Update: Midnight has been adopted! Her gloomy past behind her, this free-spirited gal has now been renamed Indie. Her new family reports that she is relishing the safe, comfortable indoor life and that she acts like she has known her canine sister, River, who is also a PETA rescue, for years. Indie has discovered catnip, and she is so photogenic that her new family has started an all-Indie scrapbook. If you are interested in adopting a PETA rescue, e-mail us at Adopt@peta.org.

Originally posted September 20:

Midnight the cat had been trapped in a tree for 10 terrifying days. Her owners couldn't be bothered to lift a finger to help her. She had likely been frightened up the tree and didn't know how to get back down, which should have been apparent after the first few hours. A concerned construction worker reported the stranded, distressed cat to PETA.

Seeing as the people responsible for her seemed not to care one bit, one of our Community Animal Project fieldworkers climbed about 35 feet up the tree, secured Midnight in her arms, and made the slow, careful descent. After 10 days without food or water, Midnight was lucky to be alive and was shaken and severely dehydrated, but once on the ground, the grateful cat began to purr. Her owners never allowed Midnight inside and had no plans to do so now, even after her brush with death, but they agreed to allow the fieldworker to find her a new home where she would be safe indoors.

Now Midnight is settling in at PETA's Norfolk, Virginia, headquarters and is waiting patiently for the right adoptive family. She will be microchipped and spayed before adoption. If you are ready to make a lifetime commitment and give Midnight the safe, loving home that every cat deserves, please e-mail Adopt@peta.org.

After observing a large number of dogs who were living in filthy conditions, chained, breeding, fighting, or confined to hot areas—and getting no help from local animal control—a caring person notified PETA, and one of its caseworkers jumped into action.

The miserable pups were covered with fleas and living without veterinary care or socialization. Two of the dogs were kept inside a trailer that had no air conditioning or any other kind of ventilation. One was significantly underweight. Those responsible for the sad conditions of the dogs clearly didn't care about their welfare, so the caseworker persuaded them to surrender the animals and arranged for an area resident to pick up the 13 dogs and carry them to a reputable local animal shelter—from which one has already been adopted into a loving home.

What You Can Do

PETA will continue to monitor the situation to make sure the dogs' former owners don't acquire more animals, but this case again illustrates the importance of speaking up when you see animals in trouble and being persistent until they get the help they so desperately need.

In what is sure to become the most barked about book at animal shelters and dog parks across the country this year, America's canine sweetheart, Uggie, has inked a deal for his memoir, Uggie: My Story, which is set to be released in October.

Everyone knows how his story turns out: a meteoric rise to fame in The Artist and oodles of awards and accolades. But like every great success story, Uggie had his share of struggles. The energetic pup was relinquished by two families before he found his forever home. He encourages his fans always to adopt, never buy in his new ad for PETA:

The next great actor, novelist, philanthropist, or best friend could be waiting at your local animal shelter. If you're thinking about opening your home to a four-legged companion, give a dog like Uggie his big break. 

Check this out: U.S. Representative Robert E. Andrews of New Jersey has introduced a bill in Congress (H.R. 220) that would designate the first Saturday in October as “National Animal Rescue Day” to encourage adoption, spaying and neutering, and creating a “humane environment” for companion animals.

This is such a wonderful idea and how appropriate that a member of Congress from the Garden State would be instrumental in trying to get us a bit closer to a Garden of Eden for animals in need!

How to Help Make This Bill a Law

Please do your part to make National Animal Rescue Day a reality—encourage your federal representative to support H.R. 220 today, and urge your friends and family to push their members of Congress to do the same!

Scene-stealing canine star Uggie won people's hearts in the award-winning film The Artist. Now the world's favorite pup is the star of a PETA campaign encouraging everyone always to adopt—never buy. Before Uggie was a Palm Dog Award winner at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, he was just another statistic—an unwanted dog, who was passed off by two families before he found a wonderful permanent home. Every animal deserves the same happy ending that Uggie experienced.

When you are ready to welcome an animal into the family, please don't support pet stores or breeders, who are largely responsible for the 3 to 4 million animals who must be euthanized in animal shelters every year because there are not enough homes for them. Remember always to adopt—never buy.

To look at 5-month-old siblings Bronson and Felix now, it's hard to picture them as the sickly newborn kittens a PETA investigator discovered at Caboodle Ranch, Inc., a no-kill hellhole that was raided this week after masquerading as a "cat rescue sanctuary."

On Monday, based on evidence that PETA gathered during a five-month undercover investigation, officials in Madison County, Florida, began seizing hundreds of cats from Caboodle's moldy trailers and ammonia-ridden sheds and arrested founder and operator Craig Grant on cruelty-to-animals and other charges, including two felonies. The seized cats are finally receiving the veterinary care that they had been denied at Caboodle, but the filthy conditions and rampant disease there had already cost many cats their lives, including Bronson's and Felix's littermate.

Cali nurses her three kittens in addition to the sick white kitten PETA's investigator tried to help.

PETA's investigator had discovered a tiny white kitten all alone, with eyes so encrusted with dried discharge that they wouldn't open. The investigator took the kitten to Grant and pointed out the animal's obvious illness. Instead of providing the kitten with veterinary care, Grant rubbed a Clorox wipe across the kitten's eyes and rubbed and picked at them roughly with his hands. He told the investigator to put the kitten with a cat named Cali, who had given birth at Caboodle to kittens our investigator named Bronson, Felix, and Luna. Within a month, the little white kitten had died at Caboodle, apparently of an untreated upper respiratory infection.

Desperate to save the other three kittens, the investigator asked Grant for them, and he gave them to her. Our investigator took them straight to a veterinary hospital. There, the kittens were started on medication for upper respiratory infections and began their recovery from dehydration. But just two days later, little Luna was struggling to breathe, and the investigator rushed her to an emergency animal hospital. As a result of the neglect Luna had suffered at Caboodle, she was now battling anemia, hypoglycemia, and hypothermia. Despite shots of dextrose to raise her blood sugar and heating pads to stave off the hypothermia, little Luna could not overcome the hand that Caboodle and Grant had dealt her and, at a veterinarian's recommendation, was euthanized.

It was a rough road for Bronson and Felix and for the investigator who fostered them on their long path to recovery. But after months of intensive veterinary care, both miracle cats are now happy and healthy and are ready for adoption by a family who has the time and energy to give them the love and care that they need and deserve. Are you on the East Coast and ready to give Bronson and Felix a home? Apply to Adopt@peta.org.  

Bronson and Felix finally get to experience the kind of life that every cat deserves.

How You Can Help

These cats' sad stories are doomed to be repeated time and time again if a bill in the Florida legislature becomes law. Under the misleadingly named "Animal Rescue Act," reputable open-admission animal shelters would be forced to hand animals over to self-proclaimed "rescues" like Caboodle. Don't let this dangerous bill pass.

A cat miraculously survived being trapped in the engine of a car during a 200-mile trip. The cat was discovered when the driver of the car stopped at a rest stop after smelling something burning. With the help of a passing police officer, the driver was able to free the cat, who was wedged in the engine compartment and had suffered burns to his right side.

A round of applause, please. A new AP-Petside poll reveals that more than half of companion-animal guardians adopted their animals, with one-third of people taking in strays off the streets and another third adopting animals from shelters, rather than buying them from breeders or pet stores, which contribute to the animal homelessness crisis.

Looks like the word has gotten out about the irresistible allure of saving a life, thanks in part to the help of stars like Twilight cutie Booboo Stewart, who stars in a new ad for PETA with his rescued dog, Pookie.

Photo: Shawn Bannon • Grooming: Kirin Bhatty • Wood: © iStockphoto.com/Robert Churchill

As Seth Clearwater, Stewart made audiences cheer when he saved Edward and Bella by taking out vampire baddie Riley Biers, but now people will be cheering about the lives he's saving off-screen.

Whether you're Team Edward or Team Jacob, you can help animals by taking PETA's pledge to end animal homelessness today.

Time to check in on a few of the many homeless animals we rescued from overflowing shelters in oil-ravaged Louisiana with the help of our tireless angel for animals, Pamela Anderson.

When he's not admiring his expansive toy collection …

Chic, formerly known as Bruce, likes to lounge with his new mom on their pleather couch.

The only threats facing Tom now are interruptions to his catnaps by his adoring human companion.

The fact that he's missing half a leg in no way hampers Marshall's ability to play bodyguard as Bubbles nods off. These two get mighty tuckered from "working" in the PETA Foundation's Legal Department.

This shot of Cassie might be the most ridiculous photo I've ever seen—ridiculously cute, that is.

If there's room in your heart and home—as well as your schedule and budget—consider finding the love of your life at your local animal shelter.

Written by Karin Bennett

It's been barely a week since the fabulous Pamela Anderson rolled up her sleeves and opened her wallet to help PETA rescue nearly 50 dogs from overflowing Gulf-area animal shelters, and she's already back in action—this time, she's helping PETA rescue a special group of cats.

Pamela is helping pay for veterinary care for nearly 30 "special needs" cats, many of whom are suffering from illnesses and injuries (one has a misshapen face, another is half a leg short of four) or from chronic stress from being left at an animal shelter some years ago. The gang of 30 is en route from New Orleans–area shelters to PETA's headquarters. uShip, an online shipping company, has generously donated its services to transport the cats, and our staff is taking care of the animals along the way. Two desperate dogs—Sandy, a lab mix with a flea allergy, and Cassie, a pug mix—came along as stowaways and will be transferred to our friends at the Washington Animal Rescue League's well-run shelter in Washington, D.C.

Countless cats have been abandoned in the wake of the Gulf oil gusher. Older and "special needs" cats have an especially hard time finding homes because animal shelters are flooded with kittens who were born because people didn't have their cats spayed or neutered. There are many advantages to adopting a mature feline—including knowing what the cat's personality is like and bypassing the rambunctious kitten stage. Virginia residents with exemplary veterinary references and quiet households who are interested in giving one (or two!) of these hard-luck cats a second chance can visit PETA.org to fill out an adoption application.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post