Believed to Have Perished in the Montecito Mudslides, Patches Turns Up at a Shelter Three Years Later On Where She Is Adopted by Her Deceased Owner's Boyfriend

Patches Returned from the Presumed Dead in December of 2020

"I think Norm was a little teary; we were a little teary. I don't think Patches cried, but she was happy."
-- Becky Morrill of the Animal Shelter Assistance Program Cats

In December of 2017, the Thomas Fire roared through Santa Barbara and Ventura counties destroying more than a thousand buildings and scorching nearly two-hundred-eighty-two-thousand acres of land. Not surprisingly, when heavy rains inundated the area a few weeks later there were very few trees, shrubs, and vines left in order to help contain the deluge.

The hardest hit area was the tiny, albeit affluent, unincorporated city of Montecito nestled in between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, eight kilometers northeast of the city of Santa Barbara. In particular, the mudslides that followed on the heels of the heavy rains on January 9, 2018 left twenty-three people dead and destroyed more than one hundred homes in the hilly enclave.

One of the fatalities was Jose Gower who also kept "several" cats in her garage. Since the lives of cats are considered by most people not to have any value, their deaths and disappearances are never included even as collateral damage in the death tolls that the authorities release whenever natural disasters strike and in times of war.

Even more inexcusably, there was not anything in press reports that would even remotely suggest that either Gower's daughter, Briana Haigh, or her mother's live-in boyfriend, Norm Borgatello, even bothered to have searched for them in the aftermath of the storm. Instead, they merely picked up the pieces of their shattered lives and moved on to other things.

The Fates were not yet quite finished with them, however, and the past unexpectedly sprang back to life in December of 2020 when a pretty female tortoiseshell was turned in to the Animal Shelter Assistance Program Cats (ASAP Cats) in Santa Barbara. The deciphering of an implanted microchip soon thereafter revealed that the homeless waif was none other than Patches, one of Gower's long-lost and believed to have been dead cats.

The mere fact that she was found less than a quarter of a mile from the old garage that she had been cruelly relegated to is a further indication that neither Haigh nor Borgatello had even bothered to mount so much as a cursory search for her. As far as it is known, none of Gower's other cats have been found and that leaves open the distinct possibility that one or more of them also could have survived the mudslides and still be alive today.

Under such circumstances, it did not seem likely that either Haigh or Borgatello would have had any interest in reclaiming Patches but in a topsy-turvy world that is full of surprises and where miracles still do occasionally occur, Borgatello did the unexpected on New Year's Eve of 2020 when he showed up at ASAP Cats and adopted her. 

As shocking as it may be to some, many owners refuse to take back their long-lost cats. (See Cat Defender posts of September 8, 2020 and September 22, 2020 entitled, respectively, "Cruelly and Heartlessly Abandoned in the Godforsaken Scottish Highlands a Dozen Years Ago, Georgie Is Amazingly Found to Be Still Alive but Her Former Owner Does Not Want Any Part of Her" and "Snitch Is Found Alive Fourteen Years after His Disappearance but His Old Owner Refuses to Take Him Back in Spite of the Shameful Neglect Shown Him by His New Caretaker.")

Patches and Norm Borgatello Warily Approached Each Other...

Borgatello also received a pleasant reward for his fealty and compassion when Patches, apparently, recognized him at first sight. "I think Norm was a little teary; we were a little teary," Becky Morrill of ASAP Cats later confided to National Public Radio (NPR) on January 14, 2021. (See "The Cat Who Came Back: Patches, Believed Killed in Mudslide, Shows Up Three Years Later.") "I don't think Patches cried, but she was happy."

Even so, their happy reunion was bittersweet for Borgatello. "It was a great moment and very poignant...because it's both a wonderful reunion but a reminder of a very terrible loss for Norm," Morrill added.

Even though she apparently was not involved in the effort to rehome Patches, Haigh also was pleased with the outcome. "It's a nice thing to hear, after that many years, you can get a little bit of joy out of something that was quite horrific. I know my mom would be really happy," she told NPR. "And I think it is quite strange that it came about right before the three-year anniversary. Almost like a little message from mom."

She left little doubt, however, that she would have much preferred to have had her mother and house back rather than Patches. "I mean it's obviously not as bad as losing the house and mom, but it was pretty horrific to actually lose them as well, that kinda connection to her, " she added. Quite obviously, she is not a cat-lover.

Nothing has been disclosed concerning the state of Patches' health upon her arrival at the shelter, but if the photographs taken of her at that time are anything to go by she certainly looked as if she had come through her trying ordeal pretty much unscathed. That is far from being conclusive, however, given that an injured cat can do a world of healing over the course of three years.

Perhaps most amazing of all was how that she was able to have gotten out of the garage before it was swept away by the mud and rain. Even once she was out in the open she still had to deal with the mud, rain, and assorted debris that had cascaded down the hills toward the Pacific Ocean.

Once the turbulent weather had subsided, her next objective would have been to procure food and potable water. It is pretty much anyone's guess as to what she did, but possibly she was able to have hunted mice and to have scavenged some food from amidst the rubble. Area residents and emergency personnel may also have occasionally tossed her a few tidbits from time to time.

Nevertheless, losing her guardians and home in one wicked twist of fate plus being forced to go without food, water, veterinary care, and human companionship for such an extended period of time could not possibly have been anything other than exceedingly stressful for her. "It's a great mystery to us about where she's been for the last almost three years," Morrill threw up her hands in the air to NPR when she was asked to speculate on that topic.

Mercifully, Borgatello has compassionately decided not to treat her as if she were an itinerate migrant laborer by consigning her to some wretched outhouse as Gower had done but rather he allows her to live indoors with him. For her part, Patches is said to follow him around the house and to curl up behind him on the couch.

...before Embracing after a Three-Year Separation

Locking up cats in a garage is not only cruel but it additionally demonstrates a lack of intelligence and that is especially the case with those owners who live in a state such as California which is routinely plagued by wildfires, floods, mudslides, and earthquakes. Rather, owners need to bring them inside whenever violent weather and other natural disasters have been forecast and to have cages handy in case they are forced to evacuate themselves and their cats at a moment's notice. 

Deplorably, many owners think only of saving their own rotten hides at such times. (See Cat Defender posts of July 3, 2008, October 14, 2015, November 20, 2017, and December 20, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Phoenix Is Severely Burned but Still Manages to Save One of Her Kittens from the Humboldt Fire," "Because a Compassionate Firefighter from Oregon Chose to Care When His California Guardians Could Not Be Bothered with Doing So, Monty Burns Is Able to Escape the Valley Fire with His Life," "Already Ten Years Overdue, the Indomitable Pilot Is Burned to Within an Inch of His Life by a Deadly California Wildfire but Nonetheless Is Still Able to Finally Make It Home in Time for This Thanksgiving," and "Thomas Somehow Lives Through the Tubbs Fire in Spite of His Guardians Running Out on Him and Afterwards Being Incarcerated by an Employee of the Cat-Hating National Park Service.")

Equally deplorable, it is only rarely that big cats are shown any consideration by the authorities in times of emergency. (See Cat Defender posts of February 21, 2013 and December 13, 2013 entitled, respectively, "Orphaned by a Wildlife and Then Rescued by a Forest Ranger, Chips Is Bracing for a Frightening Return to the Wild" and "Chips Is Abandoned in the Perilous California Wild Where Her Fur Alone Is Worth $700 to Trappers.")

Above all, it is imperative that owners who truly care about their cats never to give up on locating them. Unless they have been spirited out of the area by someone or have unwittingly gotten trapped inside some conveyance, they usually can be found, like Patches, nearby.

In respect to Gower's other cats, it certainly is not too late for Borgatello to mount an all-out search for them. They could even be residing with one of his former neighbors.

In what amounts to a reoccurring nightmare, Montecito was flooded again earlier this month with more than seven inches of rain in a short span of time. Trees were toppled, roads flooded, and creeks overflowed their banks.

The city was placed under an evacuation order but those residents living on higher ground were allowed to shelter in place. (See the LAist, January 10, 2023, "Montecito Under Evacuation: What We Know So Far as Another Storm Brings Flooding, Mudslide Fears," the PBS News Hour, January 9, 2023, "Storm Forces Evacuations on Fifth Anniversary of Montecito's Deadly Mudslides," and The New York Times, January 17, 2023, "In Montecito, the Million-Dollar Views Still Come with Mudslide Risks.")

As best it could be determined, the city has not experienced any additional wildfires in the past five years and that has allowed new vegetation to sprout and to be planted on its barren hills and that accordingly prevented any mudslides this time around. Even so, the fate of those cats left behind by fleeing residents remains a top concern.

It has not been disclosed where Borgatello is hanging his hat these days but presumably he is still residing in either Montecito or somewhere nearby. As for the intrepid Patches, hopefully she is still alive and well and, above all, that she was inside, secure, and safe during this latest round of severe weather.

Photos: Jillian Title of the Animal Shelter Assistance Program Cats.

Flossie Endures a Rollercoaster Ride of Adversity in Order to Settle into Her Fourth Home and to Begin a New Life at the Age of Twenty-Seven

Flossie Is Still an Attractive Female in Spite of Her Advanced Years

"She's so affectionate, playful, and sweet, especially when you remember how old she is."
-- Vicki Green

Flossie is a marvel and a treasure. At an astounding twenty-seven years old, the still beautiful tortoiseshell is believed to be the world's oldest cat. Getting to such an advanced age was not, however, easy for her; rather, it was a constant struggle punctuated by alternating episodes of outrageous misfortune and astonishing strokes of good luck.

Although how and where it all began for her has been lost to the ravages of time, she was first discovered way back in 1995 while still a kitten and residing in a colony near an unidentified hospital in Merseyside. It has not been disclosed if she was part of a managed TNR colony or simply a homeless waif living on her own in a clowder of cats.

If she already had been sterilized, that would be one indication that she could have been part of a managed colony. It additionally is entirely conceivable that if such a colony did in fact exist at one time that it still could be in existence today and that one of its caretakers might even possibly remember her and therefore be in a position to shed some light on her birth and kittenhood.

Sadly, there is not anything in press reports that would tend to indicate that she ever gave birth to any kittens of her own and that is all the more the pity because, in addition to good fortune and responsible, caring guardians, longevity in cats is quite often linked to genetics. Furthermore, because of their genetic makeup, personalities, and other traits, torties are very special cats.

After most likely having been either cruelly abandoned to fend for herself as a kitten or, perhaps, even having been born homeless, Flossie's fortunes took a decidedly upturn for the better in 1995 when she was adopted by an unidentified worker from the hospital. She then went on to live with that woman until the latter's death in 2005.

In most instances that would have been the end of the line for most elderly felines but not for Flossie who was immediately taken in by the deceased's sister. She spent the following fourteen years of her life with that woman until her death in 2019.

While it is rare for any cat to outlive even one owner, it is almost unheard of for one to outlive two of them but that is precisely what the truly remarkable Flossie had accomplished by that juncture in her life. Nevertheless, at twenty-four years of age it seemed that she had exhausted her reservoir of good fortune.

Amazingly, that turned out not to have been the case because this remarkable tortie was immediately taken in by the deceased woman's son and provided with her third, and surely final, stop in her life's journey. The Fates, however, had other plans in store for her and three years later in 2022 her new guardian decided that he could no longer take care of her and dumped her at Cats Protection's Royal Tunbridge Wells, Crowborough and District Branch in Kent, a whopping four-hundred-twenty-six kilometers east of Merseyside via the M6 motorway.

Flossie Has Weathered Tremendous Adversity During Her Long Life

Considering the disquieting reality that almost nobody wants to take on the expense and care of an elderly cat, especially one that is as old as Flossie, that certainly looked like the end of the line for her. Once again, however, her incredible streak of good luck bailed her out when at some undisclosed date during the autumn of 2022 she amazingly was adopted by twenty-seven-year old executive assistant Vicki Green of densely-populated Orpingen in the borough of Bromley in southeastern London, twenty-two kilometers south of Charing Cross.

Despite having lived through two cruel abandonments and the deaths of a pair of guardians, settling into her fifth living arrangement proved difficult for her. "She was loud for the first few nights, because she can't see in the dark and was a bit confused in her new surroundings, but she sleeps through the night now, snuggled on the bed with me," Green told Cats Protection in a November 24, 2022 press release. (See "Guinness World Records and Cats Protection Have Recognized Flossie as the Oldest Cat Living, Just Weeks Before She Celebrates Her Twenty-Seventh Birthday.") "Our new life together already feels like home for Flossie, which makes me so happy."

Malheureusement, Flossie's world has now grown silent and her eyesight is failing. Consequently, she sometimes misses her litter box and requires assistance in grooming herself.

Even so, any true lover of the species and, especially a cat as precious as Flossie, would be more than willing to supply the assistance that such a cat can no longer provide for herself and in that regard Green has not disappointed. "...I can help with all of that," she did not hesitate to pledge to Cats Protection. "We're in this together."

The one bit of encouraging health news is that her love of food remains undiminished. "She's completely with it, loves affection and has a good appetite," Green added to Cats Protection. "She never turns up her nose at the chance of a good meal, except when she's snuggled on her favorite yellow blanket."

Cats should never be killed off under any circumstances and that goes doubly for those who still like to eat. It is only after a cat stops eating that it is time to pull out all the stops in order to keep it alive.

Considering that Green's previous resident feline, Honeybun, lived to be twenty-one years old, she is an old hand when it comes to caring for elderly cats. "I've always wanted to give older cats a comfortable later life," she told Cats Protection. "All they really want is a comfy bed in a warm loving home and they give so much love in return."

That certainly is the case with Flossie. "She's so affectionate, playful, and sweet, especially when you remember how old she is," Green cooed to Cats Protection. "I'm immensely proud that Cats Protection matched me with such an amazing cat."

Vickie Green Holds Flossie and a Certificate from Guinness

Operating upon the premise that they are more settled and therefore require considerably less attention, it has become common practice in recent years for some rescue groups to attempt to place elderly cats in the homes of pensioners. The major drawback with such an approach, as Flossie found out firsthand not once but twice, is that elderly guardians succumb to the inevitable just as do old cats. (See Cat Defender post of March 26, 2018 entitled "A Dedicated and Compassionate Kilianstädterin Has Found at Least a Partial Solution to the Tragic Plight of alte und obdachlos Katzen.")

Perhaps even more encouraging, Green is living proof that there are at least a few young and, possibly, middle-aged individuals who would be willing to open up their hearts and homes to elderly cats. The only troubling concern in Green's case is who is going to be looking after Flossie while she is away from home at work, shopping, socializing, and doing other things?

Ideally, a cat as old as Flossie never should be left alone but hopefully Green has someone who can look after her while she is away and who also would be capable of summoning emergency veterinary care should an emergency arise. In keeping with its customary modus operandi, Cats Protection has not broached this subject and instead has only told the world what it wants it to know.

In November of last year, Green was shocked to learn that Flossie had been named the world's oldest cat by Guinness World Records. "I knew from the start that Flossie was a special cat, but I didn't imagine I'd be sharing my home with a Guinness World Records title holder," she exclaimed to Cats Protection in the press release cited supra.

Craig Glenday of Guinness in London has been equally impressed with both Flossie and her remarkable longevity. "We are so excited to hear about the lovely Flossie and (to) celebrate her long life. It's not every day you come across a cat who has been around since the mid-nineties," he told Cats Protection. "We're happy to see Flossie settled and enjoying all the home comforts she deserves in her later life. A huge congratulations to Flossie, a highly deserving record-breaker (sic)."

Naomi Rosling of Cats Protection's Tunbridge branch could not have agreed more. "We were flabbergasted when vet records showed Flossie to be nearly twenty-seven-years-old," she exclaimed in the same press release. "She's the oldest cat I've ever met, at least one-hundred-twenty in human years."

As stupendous as Flossie's longevity may be, that does not necessarily mean that she is actually the oldest living cat in the world but rather that she is the oldest cat whose longevity Guinness was able to verify. Moreover, she has quite a way to go in order to become recognized as the oldest cat to have ever lived.

As best it could be determined, that honor still belongs to a brown and white Maine Coon named Creme Puff who was born on August 3, 1967 and who died thirty-eight years and three days later on August 6, 2005. According to Wikipedia, she was owned by Jake Perry of Austin who fed her a daily regimen of kibble, broccoli, eggs, and turkey bacon. She washed it all down with coffee and cream.

Creme Puff Lived to Be Thirty-Eight Years and Three Months Old

He additionally made sure that she got plenty of exercise by installing wooden steps in the walls of his house as well as a screened enclosure in his backyard. Every two days he also gave her an eyedropper of red wine in order to aid her circulation.

Later in November of 2006, a handsome black male named Baby from Duluth celebrated his thirty-sixth birthday. His owner, Al Palusky, likewise attributed his longevity to plenty of exercise but with a steady diet of cream puffs in place of red wine.

"He'll tear around the house running up and down and across things and his tail gets big and his back goes up and he takes off running and then he jumps in his bed and falls asleep," he confided to WCSH-TV of Portland, Maine, on November 24, 2006. (See "Thirty-Six-Year-Old Cat Still Going Strong.")

Baby's longevity even had him and his wife, Mary, contemplating changing their will. "We're going to make him the beneficiary," he added tongue-in-cheek to WCSH-TV. "He'll outlive us." (See Cat Defender post of December 15, 2006 entitled "A Minnesota Cat Named Baby Celebrates His Thirty-Sixth Birthday while an English Pub Cab Named Daisy Turns Twenty-Two.")

Unfortunately, as things eventually turned out that proved to have been wishful thinking on his part because Baby succumbed to the inevitable in March of 2008 at the unverified age of thirty-eight. (See Cat Defender post of April 4, 2008 entitled "A Duluth Cat Named Baby Crosses the Rainbow Bridge at the Age of Thirty-Eight.")

Although Cats Protection is to be roundly applauded for standing steadfast at Flossie's side and placing her in a new home as opposed to having taken the cheap and easy route by snuffing out her life, the charity otherwise cannot ever seem to keep its chin clean for very long and this time around it blotted its copybook by enthusiastically praising her last guardian's indefensible decision to have dumped her at its shelter. On the contrary, no cat should ever be abandoned at any shelter or anywhere else and that is especially the case with those that are senior citizens.

"It wasn't an easy decision. He'd promised to take care of Flossie's needs but, in ways that matter most, that is exactly what he has done," Rosling declared in the press release. "He sought our help when it was in Flossie's best interests."

That is not only a load of bloody nonsense but it is patently dishonest to boot. If Rosling is going to pass off such rubbish as the unvarnished truth she has an obligation to explain to the public not only why the unidentified man felt compelled to break his promise to his deceased mother but also what, if any, arrangements he had made with Cats Protection.

Baby of Duluth Died in March of 2008 at the Age of Thirty-Eight  

Most importantly of all, he should have stipulated that Flossie was not to have been killed under any circumstances. Secondly, he should have financially compensated Cats Protection to look after her care, medical needs, and to place her in a new home.

Even if he had been willing to have done that much for her, that still would not have been sufficient in order to have adequately compensated for the psychological stress and fears instilled in Flossie by uprooting her once again in order to, first of all, confine her to death row at a shelter and later to fob off her continued care on a perfect stranger. Contrary to what Rosling and her colleagues at Cats Protection fervently believe, cats are not inanimate objects, such as sacks of potatoes, but rather they are distinct personalities who have emotions, feelings, and innate rights of their own which should be respected at all times.

As far as Cats Protection is concerned, it is blatantly hypocritical for it to be arguing one minute that adoption is forever while praising the dumping of cats in its next breath. Things worked out for Flossie this time around but that is hardly ever the case with the vast majority of cats that are dumped in the street, at shelters, and at surgeries; for them, there are not any tomorrows and new starts in life.

"Responsible cat ownership is when someone thinks about an animal's needs above their own feelings," Rosling continued in that same vein. "If I'm in such good shape when I'm her age, with someone who does what's best for me when I need it most, I shall be a very happy lady."

Such verbal léger-de-main immediately raises a host of red flags. First of all, such nebulous terms as "responsible cat ownership" is on a par with political slogans such as "make America great again" and therefore can mean different things to different people or simply nothing at all.

Secondly, such nonsensical palaver as "someone who does what best for me when I need it most" is tantamount to asking who does one trust with one's life and since a cat cannot sign way its right to live, neither should Rosling nor anyone else have the power to do so. Therefore, what Rosling is really asserting is an unqualified right for Cats Protection to kill any cat for any reason or no reason at all.

Thirdly, her expressed willingness to give up her right to exist at some undetermined time in the distant future smacks too much of what Mark Twain once termed as "the confidence of a Christian with four aces" to be in any way credible. As Hamlet once lamented, "conscience doth make cowards of us all."

If all of that were not bad enough, Cats Protection already has more skeletons in its closet than a Halloween horror show. First of all, it routinely lies to the public about treating and saving cats only to turn around and kill them. (See Cat Defender posts of August 26, 2015 and February 17, 2016 entitled, respectively, "A Myriad of Cruel and Unforgivable Abandonments, a Chinese Puzzle, and Finally the Handing Down and Carrying Out of a Death Sentence Spell the End for Long-Suffering and Peripatetic Tigger" and "Cats Protection Races to Alfie's Side after His Owner Dies and He Winds Up on the Street, Swears It Is Going to Help Him, and Then Turns Around and Has Him Whacked .")

Secondly, it has lobbied the House of Commons to make the microchipping of cats compulsory and the absolute last thing in this world that they, other animals, and humans need is further intrusions into their lives by surveillance societies. No good will ever come of such snooping; au contraire, it is a prescription for only control, exploitation and, ultimately, extermination.

"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night," Flossie!

Thirdly, Cats Protection's constant crawling on the carpet before the filthy parliamentarians in Westminster is so shameful as to be nauseating. Much more to the point, politicians seldom have done anything even remotely beneficial for cats and other animals. (See Cat Defender posts of September 22, 2019 and July 1, 2021 entitled, respectively, "Sparkle Is Killed on the Front Stoop of Her House by an Unleashed Dog in the Latest of Centuries-Old Deadly Attacks That Bear the Unmistakable Imprimatur of the House of Commons" and "Fourteen-Year-Old Mini Is Ripped to Shreds by a Pack of Vicious Hounds but Those Responsible Never Will Be Punished Because the Limeys Value the 'Unspeakable in Full Pursuit of the Uneatable' Far More Than They Do Her Right to Live," plus The Mirror of London, November 19, 2022, "Anger as Cats Excluded from New Pet Theft Law and Only Dogs Will Be Protected.")

Obscured in Cats Protection's elaborate smokescreen of propaganda is the disturbing reality that the vast majority of old cats that are abandoned do not survive for very long afterwards. (See Cat Defender post of November 22, 2022 entitled "Slow Deaths Trapped Inside Apartments, Precarious Existences on the Street, and Swift Executions at the Hands of Veterinarians and the Operators of Shelters Are About All That Elderly Cats Can Expect in Return for Their Years of Love and Devotion to Their Ungrateful Owners.")

It thus would seem clear that the only humane alternative available to that handful of owners who truly care about their cats is for them to make arrangements for their continued care long before they become either incapacitated in some way or die themselves. That is exactly what Karin Tietz of Röbel in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern did for her cat Felix before she was forced into giving him up in order to enter an old folks' home. (See Cat Defender post of August 31, 2019 entitled "A Devoted Röbelerin Adamantly Refuses to Enter an Altersheim Until She Has Successfully Secured a New Guardian for Her Beloved Felix.")

Most disconcerting of all, both Cats Protection and the capitalistic media have failed to even realize Flossie's most extraordinary achievement, which most assuredly is not being recognized as the world's oldest cat by Guinness. On the contrary, it is her uncanny ability to have risen above all the turmoil and upheavals that have plagued her existence since birth. 

She is an amazing cat and her triumph over outrageous misfortune is truly something to celebrate. More than that, she is a survivor and as such she is an inspiration to everyone who is capable of recognizing and appreciating the resilience of an indomitable spirit.

She additionally is proof that the lives of all cats, even those that are extremely old, have infinitesimal value and therefore should be cherished, preserved, and safeguarded from harm at all expense.

Hopefully, Green will be true to her word and provide her with all the care, attention, and topnotch veterinary care that she so richly deserves. Regrettably, there does not appear to be much that can be done about her diminishing eyesight and deafness although it might be worth attempting to see if she would tolerate wearing a hearing aid. Being able to hear again might just also help to prolong her life. 

Most lamentable of all, it is highly unlikely that this marvel of the feline world is going to be around all that much longer but, on the other hand, the longevity of Creme Puff and Baby offer up a glimmer of hope in that regard. Even though her days may be numbered, that only serves to make those that she has left all the more precious.

Photos: Cats Protection (Flossie by herself and with Green), Wikipedia (Creme Puff), and Al Palusky (Baby).