June 10, 2025
Blue
Blue was one of the cats living in the upstate sanctuary, accepted and placed there by Christopher Arsenault earlier this year. In mid to late April, Blue began to show minor symptoms of a cold. Because of this, Yasmin, the upstate caretaker placed there by Chris, decided to separate Blue in a crate in order to pay close attention to him, gain easier access to him once she was allowed to bring him to the vet if needed, and to reduce contamination to other cats. Another cat was also separated for similar reasons.
On Saturday April 26, 2025, Lisa Jaeger broke into the barn at the upstate sanctuary through a window. During this encounter she took the two cats who were separated by Yasmin down to the Long Island warehouse claiming that Yasmin had separated them for personal reasons, that they were FeLV positive, and that they were being neglected. No proof of these allegations has ever been confirmed. In fact, pictures show that Blue was well taken care of and that he looked relatively healthy at the time he was taken down to Long Island. Furthermore, Blue’s trapper denies that he was ever diagnosed with FeLV.
By all accounts Blue was a sweet cat and lived happily in his upstate sanctuary. His friendly demeanor invited two warehouse volunteers to give him Churu treats upon his arrival, which Blue enjoyed.
At some point between Sunday night, 4/26/2025 and Tuesday night, 4/29/2025, Blue was diagnosed with FIP. In a mere two days, Blue was diagnosed with FIP. Normally this type of diagnosis takes days to achieve as FIP is a diagnosis of exclusion. He had not been seen by a vet since arrival and, as later admitted by the leadership of Happy Cat Sanctuary, had been given prophylactic treatment of GS-441524 for FIP having never been diagnosed with FIP by a veterinary professional.
Volunteers noticed that Blue wasn’t well and was getting worse. They state that they expressed to Lisa Jaeger on multiple occasions that Blue was declining- yet he was still not taken to a veterinarian. Finally on Tuesday April 29, 2025 Blue began to convulse in his cage actively seizing repeatedly. A volunteer quickly snapped a video of Blue in his cage to document and continued to sound the alarm that he needed help immediately. The volunteer took it upon themself to grab Blue from his cage and insist that he be brought to emergency.
Text message exchanges show that a senior volunteer suggested that Blue be brought to emergency over half an hour away despite the closest one being 7 minutes away. The volunteer who removed Blue from his cage insisted he needed help NOW and brought to the closer emergency hospital, Atlantic Coast Veterinary, where he was later euthanized after jolting, screaming, and suffering on the ride to the ER.
The heart wrenching video of this cat seizing is horrific. No one can bring him back to the life which was stolen from him. No one can turn back the hands of time and make sure that someone advocated for him.
But we can demand justice for him.
Blue should have never suffered such a tragic and public death. But his death should not be in vain. Blue has a voice now. And even though he was never even deemed worthy enough to obtain an HCS number, we are grateful that we at least knew his name.
Below is an image of the Facebook comment from his trapper who lovingly shared the following sentiments:
