Atlas

Atlas the hybrid cat

Male Hybrid Cat

Born 1980s - Died 5/5/2003

1996: When my Dad came to work at the sanctuary in 1996, his first project was to build some fountains and a play yard for the Bengal Barn cats. Draikko, Shalimar and Zazu were the Leopard Cats who lived there and Atlas, Rafiki, Arianna, Kinza, Kaleena, and Zulu were the Bengal Cats who lived there and then there was a domestic tabby cat or two as well.

The Bengal Barn was a 70 foot long, single wide mobile home that we had gutted and turned into indoor cages for the cats, with a little window run on the outside of the trailer, so the cats could come and go from the air conditioning to the fresh air outside. The window runs were only about three feet deep and three feet tall and stretched down the exterior of the mobile home in compartments for each cat or group of compatible cats.

4/29/2003 Jamie always has to make tough decisions when I am away.  One of our Bengal Cats, Atlas, who runs loose at Easy Street and is a big favourite of the volunteers, was just diagnosed with FIV.  The vet biopsied a tumor and told Jamie that if it is cancerous she should euthanize him and if it's not he has to spend the rest of his life in a cage, under quarantine.  Atlas came from a breeding facility where he was kept in a very small cage and he hates being caged.  Jamie has the luxury of being able to wait until the biopsy comes back in 5 days to make that decision of whether or not to kill an animal rather than cage it.  I will be back by then, but it really bums her out when she has to deal with these issues.  She had to put Venus the black leopard down the last time I went anywhere.   It is more than how she and the cat feels about it, but also includes how she can relate to all of the differing opinions of the volunteers who aren't dedicated enough to take him home with them, but who will insist any life is better than no life.  These choices never get any easier.