Lucky cat

HE WAS RUN OVER BY A CAR, BUT LINK HOLDS HIS OWN

anielle Chambless Jarrard’s pet-sitter, Oak Cliff animal rescuer extraordinaire Kathy Kibbel, called her one day on the way to check on her dogs.

Kibbel had been driving down Edgefield Avenue when the car in front of her hit something that looked like a plastic bag, but she quickly realized it was a kitten.

Kibbel was calling to let Jarrard know she was taking this kitten to Metro Paws before she checked on her pack.

The kitten had to have his right front leg amputated immediately.

“When she called me back to update me, I knew he was going to be mine,” Jarrard says.

After all, the day he was found, June 7, is Jarrard’s birthday, and Kibbel had been on the way to check on Jarrard’s dogs.

She named him Link, and for a while, he was known he escaped and was gone for five days before returning home.

That’s when Jarrard found a couple more cats.

One followed her two blocks to her house in Elmwood while she was out looking for Link.

“Then a week later, the second one came to my door and was like, ‘Hey, I’m a cat. I see you have cats. Can I come in?’” she says. “Once you take one in from your neighborhood there’s like, a scent or a red flashing light that only cats can see that leads them to your house.”

She’s since changed Link’s formal moniker to Link Loves All Cats because he is such a good sibling to other foster cats (Jarrard’s two neighborhood cats are available for

Link also loves dogs. His best friend is Max, a 51-pound Oak Cliff street mutt.

Their favorite game strikes terror in the hearts of unsuspecting guests. It goes like this: Max puts Link’s entire head in her mouth and pulls him across the floor. They do this over and over again, and Link has taught all the cats this trick as well.

“It’s a very common occurrence in my house,” Jarrard says. “When people come over, I have to explain that this is like, fun for them.”

She also has a 15-year-old Pomeranian, a bulldog, Louie, and Nova, a 6-year-old possible shih tzu mix — plus an older cat named Skittles.

“I’m not like a pit bull person or a lab person,” she says. “I just have all the dogs.”

Watch video of Link and Max playing their weird game at oakcliff.advocatemag.com

Angus the unbelievable

HE LOOKED LIKE TRASH, BUT HE WAS SAVED

Karen Pigg Simmons walked out of her Sunset Hill house one 100-degree day in July 2018 and saw something moving in her neighbor’s bulky trash pile.

The moving thing blended in with the trash, but she realized it was a dog. With 20 years of rescuing animals under her belt, Simmons looped him with a leash and picked him up.

The dog’s hair was matted filthy. He was covered in fleas and what she thought at the time were chemical burns, so she put him in the bath. After about five washes, the dog still looked terrible. Simmons says her bathtub has never been the same.

She put the call out for help on Facebook, and a friend who works at the SPCA, David Maldonado, answered.

Maldonado contacted Dallas Street Dog Advocates. Their medical coordinator, Relle Austin, came and picked up the dog right away and rushed him to the emergency vet.

It turns out that the dog’s fur was coated in motor oil, which had spilled under the bushes where he was hiding. The dog was severely anemic and malnourished.

“They sheared him like a sheep. His coat came off all in one piece. That’s how skeevy he was,” Simmons says. “At that point you could see how bad off he was. He was skin and bones and completely white. There was no color in his nose even.”

The dog, later named Angus, went to live in a foster home for a couple of months, “so he could decompress and learn how to be a dog,” Simmons says.

The transformation is amazing.

“You wouldn’t know this was the same dog,” Simmons says.

A couple in Lakewood, Robbie and Caroline Edmonstone, adopted him after watching his story on the Dallas Street Dog Advocates’ Instagram account.

The Edmonstones threw him a party with proseco, cupcakes and cupcakes for dogs after his arrival.

“He’s a little survivor,” Caroline Edmonstone says.

Angus and their maltipoo, Wallace, became fast friends.

He is still skittish around new people and has a particular fear of men. But he’s a “love bug” who purrs like a cat when he’s happy.

Angus recently graduated from beginner behavior training at PetSmart and entered the intermediate class.

“He’s still adjusting to life and can’t quite believe he has a good one,” Caroline Edmonstone says. “He just loves the attention.”

Follow Angus on Instagram, @wallaceandangus.

See video of Angus after Simmons found him and more photos of his transformation at oakcliff. advocatemag.com