Police seeking abuser who tossed 'Valentine' onto Sharrot Road Thursday

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

milliken@vindy.com

NORTH LIMA

Valentine’s Day was not a sweet day for a cat shelter officials have named Valentine, but the feline is now safe and warm.

A concerned citizen called Beaver Township police at 6:25 p.m. Thursday after seeing the cat thrown from a northbound car on Sharrott Road.

Police Lt. Kalman Adorjan said he found and rescued Valentine at Sharrott Road and Sharrott Run Place and took him to the police station, from which another officer took him to the Angels for Animals shelter at 4750 state Route 165.

“We’re going to try to locate the vehicle and the people who did it,” Adorjan said. However, he added that the search would be difficult because the observer could not provide the car’s license plate number and gave a sketchy description of the car.

“How can you be that cruel to an innocent animal?” asked Diane Less, Angels’ founder, who also used the words “mean” and “evil” to describe those who abandoned the cat.

“We have an open-access drop off area at the shelter,” which is open around the clock for cat drop-offs, she said. The shelter is only five miles from where Valentine was abandoned.

“He’s so sweet and loving. It’s hard to believe he could be mistreated,” Less said.

Valentine is an orange, tabby and white, domestic short-haired neutered male, who is missing most of his teeth and at least 10 years old. He is missing his right eye; his left eye appears small in the socket; and he may be blind, Less said. “He’s pretty thin and dehydrated,” but has no broken bones, Less added.

He has a severe respiratory infection and considerable discharge from his nose and left eye, Less said, adding that he was filthy, malnourished, hungry and thirsty on Thursday evening.

The shelter will make Valentine available for adoption, Less said. “He’ll make somebody a very wonderful pet,” she said.

“He’ll live quite a long time yet if he’s taken care of,” she added.