Mr. Krabs Is at Long Last Exonerated, Released from Custody, and Provided with a New Home after Having Been Unjustly Locked Up at a Shelter for Seven Months on a Bum Rap
Mr. Krabs in His New Home
"Mr. Krabs ist eine ganz normaler Kater."
-- his new owner
Although it is strongly suspected that life never has been easy for the four-year-old, cream-colored British Shorthair with captivatingly beautiful turquoise eyes, his world collapsed underneath him on March 30th when his unidentified owners decided to get rid of him. Worst still, they could not even do that in a humane fashion by securing another home for him.
Rather, they had come to detest him so intensely that they could not resist the temptation to stick it to him good by not only verbally slandering his character but also by making an obscene public display of surrendering him to Tierheim Köln-Dellbrück in Köln (the Kölner Tierheim). "Diese haben ihn noch nicht einmal selbst gebracht, sondern mit der Feuerwehr abholen lassen, weil sie Angst um ihre Kinder hatten," the shelter told Radio Television Luxemburg (RTL) of Köln on April 22nd. (See "Sieht so ein Schläger Kater aus? Mr. Krabs sucht ein neues Zuhause.")
What potential threat, if indeed any, that he posed to his former owners and their children never has been explained. Likewise, it never has been disclosed what it was about him that made it too dangerous for his owners to have placed him in a pet carrier and taken him to the shelter themselves.
Despite the petit fait that the outrageous charges leveled against him had not been independently verified, Mr. Krabs found himself in short order incarcerated in a tiny cage at the Kölner Tierheim and charged with being an aggressive cat. That normally would have been the end of him because most shelters do not hesitate to rub out cats like him based solely upon the uncorroborated lies of their vindictive owners.
The only thing that Mr. Krabs had going for himself at that perilous juncture in his young life was that he had the Glück im Unglück to have been dumped at the Kölner Tierheim. First of all, the staffers at the shelter actually like cats and that made all the difference in the world.
By contrast, just about all shelters in the United States hate them with a passion and therefore do not hesitate to slaughter them in droves. By doing so they are thus able to free up more cages for dogs which they in turn are able to sell back to the public for twice what they normally get for cats. In America, most all heads and knees bow before the altar of the almighty dollar bill.
Secondly, the animosity displayed toward him by his former owners not only backfired on them but immediately raised red flags at the shelter. "Wer weiß, vielleicht lag ja genau da der Hase im Pfeffer?" it speculated to RTL.
Thirdly, the staffers refused to accept the couple's unsubstantiated allegations at face value and thus to allow the duo to use them as their instrument of revenge against Mr. Krabs. Im Gegenteil, they treated him pretty much as they do all cats and based their conclusions upon their experience and what their eyes and interactions with him told them.
Not surprisingly, they almost immediately arrived at an altogether different conclusion from the one foisted upon them by his former owners. "Sieht so ein Schlägertyp aus. Wir können es uns kaum vorstellen," the shelter told Tag24 of Dresden on April 23rd. (See "Besitzer lassen 'Böse' Kater von der Feuerwehr abholen: Was hat das Tier auf dem Kerbholz?") "(Er) zeigt sich hier aber bisher hier nur äußerst liebenswürdige."
The shelter even went so far as to label him as a cuddler. "Bei uns verhält er sich bisher vorbildlich, genießt seine Kuscheleinheiten und lässt sich auch mehrmals täglich seine Äuglein säubern," it told RTL.
That in itself is quite remarkable given that shelters are not known for bringing out the best in cats. On the contrary, all the strange animals, people, smells, noises, and diseases serve only to augment the palpable fears and anxieties that they are already experiencing.
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| Mr. Krabs with an Employee of the Kölner Tierheim |
Instead of being willing to recognize just how traumatic and upsetting it is for a cat to be uprooted from home and confined in one of these hellholes, most shelters turn those totally legitimate fears against cats and use them as an excuse in order to kill them. (See The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 11, 2011, "Shelter Shock. Cats Can Get Sick from Stress. One Proposed Remedy? Keep Them Out.")
As if all of that were not sufficient evidence that Mr. Krabs had been victimized by a bum rap and a malicious smear campaign, the derogatory moniker that his previous owners had saddled him with should have eliminated the last vestiges of any lingering doubts. For example, the original Mr. Krabs is a rather unsavory character in the Nickelodeon's long-running animated series, SpongeBob SquarePants.
Considering that the first order of business for all new owners is usually to provide their cats with a name, Mr. Krabs' guardians quite obviously never thought much of him from the beginning and therefore should never have been allowed to adopt him in the first place. They therefore most likely conspired from day one to make his life as miserable as possible by physically as well as verbally abusing him. That is mere speculation of course but cats are never violent unless they first have been abused.
Finally, there was the often overlooked petit fait that Mr. Krabs was unable to defend himself against his previous owners' slanders. "Mr. Krabs selbst äußert sich zu den Beschuldigungen nicht," the shelter conceded to Tag24.
Although having the Kölner Tierheim on his side doubtlessly saved his life, it did not make the seven months that he was forced to spend in one of its tiny cages any easier on him. His only reprieve during that extended period proved to have been a brief one when he was adopted out but promptly returned for, once again, his alleged aggression.
Instead of throwing in the towel on him the shelter not only remained steadfast in his corner but also redoubled its efforts in order to find him a suitable home. In the process, it additionally became more astute.
Most importantly, it came to realize that Mr. Krabs not only needed a home with a garden but one with an owner who would not crowd him. "Die mir an der Nasenspitze ansehen, wann sie besser einen Bogen um mich machen sollten," it told Tag24 on July 25th. (See "Böser Kater! Diese Samtpfote sieht aus wie ein Engel, doch hat es Faustdick hinter den Ohren.")
It also endeavored to place him in a home without children although the presence of other cats would have been acceptable to him. (See Cat Defender post of August 31, 2021 entitled "Mr. Krabs' Young Life Has Been Placed in Grave Jeopardy Because of the Malicious Lies Spread about Him by His Vindictive Former Owners.")
Month dragged on after month, spring gave way to summer and the latter to autumn but Mr. Krabs remained stuck at the Kölner Tierheim without any prospects on the horizon. Then out of the blue came the heart-warming announcement in early November that he had finally prevailed against the slings of outrageous misfortune and been adopted.
He was taken home by an unidentified woman who, presumably, lives in either Köln or nearby. Nothing else is known about her and the only thing that she so far has revealed to the public are her stockinged feet. Hopefully, that does not mean that she is ashamed to be seen with him in public.
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| Mr. Krabs' Bashful New Owner Has Chosen to Reveal Only Her Tootsies |
It is difficult to speculate on matters of this nature, but at least outwardly she appears to be the right kind of owner for Mr. Krabs. For instance, she does have a garden and he is said to divide his days between playing in it and cuddling with her on the sofa.
She describes him as a dear tom with good manners who is very friendly and never aggressive. He can, however, be a little stubborn now and then.
"Mr. Krabs ist eine ganz normaler Kater," she told Tag24 on November 4th. (See "Besitzer ließen 'Aggressive' Katze von dem Feuerwehr abholen: Nun ist die Wahrheit ans Licht gekommen.") "Er hat keine Macken (idiosyncrasies), er braucht keine besondere Behandlung oder gar einen Psychologen."
For its part, the Kölner Tierheim summed up the happy dénouement by stating that all Mr. Krabs ever needed was plenty of love and space. Quite obviously, he never received much of either of them from his previous owners; rather, the only thing that he ever received from them was abuse, slanders, and spite.
Speaking more broadly, cats never have been known to attack humans except in self-defense. They may occasionally inadvertently scratch their owners but, as Miguel de Cervantes once admonished, "those who play with cats must expect to be scratched."
Yet, countless numbers of them are slandered and libeled as being aggressive every day. As a result, some of them have been unjustly deprived of their freedom by both the courts and bureaucrats and, even worse, killed off by shelters and veterinarians on totally bogus charges. (See Cat Defender posts of April 3, 2006, June 26, 2006, March 8, 2007, October 17, 2008, October 18, 2009, October 23, 2009, May 27, 2011, and August 24, 2011 entitled, respectively, "Free Lewis Now! A Connecticut Tomcat, Victimized by a Bum Rap, Is Placed Under House Arrest," "Lewis Cheats the Hangman but Is Placed Under House Arrest for the Remainder of His Life," "Blackie Has Postmen, Bobbies, and Deliverymen Looking over Their Shoulders in Ramsgate, Kent," "Bingo Is Placed Under House Arrest for Defending Himself Against a Neighbor Who Foolishly Intervened in a Cat Fight," "Minneapolis Is Working Overtime Trying to Kill an Octogenarian's Cat Named Hoppy for Defending His Turf Against Canine Intruders," "An Essex Welfare Bum Who Sicced His Dog on Cats and Then Beat Them with His Cane Is Now Pretending to Be the Victim of an Assault," "Odin Is Placed Under House Arrest by the Authorities in Weißenstein for Straying into the Garden of a Virulent Cat Hater," and "Self-Defense Is Against the Law in Australia after a Woman Who Attacked a Cat Gets Away with Her Crime Whereas Her Victim Is Trapped and Executed," plus The Telegraph of London, July 3, 2014, "RSPCA Refuses to Remove Feral Cat Destroying Couple's Home" and the Yorkshire Post of Leeds in West Yorkshire, July 25, 2014, "Safety Claws as Council Slaps Anti-Social Behavior Order on a Cat.")
The one known exception to that rule are cats that have been used as bait by dogfighters but even then they do not bear any ill will toward their human abusers, only canines. (See Cat Defender post of October 22, 2021 entitled "Condemned to Die as Dog Bait, Courageous Buzz Perseveres Just Long Enough Until He Is Somehow Able to Not Only Regain His Freedom but also to Find His Pot of Gold at the Rainbow's End.")
Knowledge, common sense, honesty, and compassion are needed in order to properly deal with cats such as Mr. Krabs who have been previously abused and maligned but, regrettably, it is precisely those attributes that are so sorely lacking in those individuals and groups who have anointed themselves as the adjudicators of whether so-called aggressive cats are going to be allowed to go on living or to be summarily killed off. Mr. Krabs is alive and flourishing today only because he had the good fortune to have wound up at the Kölner Tierheim.
Back during the early and middle months of this year it certainly did not look like that he ever would live to see another birthday but, against all odds, he turned four years old on November 29th. The past year has been extremely traumatic for him but hopefully things will work out for him in his new home and 2022 will be a much better year for him.
Finally, press reports have not broached the subject of whether or not his new owner is planning on providing him with a new name. Regardless of what she ultimately elects to do, it is indisputable that a handsome and loving tom like him requires a much more dignified name.
Photos: Tag24 (Mr. Krabs by himself and with his new owner's feet) and the Kölner Tierheim (Mr. Krabs with an employee of the shelter).
posted by Moonraker @ 8:39 AM
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