Burned cat, left to die, now ready for adoption in Kirkland

A cat was set on fire and left to die. We looked into how this lucky cat is shining a light on a much larger problem.

Tens of thousands of cats are allegedly abused every year.

Last January, Vinny, the cat, was abandoned in a Bellevue parking lot. Vinny had burns over much of his body.

A Kirkland shelter has a cat that was also abused this past weekend. In fact, that cat was thrown from a moving vehicle. But like Vinny, she is lucky, too.

She was rescued and brought to a shelter.

“I’d like you to meet ‘Sunday,’ said Bonne VeVea. “And ‘Sunday’ came to us from a Good Samaritan.”

VeVea showed us the kitten they now call ‘Sunday,’ named for the day this week a mother and daughter witnessed a cruel act near Sultan.

“Someone opened the window and threw this kitten out onto the highway,” VeVea said.

They stopped, corralled the kitten, and brought Sunday to Meow Cat Rescue and Adoption, a volunteer organization VeVea helped found.

She said animals are often treated cruelly by humans.

“We do kind of see the worst of the worst in animal rescues sometimes,” VeVea said. “Sometimes it’s minor. But sometimes people have wicked hearts.”

That brings us to Vinny.

“I have never seen anything like Vinny in my time doing this,” said VeVea, “and ‘Meow’ is 27 years old now.”

Vinny is just four years old, but he has likely lived a couple of his seven lives. He suffered burns over much of his body.

A Good Samaritan rescued him and he ended up here with Andee Castillo, a foster mom to more than a dozen cats.

“If they’re broken, we will fix them,” she said, nuzzling Vinny.

Castillo said her heart broke when she first saw what was done to Vinny.

“It was hard to look at the pictures,” she said, her voice breaking.

Vinny’s burns and his damaged eye were almost too much for Castillo to bear.

“But knowing that he survived and turned out okay is comforting,” she said.

No one knows who did this to Vinny or to Sunday. So, no one has been arrested for animal cruelty. Of course, if you know anything about this, you’re asked to call the police.

But there is some good news. Both Vinny and Sunday are ready to be adopted.

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