Eviction of senior uncertain

Humane Society rescues stray cat

"Bojangles” the stray cat won’t be coming by Bernice Fuller’s apartment any more after being picked up on Monday.

But it’s unclear whether the 76-year-old Fuller still will be evicted from her Mayfair Apartments unit in Rocky Mount for having fed the stray animal.

On Monday, with Fuller’s blessing, the Edgecombe-Nash Humane Society picked up the cat by luring him with food into a cage.

The agency is paying for the animal’s veterinary care at Riverside Veterinary Hospital, said Joyce Webb, the president of the society.

Webb said she became outraged by Fuller’s pending eviction from the government-subsidized, low-income apartment complex after reading a recent story in the Telegram.

“He is a sweet kitty,” Webb said of Bojangles. “He is tame. He had been loved and petted by more than one resident over there.”

She said Tuesday morning that the cat has an injured leg that is being tended to by the veterinarian, and the cat is getting neutered and receiving his shots.

Webb said the residents were thrilled to see that the cat was being picked up for transport to a good home.

But later in the day, after the cat was checked out by a veterinarian, the prognosis wasn’t good. Webb said the cat was diagnosed with feline immunodeficiency virus as well as having heartworms.

She said the society does not have the budget to treat the cat for these diseases, but Webb hoped that someone in the community might be interested in adopting the cat and taking on those costs. It’s unclear what those costs are, as the veterinarian who treated the cat, Dr. Chandra Meachem-Tucker, could not be reached for comment.

FIV is a cat-only infection that cannot be transmitted to humans, veterinarians say.

Webb said she doubts the cat would have survived much longer in the wild.

“The moral of the story is he doesn’t have to die on the street,” Webb said. “We did what we thought we could. We were willing to go to whatever (lengths to save) the cat, but that is just a little too much.”

Webb said she hopes that Mayfair Apartments will halt the eviction of Fuller.

“We’re doing this from the bottom of our hearts, helping out a cat and human being,” she said.

On June 6, Fuller was given a 30-day notice of eviction from the apartment she has called home since the community opened eight years ago.

In the notice, Fuller was told that on May 27 she was issued a lease violation citing “no feeding of stray cats.”

In a letter to her on May 27 from the community manager Marcia Elks, Elks states that during her walk through the neighborhood, she noticed two small food bowls outside Fuller’s unit to feed stray cats.

“This practice will not only attract cats but other wild animals including squirrels, rats and reptiles, including snakes,” Elks states in the letter.

Kathy Kennedy, executive director of operations for Wellons Foundation Management Services in Dunn, which manages the complex, said the company took action because some tenants had complained about the stray cat potentially posing a health threat to them.

“What I heard is they were a little afraid of the cat because he was a stray,” she said. “Tenants have complained that it’s a stray cat that hasn’t been to the vet, who hasn’t had vaccinations. If he attacks or scratches another tenant, then we would have other issues.”

Kennedy said the company has to look at the good of the whole community.

“If they (tenants) complain to us, and we do nothing, and they get sick, then they’ll come to us and say, 'Why didn’t you do something?’” she said.

Since the story was published, Fuller said she has received numerous calls from people wanting to help her, including several local pastors.

She said Lisa Walter, an attorney with Legal Aid of N.C. in Wilson, has taken on her case free of charge and plans to meet with the complex management Friday. Walter could not be reached for comment.

Kennedy said she could not say for certain whether the eviction process will be halted now that the cat is gone.

“I guess it depends on the conversation they have on Friday,” she said.

Generally speaking, the company is not keen on evicting tenants, Kennedy said.

“We are not wanting to kick anyone out of their home,” she said. “If they abide by terms of their lease, then we’re willing to work something out.”

Fuller said she will miss Bonjangles, who was named for his love of the food scraps she would feed him from the restaurant.

“He had such a good way about him. He could beg so beautifully,” she said.

Fuller said Bonjangles had a way of tugging at your heart.

“If you are out there, he’d just love you to death with his head, his body,” she said with a giggle. “Bojangles was a con artist, I’ll tell you, Clark Gable couldn’t get any better.”