A little girl and a cat

Dear Mouse, Two creatures, one a little girl and one little cat, both left alone in a house for weeks. Who is to blame ? The girl... The little girl had been left alone since her mother was jailed Sept. 10 for aggravated assault and petty theft. THE CHILD was recovering from malnutrition Tuesday and was in good condition at Wolfson Children’s Hospital. “She’s sitting up in the bed and laughing and playing with the nurses,” said hospital spokesman David Foreman. The child’s father, Ogden Lee, who is separated from the child’s 22-year-old mother, Dakeysha Telita Lee, said he had been trying to contact the mother for two weeks and did not learn until Sunday that she was in jail. When a manager let him into the apartment Monday, the girl was lying in a baby’s bathtub, covered with a towel and was watching cartoons. She was filthy and covered with dry ketchup, he said. “She grabbed me and wouldn’t let go of me,” Lee said. “It is really a miracle how good a shape my daughter is in. I don’t know how she did it.” Now, the mother is charged with chilld abuse and may end up in jail again. Who is going to take care of the girl ? She will join the world of children who grew up in foster homes. The cat -not me... MONROE, La. -- A cat locked in a house for two months without food or water was rescued after concerned citizens searched the home one last time. Cecil the cat was "nothing but skin and bones" when rescuers found him hiding under a chair last month. "He was so little and weak," said Elizabeth Hollenberg. Cecil was treated at a veterinarian's office, where he was weighed at five pounds. Veterinarian Dr. Clark Cooper of West Monroe said it is possible for a cat to survive without food and water for more than eight weeks. "But he would have had to have been one fat son-of-gun to start with," Cooper said. Cecil and more than 30 other cats and a dog became orphans when their owner, Mary Ethridge Dean, died June 19 after a lengthy illness. Dean didn't have children, and before her death she made arrangements to ensure her animals were cared for. Rescuers were able to save the other animals, but Cecil was the only one to remain undetected. What a pity? Except for the little cat that was missed all the animals were cared for according to the will of the owner,while the little girl was not missed at all by the mother who got jailed. She did not even inform the authority that the child is endangered during her absence or... did she? The CAT