A Cat Man and Every Day Hero

A Cat Man and Every Day Hero by Layla Morgan Wilde

Dave Martin and his “Orange Crush” cat Rusty.

There are famous historical cat men from Winston Churchill, Hemingway to Mark Twain. There are current celebrity cat experts or Hollywood types like James Franco who adore cats. Then there are the every day cat men. They aren’t famous but they share one thing in common: they love and revere cats. This is the story about one cat man and how stray cats transformed a Wall Street dude with no experience with cats to a serious cat man, cat rescuer and cat photographer.

Dave Martin is lifelong resident of Staten Island, New York. After a long career on Wall Street as an AVP in Corporate Actions and Proxy, he took a buy out package in 2010 and his life changed 360 degrees. He spent time figuring out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He dabbled in event photography ( a passion since the age of 12 when processed photos in darkroom in his basement) but nothing fed his soul until a fateful day in 2012 when he met a stray cat. He’d always considered himself a dog person until an orange tabby jumped in his lap and refused to leave.

He looked cold and hungry. Martin said, “I took took him home on the condition he stay downstairs and never sleep on my bed. That lasted a week. I now have 8 cats living with me and I’m fostering two 7 week old kittens, Dot and Dash. I believe the only thing tougher than getting them to sit still for more than a second is the thought of seeing them leave”

Rusty, the orange tabby as came to be known, led Martin to follow in the footsteps of the famous Hemingway quote: “One cat leads to another,” but not without a learning curve.

Martin confessed, “I knew NOTHING about cats. Rusty ate hot dogs for a week. Figured I better bone up. Went to the Mayor’s Alliance website and saw a course on TNR offered by Elena Bass of SIFI (The Staten Island Feral Initiative and was certified by Neighborhood Cats in October 2012. I did some trapping and provided support to other caretakers. Thought volunteering at Mayor’s Alliance of NYC Animals would be nice way of repaying them hooking me up with SIFI and other TNR groups. I attend most of the events coordinated by the MA and enjoy every minute.”

I met Dave Martin last year at the Architects For Animals event to benefit the Mayor’s Alliance where he covered some of the event photography. It’s inspiring to see how quickly a person can become knowledgeable when there is a passion to learn. And what better subject than cats?

Cats and cat lovers in search of “the one”.

More recently he covered the Adoptapalooza pet adoption event, an annual open air event in Manhattan where over 100 animals were adopted last weekend.Adoption events are not only about finding homes for pets but education and some entertainment. Norman the scooter riding dog spread chuckles. A table staffed with a veterinary crew administered a low cost microchip while-u-wait. Specially designed battery operated fans attached to the outside of cages to keep pets comfortable in the heat. Given the kitten population explosion TNR and fostering info was more important now than ever to provide.

The NYC Office of Emergency Management made their first appearance at an MA event. OEM staff gave out emergency preparedness info that dealt with having a plan in place that included both human and animal escape plans in the event of a hurricane, power outage, etc. Bide-a Wee, ASPCA had their adoption vans nearby.

Some cat lovers are lucky to meet their soul cat, the one cat the leaves deeper paw prints in one’s heart. For Dave Martin, it’s Gabby, a scrawny, old, stray cat turned feline princess. “I first saw her in February 2013 lying ironically on a welcome mat in front of a single family house on Staten Island. The residents told me she wasn’t theirs.”

Gabby, living rough on the streets of Staten Island, New York.

I began feeding her. Initially she was so skittish I couldn’t come anywhere near her so I had to leave food near “our spot”, walk around the block for 20 minutes then go back to collect her empty plate. By all accounts, she’d lived on the street for two extreme winters and summers at least. Enduring a hurricane and tropical storm Super storm Sandy she survived by literally eating out of garbage cans. I named her Gabby not really knowing her sex. I noticed she was missing a few teeth and named her Gabby after Gabby Hayes, the toothless male character actor that appeared in dozen of westerns of the 30’s and 40’s. I had a 50/50 chance of being right.”

Winter was coming and the weather turned cold. He couldn’t let Gabby die on the street. Something had to be done. We all know how expensive veterinary care can be. Original estimates for her treatment by Martin’s vet and a few others were in the $900 to $1200 range. One vet suggested trapping then euthanizing her. Diane Gauld of the Mayor’s Alliance suggested reaching out to Sandra Defeo of the Humane Society for Gabby’s treatment. Martin said, “She asked how much I could afford. I told her $250. She said okay and I brought Gabby in to the facility on E 59th St.”

On January 20, 2014 Gabby went in for surgery and Martin took her home two days later. The vets removed her tumor as well as a cyst on her back. She was spayed and given meds necessary for her full recovery. Luckily she tested negative for AIDS and FLV. The biopsy did reveal the presence of some cancerous cells but to date no cancer has shown up anywhere else. Martin had no regrets about adding Gabby to his feline family except perhaps not bringing her in sooner.

 

Gabby, the former street cat with a “tear in her eye” living the good life. A little love goes a long way.

“She is about the sweetest cat I’ve known. A little skittish to be sure but that probably served her well during her time on the street. Her resilience astonishes me to this day. Gabby did experience psychogenic alopecia after her surgery and literally licked the fur off off of a six inch diameter patch on her left side. A collar I bought at Petco that was infused with a calming pheromone plus the fragrances of chamomile and lavender ended Gabby’s licking issue after a few weeks. Even today you still need to approach her slowly or she will run under a chair — even if you are offering food to her.

Today and for the foreseeable future she is the queen of my household. My other cats have never given her a problem. Despite being occasionally aggressive towards one another they have never gone after Gabby or gotten into her face. It’s as if they respect all she’s endured and have all agreed, “Gabby’s been through enough, let’s leave her alone.”

She has the spot of honor on my recliner between my hip and the arm of the chair. Treats and affection are frequently and lavishly aimed in her direction. She deserves as much given how miserably humans have treated her in the past. I can’t confirm how she became homeless but her tumor probably played a role in her prior owner giving her the boot. I hope I’m wrong about that but I just have a feeling that is what happened.”

 

A cat man’s pledge and message

“My pledge to Gabby is to make up for how rotten humans have treated her while I have this chance. Every day she is with me will be the exact opposite of her life on the street, pampered, well fed and loved. And I guess that’s what I’d like people to take away from Gabby’s story is that there are thousands of cats like Gabby out there. Some are still on the street and some are in shelters. They all have backstories. Maybe it’s due to a prior owners economic plight. Maybe they have a treatable but costly medical issue. Or maybe their owner just didn’t take the time to address a small behavioral issue and gave up on their cat or dog too soon. Every animal deserves a second chance.”