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Dear friends,

            Happy New Year! As another year is upon us, I am once again reminded of how time flies. It seems like just yesterday that Second Chance became an organization, yet on the other hand it seems that so much has happened within those 5+ years since our “birth”. Good things, really good things.

            The fall season was indeed very kind to us. We had a SUPER successful annual Pedal for Pets Bikeathon in the fall in Mansfield. We achieved above and beyond our wildest expectations! This has become our largest fundraiser and is growing every year. Many individuals walked or biked with/without their furry friends on the bike path in Mansfield, PA. , sponsored by well-wishers. Our thanks to Greco’s Market in Mansfield for allowing us to have a bake sale on the premises, and to WNBT radio station for donating T-Shirts for the event.  We also had an information/craft booth at various celebrations throughout the fall months. The annual Wellsboro Dickens of a Christmas celebration turned out to be a gorgeous day, and we met many new furries and humans who celebrate our cause!

            Our Pet Photos with Santa expanded to two Saturdays this year. “Hats Off” to Hampson’s Farm and Garden (Agway) in both Wellsboro and Mansfield for hosting this event. This year Santa had the experience of not only dogs, but a few cats and even a pet snake!

            And, of course, the elementary students at Charlotte Lappla Elementary School in Wellsboro once again held a food drive for Christmas to help us out with food for animals who have none for various reasons. We are forever grateful to these children as they think about others. As always, this kind of giving means more than anything to us---support from tomorrow’s animal caregivers.

            As the cold winter months arrive (at least, I THINK they are going to arrive this year!) we once again pray that the homeless, stray four-legged creatures survive with some sort of comfort. We are always looking for people to foster such animals as the calls come in, as well as to provide food (especially cat food) for the cat colony and other homeless kitties out there. Tracy Timmons, owner of Mountain View Kennels in Wellsboro, has been kind enough to help us out with temporary space for a few of our dogs, and various individuals have fostered cats and kittens until they were placed into loving homes. God bless all of you who support us and believe in us. Have a healthy, safe and happy 2007!

                                                                                                Sue Cook, President

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            Hi. My name is Kasey and I usually write a short column for Kasey’s Kat Kolony.  There really is not anything new to report.  I am still faithfully feeding the kitties every day and need to trap some new babies that were born this summer.  However, with a new human baby in my life I have been very busy.  My husband and I had some very sad news in October.  My husband’s best friend, SFC Tony Knier, was killed in Iraq.  A few days after we received the terrible news, we had an event that provided us with a distraction and maybe even a sign from a friend.

            One day after work I was sitting on the living room couch feeding my three-month-old daughter, Kaylee. I could hear Tucker, our big male cat, out in the front room playing with something. Every so often I would hear a scurrying sound. I thought he had a toy on the ceramic tile and was really going to town with it. After the third time of hearing that noise, I thought I would see what Tucker was playing with.  

            I get up with Kaylee in my arms and walk over to the doorway and look into the front room. Coiled up on the floor, striking my cat, is a three-foot-long snake. My cat looks at me, thinking, “Thank God you came!” and runs past me through the house. Of course I scream my head off and quickly close the French doors connecting the two rooms. I run to get the phone to page my husband, Travis, because he is just up the road working.  Just as I dart into the other room to get the phone I see his truck pulling out of the garage. I scream, "Stop! Stop!”, running to the windows, hoping he will look in. He instead looks at the neighbor's house and continues to drive up the road. (He later informs me that he had a feeling that he should come into the house. I said, *Next time, following that gut feeling, would you?*)

            I run back and look at the snake; he is now stretched out along the wall creeping along. He is at least three feet long, two inches thick, dark green or black with some blotchy stripes on him. I run back to the phone and start paging Travis. I think to myself, “He should be back any minute; he is only working a mile up the road.” He gets the page and thinks, “I have time. I will just finish what I am doing here.”  Meanwhile I am back at the house, paging again, while seeing the snake slither over towards the hot water baseboard heat. Still no husband.... page again. This time I am so frantic that I can't even put in our number. I grab the phone book, looking for the neighbor's number. By this time Travis pulls in. I run outside screaming like a mad woman, “GET IN HERE NOW!” During all of this my poor daughter is just holding on for dear life, as her mother is hysterical. Travis comes in and by that time the snake is gone. We assume he crawled down the hole where the pipes for the hot water baseboard come up through the floor. Travis goes to the garage to get something to capture the snake with in case it is just behind the heater. Ten minutes later he finally returns and says, “What do you get a snake with?” In his hands are a pair of fireproof leather gloves and a broom handle from a push broom. “What are you going to do with the broom handle, herd it out the door?” We tear the room apart looking for the snake and never find it.

            I did some research the next day. I called the Game Commission and the Fish and Boat Commission and by my description the experts are thinking that it is a Black Rat Snake. They are very hostile when threatened, they will bite, and they often get into homes through holes near pipes. They are also excellent vertical climbers (i.e. climb up your walls into your attic - can't wait to get the spring things out!) and they are good at removing mice. Yeah.

            Poor Tucker is traumatized. He will not go into that room. He walks into the living room and carefully sniffs everything and if you make a sudden move he jumps backwards about five feet. The poor thing is already on Prozac (that’s another story) but after this incident he will need to see a counselor.  (Do they have a two-foot long couch for cats?) I know that snake bit him because there were chunks of cat fur on the floor. I'm wondering if the snake bit him and didn't let go and that was the thrashing sound I heard. I will never know for sure.

            Later that night after we settled down from all the commotion, my husband and I wondered if maybe somehow our friend Tony came back as a snake, which wasn't a good choice considering we both are scared of snakes. However, it did get our mind off of the sad situation at hand.... so maybe the snake did serve a purpose.

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