Sometimes Gothamist thinks that more people than we suspect secretly hide issues of Cat Fancy in between Time Out and The New Yorker when not obsessing over their cats. We like to keep track of stories like the ones below to help build our case:
- A Long Island (okay, not strictly NY - but the story is good) neighborhood was filled with police officers, search dogs, and police helicoptor looking for an African serval (pictured, left) that unlatched a window in the basement it was staying in and ran away. A serval-sitter had arrived to feed the 40-pound Tigger, only to see the open window. A neighbor said, "I thought a psycho killer was loose in the neighborhood." Well, clearly it's a crafty cat, as it unlatched a window. The best part of this story, besides the idea of an entire police force searching for a 40 pound cat (yes, the cat might bite someone, as it's carnivorous and eats small animals), is the name of the road where Tigger and his owners live: Bread and Cheese Hollow Road.
- A Brooklyn woman was arrested for robbing five banks. Catherine Kaczanowski robbed the first bank when she needed money to pay for the surgery of her cat, Smoochie, but then continued because robbing banks was easy. Brooklyn Vetinary group, Smoochie's vets, say that they would have worked out a payment plan for Kaczanowski, had they known she couldn't pay. She had robbed Greenpoint, Independence, Apple, Chase and HSBC branches, getting about $7,500; the cat's surgery costs were $783.
- And everyone's favorite illegal tiger and alligator harborer, Antoine Yates, still misses Ming the Tiger: "I would like to reattach our bond, and I want him back because he's mine." He wants to visit Ming in Ohio and eventually build a sanctuary for him here.
