THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WILKES-BARRE, Pennsylvania — A U.S. woman who marketed “gothic kittens” with ear and neck piercings over the Internet has been convicted of animal cruelty.

A Pennsylvania jury on Wednesday convicted 35-year-old dog groomer Holly Crawford of one misdemeanor count and one summary count of animal cruelty, but acquitted her on two separate counts. She will be sentenced March 31.

Crawford was charged in December 2008 after animal welfare officers took several kittens and a cat from her home. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WILKES-BARRE, Pennsylvania — A Pennsylvania woman is facing trial on animal cruelty charges for marketing “gothic kittens” with ear and neck piercings over the Internet.

Thirty-five-year-old dog groomer Holly Crawford is scheduled for trial Tuesday in Wilkes-Barre.

Prosecutors say she inflicted pain on the cats to make money. Attorneys for Crawford say she didn’t act maliciously. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. — An improvised group of animal lovers for years sheltered, captured and adopted stray cats that were dumped on the Tennessee Valley Authority reservation, but TVA officials recently requested that the animals be gone for good.

The trouble is, organizers say residents will keep supplying unwanted “Rock Pile cats” on the Rock Pile section of the reservation.

On a recent day, four cats hung around a rock crevice adorned with pillows and blankets. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CENTRAL ISLIP, N.Y. — A woman will undergo a psychiatric evaluation following the discovery of more than 40 dead animals buried in her Long Island yard.

Suffolk County Judge Paul Hensley said Monday that psychiatrists will determine whether Sharon McDonough is “an incapacitated person.” The results are due Friday.

McDonough pleaded not guilty last month to animal abuse after five dogs and a cat were found living in squalid conditions inside her Selden home. Authorities later uncovered 42 dead animals buried in her backyard, but have yet to upgrade charges. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

ATLANTA — A Grayson woman has been charged with arson and cruelty to animals after she allegedly set fire to a home she was renting and her two cats were killed.

The fire occurred at 27-year-old Sarah Sheridan’s Snellville home on Oct. 6. Gwinnett County Fire spokesman Tommy Rutledge said investigators found an accelerant inside the home where Sheridan was living alone. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LINCOLN, Neb. — A Lincoln teenager has been ordered to serve probation until he turns 19 for helping torture and kill a cat.

Seventeen-year-old Jacob Weichel received his punishment Friday. He’s also banned from having a weapon or owning pets during his probation period and must complete 50 hours of community service. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JOHNSON CITY, Texas — When an elderly Johnson City woman known as the “cat lady” died, leaving behind more than 100 felines, the question arose about what would happen to her precious pets.

Blanco County has no animal control agency or animal shelter, so the 72-year-old woman’s neighbors knew they had to step in and help. (more…)

PHIL KLOER

COX NEWS SERVICE

ATLANTA — Could you get more ways to hook readers with a title than the new book Ghost Cats of the South?

Randy Russell, a North Carolina folklore scholar who collects ghost stories, has written 22 tales of undead kitties, based on local legends, including a piano-playing ghost cat in Atlanta. It’s a sequel to his book, Ghost Dogs. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MIAMI— A South Florida teenager accused of a string of cat killings and mutilations is set to appear court.

A bond hearing for 18-year-old Tyler Hayes Weinman is scheduled Monday afternoon. He was charged Sunday with 19 counts each of animal cruelty and improperly disposing of an animal body. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MARION — When Bubba the cat disappeared inside the home he shares with Cheryl and Phillip Albers, they knocked holes in walls looking for him, but he couldn’t be found.

Bubba’s meows could be heard through the night Monday, Cheryl Albers said, after he vanished following a visit from an air-conditioner repairman. (more…)

THE DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

MOUNTAIN HOME — Two Humane Society workers trapped 91 feral cats in and around an elderly man’s mobile home in Baxter County this week and expect to find several more on the property.

Nearly all of the cats were in such poor physical condition that they had to be euthanized, said Robby Lockeby, shelter manager for the Humane Society of North Central Arkansas. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — A Pennsylvania dog groomer has been ordered to stand trial on animal cruelty charges for selling “gothic kittens” with ear, neck and tail piercings.
Holly Crawford’s home outside Wilkes-Barre was raided Dec. 17 after the county Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals got a tip.
A prosecutor says Crawford inflicted pain on the cats, which were listed for sale for hundreds of dollars on the Internet. Crawford’s attorney says state law says nothing about piercing cats or docking their tails.
At a preliminary hearing Tuesday, Wilkes-Barre District Judge Paul Hadzick called it a gray area that needs to be decided by a trial judge or jury.
Charges against a second defendant, William Blansett, were dropped after Crawford admitted she pierced the cats.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PINE GROVE, Pa. — A woman stockpiled cat food donated to her purported animal sanctuary and resold some of it, leaving dozens of animals to go hungry, to finance a drug habit, police said.

Virginia Kresge Justiniano, who had run the Cats With No Name sanctuary since 1996, was charged with drug possession after being stopped for a traffic violation Saturday. (more…)

McCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — In Southwest Ranches, Fla., a 100-pound Siberian lynx named Sasha roams Steve and Barbara Burk’s house like the alpha-male predator he is.

At times the powerful cat paws playfully at a llama, a goat or another critter in the menagerie of animals the Burks invite in to wander the house. At other times Sasha grows bored with the barnyard hoi polloi and retires to his bedroom, furnished with a double bed and a television. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

For the kittens dashing and tumbling around the room, the Washington Humane Society’s first Kittengarten class is all about the playtime.

But for the humans and the shelter there’s a bigger goal: making sure that cats are healthy and happy in their adoptive homes — and that they stay there. (more…)

THE WASHINGTON POST

Older cats can be very vocal during the night-time hours. Is there anything you can do when your cat’s 5 a.m. wake-up meows start driving you crazy? (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Brother, can you spare a twisty-tie?

Hard economic times can mean fewer holiday gifts — for your pets, too. Fortunately, cats were into recycling and repurposing long before “green” became the latest buzzword. (more…)

THE ANIMAL PLANET

SEATTLE — Filmmakers Michael and Deirdre Cross weren’t expecting the smallest member of their family to take after them, but he did.

For one day a week over the span of a year, Cooper carried a camera around to document his travels around the Greenwood neighborhood. The pictures he brought back range from the mundane to the sublime: neighbors’ yards, busy streets, plastic flamingos on the Cross’ front lawn and one spot where he spent a lot of time bird-watching. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — John McGahey, a veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, takes his service cat, Patch, everywhere he goes. (more…)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — The lawyer for an actor and former minor league pitcher who killed his girlfriend’s cat says he is trying to strike a plea deal with prosecutors so his client can avoid another trial.

Jurors deadlocked 11-1 last month after 37-year-old Joseph Petcka’s trial on a charge of felony aggravated animal cruelty. (more…)

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Born in Persia, raised on a farm in southern Rhodesia and a long-time resident of London, Doris Lessing, 88 years old, has led an unconventional and peripatetic life.

But over the decades, she has maintained several passionate, long-term relationships — with cats. (more…)

David Mare displays a Turkish Angora at the Sixth Annual Iams Cat Championship on Saturday in New York. (AP Photo)

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK — Barack Obama and John McCain will attend a New York cat show this weekend — Obama the Bombay cat and McCain the American Shorthair, that is.

The two felines are vying for the title of “Purr-fect President” at the Cat Fanciers’ Association-IAMS 2008 championship that opens Saturday at Madison Square Garden. (more…)