Cool Advocate: PAWS volunteer helps place pets in need

The gray feline arched its back, serpentine tail unfurling slowly, white chest descending toward the floor.

The cat, struggling with the frustration of its enclosure at PetSmart in Brownsville, stretched its mouth wide, revealing tiny pinprick teeth that chewed the air for a moment before disappearing behind closed jaws.

Nearby, a silver cat with golden eyes gazed through the glass wall of its cage, waiting for someone to adopt him.

"These are from Edinburg," explained Edgar Treviño, dressed in shorts and gray shirt with a gaping alligator on the chest. He had accepted the two cats from a woman and her daughter, both nurses from the Philippines who planned to return home soon.

"They couldn't take the cats with them. They were both in tears. It happens," he said.

Treviño is a founding member of Brownsville P.A.W.S., or Pet Advocates With Solutions. But he prefers his own translation: Pets Are Worth Saving.

The 61-year-old Treviño, who has been doing animal rescue for a year and three months, travels from Brownsville to McAllen in his efforts to place homeless cats and dogs into loving, responsible homes.

"I used to find cats everywhere," he said. "I have a cat named Jack. I found it at Jack in the Box. I had a cat ... named Martin. I found it at Wal-Mart. Then I have another 10-year-old named Sori. I found it at Soriana (grocery store) in Matamoros."

Local pet owners and animal rescuers give Treviño high marks for his rescue efforts.

"You will absolutely love Edgar, he is "Superman" and the nicest guy I know," said Nicole Nicotra, an animal rescue volunteer based in McAllen who works with P.A.W.S and other organizations. Nicotra relayed a touching story about Treviño that she had heard at a local PetSmart.

"Edgar was there one day checking on cats that he has for adoptions ... there was an elderly woman with her visiting granddaughter and they got to talking," Nicotra said. "The woman said she had to take her dog to the vet next week and the granddaughter was not going to be there; she didn't know how she would get the dog there."

So, Treviño traveled all the way to McAllen later to pick up the woman and the dog and take them to the veterinarian, and then he took them home.

"He came to McAllen just to do this good deed," she said. "He did it at his own expense and out of the goodness of his heart. That is the kind of man Edgar Treviño is. You have a problem and Edgar asks, ‘How can I help?' He can't do it all, but he does a damn sight more than most."

Treviño remembers the incident well.

"Her granddaughter was here from New Mexico, and the dog, she needed to be spayed," he recalled. "The doctors were booked up, which is a problem we have here in the Valley."

The woman couldn't get an appointment for two weeks, and the granddaughter couldn't stay that long, so he helped out.

Treviño set up Brownsville P.A.W.S. along with Mayor Pat M. Ahumada Jr. and former Brownsville Herald editor Lavice Laney because they wanted to help local homeless animals, many of which were dying in the animal shelters.

"Actually, Pat Ahumada, when he became mayor, he wanted to review the number of animals being put down at the shelter in Brownsville," Treviño said. "He wanted to fight the overpopulation of animals in Brownsville and reduce the high number of animals killed in Brownsville at the animal shelter."

Ahumada said Treviño and many others have worked hard to educate the community about pet care and the importance of getting animals spayed or neutered, as well as vaccinated against rabies and other diseases.

"He has been very instrumental, just like everybody else," Ahumada said. "I gave him a humanitarian award earlier this year. We all pull together, opening doors, working with the animal shelters. ... I think we have adopted out about 2,000 pets in the Brownsville area since I have been mayor."

While Laney and the mayor focus their attention on dogs, Treviño rescues cats.

"I have always liked cats," he said. "They are very smart, very smooth. They take care of themselves. They are real sharp. I take all of our cats to PetSmart throughout the Valley. PetSmart helps us adopt cats. All four stores help us."

When Treviño takes possession of a new homeless cat, he takes the animal to a veterinarian to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated. Cats are also checked for leukemia and FIV, or feline AIDS, which can only be passed from cats to other cats, not to people.

His human family - a wife, son, and a daughter who is married with three children - have mixed feelings about his animal rescue activities.

"Sometimes they think I am overextending myself. When we have family vacations, well, family comes first."

His son likes having the animals around. "My wife, not so much, because we have three grandkids. One is very young. She would rather I spend more time at home."

After the cats complete their trips to the veterinarian, they are taken to one of the PetSmarts across the Valley to await adoption to a loving home. Dogs go through the same process.

Adoption costs the new owner $75. "We don't make any money," Treviño said. "Sometimes we lose money. But what we want to do is adopt the cat (or dog) and not get him killed. If someone gets a kitten and the takes it to a vet, it's going to cost a heck of a lot, more than $75."

Brownsville P.A.W.S. sends pictures of animals up for adoption by email to Nicotra, who posts them on www.brownsvillepaws.petfinder.com

The Web site attracts pet lovers from far away - Corpus Christi, San Antonio, and even Monterrey and Matamoros.

"We've got a dog that went to Detroit, a chihuahua from Brownsville that wears a sweater," Treviño said. "And now we have a lab mix that went to Colorado."

He said the people in Colorado had a dog and they wanted a pair. They found a mate on the Brownsville P.A.W.S. Web page and one of the volunteers who was traveling to the West Coast took the dog and met the adopters in Albuquerque, N.M.

"There was this one cat," he remembers. "It was born blind and had no tail. We tried to find it a home. It was pregnant. The family that had her is going to keep her for the time being, but there are people from as far away as Chicago that want her. The easiest thing to do is, ‘Oh, she's blind. Kill her.' "

At the PetSmart in Brownsville, Treviño said that before the day ended, new cats would fill the remaining space.

"They come from all over," he said. "This one comes from San Benito."

He was pointing at a calico curled up in a small enclosure behind a glass wall.

"She had five kittens under a tractor at the Cameron County shelter," he said, "and I work with them."

He gestured to another slumbering feline, domino black, in an enclosure above the calico.

"We got him from some lady in McAllen. The son couldn't have cats because he was allergic. They were all black, all four. Three have been adopted."

Suddenly, a gray cat perked its ears forward as it eyeballed an insect on the inside of its litter box, then pounced forward with white paws.

"I am going to take in some cats," Treviño said. "They asked to meet me at PetSmart of McAllen. They had them seven years. They didn't want to take them to the shelter."

More than a week later, one of the cats belonging to the Filipino nurses still hadn't been adopted.

"I just got an e-mail from the daughter, wondering how her cat was doing, and she's already in the Philippines," Treviño said. "When I get it adopted, I'm going to send an e-mail back, telling her it's been adopted."

TO VOLUNTEER

To volunteer with PAWS, call Edgar Treviño with Brownsville PAWS at 956-639-4055.

Email: ectr204@aol.com, www.brownsvillepaws.com

TO ADOPT

To adopt a pet, contact these PetSmart locations Valleywide:

BROWNSVILLE

585 Morrison Road

956-350-0608

HARLINGEN

2317 W. Lincoln

956-423-1062

McALLEN

420 E. Expressway 83

956-618-2203

McALLEN

7600 N. 10th St.

956-686-9037