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Spotlight on employee’s cat: Willow wins Pet Idol contest |
| By
Vicki L. Kroll |
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May 28, 2008
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| Willow looked right into the camera for Valerie Murphy, credentialing specialist in Medical Staff Services, as Java slept. Murphy entered the photo of the feline in the 2008 Pet Idol contest and Willow won. |
Valerie Murphy likes to garden. She tends to lavender, delphiniums, weigela, cats.
“Five years ago this summer, I came home from work and saw the ornamental grass moving,” she recalled. “I got out of the car to see what it was and found this tiny fur ball with great big eyes.”
The credentialing specialist in Medical Staff Services caught the kitten, which had a puncture wound on her abdomen. Murphy got back in the car and took the feline to the vet.
“She was too tiny for surgery,” she said of the then four- to six-week-old kitten. “The vet and I decided I would keep her and keep her wound clean and free from infection until she was old enough to have surgery.”
Within three weeks, the exposed muscle pulled back in and no surgery was needed.
“As soon as I saw her, I knew I had to keep her,” Murphy said. “My cat I had for 20-plus years had died that July. I found Willow in the beginning of August.”
She named the Maine coon-mix after her favorite tree.
“When I was a little girl, the neighbor had a pussy willow tree, and he would cut some for me. I loved the feel of the tree — and this cat’s fur is so fluffy and soft to touch.”
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| Willow, top, and Java posed for a photo on a cat tree. |
Willow joined Java, a cat Murphy rescued 18 months earlier.
“I found a kitten that was about 10 days old — she was almost hit by a truck,” she said. “I picked her up; her eyeballs were out of their sockets — they were so infected. I took her to the vet to have her put to sleep. I felt so bad for this poor thing. I took her in thinking there was no hope.”
But the veterinarian said there was a chance the blind kitten could make it if Murphy took care of the young cat’s eyes every two hours for three weeks.
“I was working at home at the time typing medical transcriptions, so I put her in a papoose around my neck and I dressed her eyes every two hours,” she said. “I named her Java — she’s all-black and was my little eight-ounce cup of coffee.”
Java’s weight doubled to 16 ounces in one week. And as the infection cleared, her eye muscles recovered and pulled her eyeballs back in their sockets.
“Both kittens found us,” Murphy said. “I’m glad Willow came into our lives; she’s really enhanced Java’s life. Willow actually taught Java how to run and play.”
Last winter Willow was climbing a cat tree in Murphy’s home, eyeing a sleeping Java.
“I told her to let Java sleep. I had to get my camera out as she was just looking at me and showing her personality,” Murphy said. “I loved the photo — she looked right in the camera.”
She showed the shot to her boss, Lori Donahue, director of Medical Staff Services, who told her about the 2008 Pet Idol contest, encouraging her to enter Willow.
Murphy sent the photo. There were 350 entries in the competition sponsored by The Blade, WTVG-TV Ch. 13 and the Toledo Area Metroparks. Planned Pethood was a partner.
Willow was the only cat in the top 10, going head to head with canines for the coveted honor. She was declared the winner after some 500,000 votes were counted in the final round.
“I did this for my kitty girl — I wanted her to be the Pet Idol. She has a heart-warming story and shows what a wonderful life an animal can have when given the proper environment and love,” Murphy said.
“There is a great need to spay and neuter to try to curtail the overpopulation of cats and dogs. If someone has it in his or her circumstances to rescue an animal, there’s a lot of reward in that experience.”
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