<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div>Courtesy of WKYT (Lexington, Kentucky) at:</div><div><br></div><div><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 19px; white-space: nowrap; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/24/2572711/uncommonwealth-mount-sterlings.html">http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/24/2572711/uncommonwealth-mount-sterlings.html</a></span></div><div><br></div><div>-------------------------------------</div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></span></div><div><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Arial, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 30px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 39px; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Uncommonwealth: Mount Sterling woman's home is a sanctuary for cats</span><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 10pt; font-family: sans-serif; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; "><br>Read more here: <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/24/2572711/uncommonwealth-mount-sterlings.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/24/2572711/uncommonwealth-mount-sterlings.html#storylink=cpy</a></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">MOUNT STERLING — Ellen Estill's house sits on a 21/2-acre rise near downtown Mount Sterling and is decorated with cat pictures, ceramic cats, cat trays, cat rugs, cat jars and cat bowls.</span></div><div><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">And then there are 32 cats — most of them from people who died, got sick or had to go into nursing homes and could find no one willing to take on the rigors of pet ownership. Estill points out a cat whose owner has stage four cancer. Only two of the cats belong to Estill.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Cats who were left in the lurch when the person who cared for them lost the ability to do so had no refuge. So Estill made one — a cattery for animals, once petted and indulged, who were left confused and alone to live out their last years. She calls it "a retirement home for older cats."</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Here they get premium products: Science Diet food and Fresh Step premium cat litter. Estill even lines a couple of the litter boxes with paper for the cats who prefer that toilet arrangement: "You know how they are, they've got a mind a of their own."</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">She has eight litter boxes, including several that are jumbo-sized.</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">"I didn't wake up one morning and say, 'I want 30 cats,'" Estill said. "It's a labor of love. ... Once they come to me, they don't leave."</span></p><p style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); -webkit-text-size-adjust: none; margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">She even went to the local planning and zoning committee to get a permit for her endeavor, which has been operating as a non-profit since 2009.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The cats' names include Stewie and Miss Kitty, Rebel and Little Britches, Smokey and Sage. Each cat gets a name, and its personality quirks are noted. The basement of Estill's home is theirs to roam, lined with furniture to lounge on. Outside there is a yard with a high fence and a sandbox in the corner.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Not all the cats came from people who were sick or incapacitated. Bob-tailed Stewie was a feral cat who came across the roof of the house, arrived in the backyard and decided to stay.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Mitt-Tons got a special highfalutin name, Estill said, because "She's French, exciting and exotic." Smokey is diabetic. Sage tried to immerse himself in a bowl of catnip.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Estill, 65, works part-time for a Meals on Wheels program. The rest of her day she devotes to her cats. Between feeding and cleaning the litter boxes, it's a full-time job.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">"A lot of people think that cats, if you throw them outside, they'll do OK," Estill said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">That's not true, she said. Cats that have lived indoors are bewildered by being outside.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">And cats might seem unsociable to strangers, but they become used to routines and to human contact.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Jim and Pat Lawrence of Lexington needed to place a cat named Ruka, a regal feline that had come to live with Jim's sister, Nancy Stong, after being brought from Hawaii by a niece.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">When Stong died in January, 2012, the couple didn't know what to do with Ruka. Pat Lawrence was allergic to cats. Eventually the couple found the Kitty Lodge, where Ruka now lives.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Occasionally, Jim Lawrence said, Estill will update him by cellphone on Ruka's progress. In turn, he sends occasional donations.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">"We wanted to make sure she got a good home," said Jim Lawrence. "We weren't ready to turn her over to just anybody."</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Dr. Eric Headley, a veterinarian at Lexington's Chevy Chase Animal Clinic, said that Estill is "100 percent committed to these cats, no matter what. Whatever the temperament of the cat, she always gives them a second chance, a third chance, a fourth chance. ... It's amazing what she can do with them."</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">The cat home got off to a swift start. Soon after Estill moved in during 2009 with an eye toward starting the Kitty Lodge, three female cats were dropped off: "If I hadn't had them neutered, I've have nine million cats by now," she said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">Once cats establish social relationships with each other, they're home, she said.</span></p><p style="margin: 20px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 620px !important; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); ">"Once they make friends, they've got it made," Estill said.</span></p></div><div>--------------------</div><div><br></div><div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="text-align: left; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ellen Estill sat with Sage, left and Mitt-Tons at her home in Mt. Sterling. The Kitty Lodge is a non-profit home for older cats whose owners can no longer care for them.</span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="text-align: left; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><img src="cid:9CB2FB9E-2320-4E79-A1CB-DBDE585DB701" alt="image.jpeg" id="9CB2FB9E-2320-4E79-A1CB-DBDE585DB701" width="620" height="413"></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;">--------------------</div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><br></div><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto;"><h2 style="margin: 0px 0px 1px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; "><div style="font-weight: 400; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Cats at Ellen Estill’s Kitty Lodge in Mt. Sterling played in the backyard, which includes a sandbox. When they go inside, they have a furnished basement in which to roam.</span></font></div><div style="font-weight: 400; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><font size="3"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></font></div><div style="font-weight: 400; text-align: -webkit-auto; "><img src="cid:4447CA67-E1C0-4F01-99B8-5387734F614E" alt="image.jpeg" id="4447CA67-E1C0-4F01-99B8-5387734F614E" width="620" height="413"></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; "><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="font-weight: normal; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font size="3"><br></font></span></div><font size="3"><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="font-weight: 400; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Read more here: <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/24/2572711/uncommonwealth-mount-sterlings.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/24/2572711/uncommonwealth-mount-sterlings.html#storylink=cpy</a></span></div></font></div></h2></div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-align: left; width: 1px; height: 1px; overflow: hidden; "><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; "><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><font><div style="text-align: -webkit-auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Read more here: <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/24/2572711/uncommonwealth-mount-sterlings.html#storylink=cpy">http://www.kentucky.com/2013/03/24/2572711/uncommonwealth-mount-sterlings.html#storylink=cpy</a></div></font></div></div><div><br></div><div>-------------------------------------<br><br><div>Seeya round town, Moscow, because . . .</div><div><br></div><div>"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</div><div><a href="http://www.MoscowCares.com">http://www.MoscowCares.com</a></div><div> </div><div><div>Tom Hansen</div><div>Moscow, Idaho</div><div><br></div><div>"<span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">There's room at the top they are telling you still</span><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "> </span></div><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill </span><br style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); "><span style="font-size: medium; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.296875); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469); ">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);"><br></span></font></div><div><font size="3"><span style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.292969); -webkit-composition-fill-color: rgba(175, 192, 227, 0.230469); -webkit-composition-frame-color: rgba(77, 128, 180, 0.230469);">- John Lennon<br></span></font><div> </div></div></div></div></body></html>