After Happy Cat fire, volunteers scramble to find care, shelter for more than 200 cats

Volunteers spent Tuesday attempting to find shelter and medical aid for upward of 200 cats that survived a Medford fire the day before that killed the founder of a home-based cat sanctuary and scores of felines in his care.

The early morning fire Monday destroyed the Happy Cat Sanctuary, built in the home and backyard of its founder, Christopher Arsenault, 65, who had about 300 cats in the sanctuary on Dourland Road. 

Arsenault's body was recovered from a back room of the destroyed house. Investigators on Tuesday continued searching for clues to how the fire started.

Meanwhile, the painstaking process of finding homes for the surviving cats and retrieving the remains of those that died was on the minds of volunteers Tuesday.

'End game' needed

Lisa Jaeger, a board member of the Happy Cat Sanctuary, said volunteers with a crematorium searching the house found about 58 dead cats near the front of the residence. Jaeger said another 50 cats that were caged and feral may have died in the fire. 

About 150 cats were still on the property Tuesday, Jaeger added, and would remain secured and cared for in the sanctuary's backyard until Thursday. There were another 50 or so cats roaming nearby the property. The rescued cats  will be taken to a Holbrook warehouse to be caged and treated by veterinarians.

"We need an end game for all 200 of these cats," Jaeger said. "Some of them are friendly. Some of them are feral. We need to address the situation here and make sure everybody's healthy."

Suffolk SPCA Chief Roy Gross was meeting with rescue groups to coordinate shelters and hospitals.

"We want to make sure the survivors are taken care of, get treatment, go to good homes," Gross said. "We want to make sure resources go where they should."
Volunteers said they were back at the charred home Tuesday to help in honor of Arsenault, who they said died after running back into the residence to rescue cats from the fire. 

Arsenault's family returned to the home to assess the damage and remember his life and love of cats.

Dedicated to cats

"He was an amazing man," said his daughter Kristen Arsenault, 38, of Port Washington. "He dedicated his life to these cats, and he clearly could have done anything for them, because he died for them."

Christopher Arsenault founded Happy Cat in 2007 — a year after his son, Eric, then 24, died in a motorcycle accident. His daughter said caring for the cats became a calling to ease his grief. 

"He wasn't able to really save his son, and I think that he took on this task of saving these cats, and that made him feel like he had purpose, and he really just loved each and every one of them," Kristen Arsenault said.

Volunteers plan to deliver 200 42-inch crates to the warehouse in Holbrook, where each cat will have its own cage, food, litter and water, Jaeger said.

The cats will be seen by a vet and a mobile clinic at the warehouse, Jaeger said. They will have to be sedated to be vaccinated, microchipped and receive blood work to test for disease, she said.

Adoption weeks off

A database will store the cats' information once they’re treated and volunteers will look to place them in rescues on Long Island. Jaeger said most of the cats are feral and will not be available for adoption for several weeks.

Gross said the SPCA's mobile animal surgical hospital will be mobilized for staffers to help with evaluations and emergency care. The unit was first used to help care for search-and-rescue dogs at Ground Zero in the months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

"This was obviously a major tragedy," Gross said, adding of Arsenault, "This guy really cared about what he was doing. ... He took in cats in every type of situation — abandoned, feral, ill, mistreated; all sorts of horrible situations — and he really took good care of these animals."

The town had "numerous" prior violations against the property, but the town attorney's office said Arsenault had worked with the town to address concerns. The property was cordoned off by the town, but officials allowed rescue workers to care for the cats.

Volunteers from several organizations including Jaeger's Run Animal Rescue, Strong Island and Paws of War, were attempting to rescue cats and build fencing around the charred home.

Jaeger said volunteers rescued about a dozen cats Tuesday while some cats sat meowing in the charred window of the burned house. Cats with various burn injuries were examined in a Paws of Hope mobile examination vehicle.

"They're scared," Strong Island director Frankie Floridia said. "We're trying to get them out, trying to figure out who's hurt, who's not, and then make an assessment as to where they're going to go from here. Most of the cats are in good shape. A lot of them do have burns. Some of them have burns on their feet. Their whiskers are gone. And we're making assessments on figuring out which ones need to go to the hospital and which ones can just be treated here."

In the immediate aftermath of the fire Monday, one group, North Fork Country Kids Rescue, took in six cats, according to Virginia Scudder, who runs the Aquebogue-based organization. Those cats were being sheltered Tuesday at the Mattituck-Laurel Veterinary Hospital, she said. Cats rescued from Happy Cat need to be reassessed — then tested for diseases like feline immunodeficiency virus and leukemia before officials can determine where they might be placed, Scudder said.

More than 50 applicants so far have come forward seeking to adopt the displaced cats, Scudder said.

Rescuers in Medford on Tuesday said they need time to rescue and place the animals.

"We have just been overwhelmed with just the amazing human beings here on Long Island that have just donated their time and money," Jaeger said. "We know that everybody wants to be here, and we know that everybody is here with us right now. We just need everybody to just sit tight and let us do our jobs right now."