Sophie's Long and Painful Odyssey of Multiple Abandonments, a Death-Defying Fall, Life on the Street, and Battles with the Bitter Cold and Deep Snow Leads Her Back Home Again Just in Time for Christmas

At Least for the Time Being, Sophie Has Landed on All Four Paws

"It is extremely uncommon to find a cat that's been missing for this long. That's a credit to the people who were caring for her outside for so long. Sophie really did touch a lot of people's hearts."

-- Vanessa Freeman of Community Cats of Edmonton

Sophie has had a hard, turbulent life that rivals "The Pearls of Pauline." The beautiful longhaired gray, brown, and white female was born on or about October 2013 but nothing else is known about either her kittenhood or the days immediately thereafter.

For all intents and purposes her story therefore does not really begin until fourteen months later in December of 2014 when she was doing time at the Edmonton Humane Society (EHS) and was known as Stardust. How long that she had been unjustly incarcerated there is not known but it generally can be assumed that she was either trapped by the Edmonton Animal Care and Control Centre (ACCC) or dumped at the shelter by her previous guardian.

It would not even be unusual if by that time she already had been bandied about several times between multiple owners and, possibly, even shelters. It likewise is not even known who it was that first dubbed her Stardust.

Her deliverance and new lease on life came when Glenn Stupar of Spruce Grove, a town of around forty-thousand souls eleven kilometers west of Edmonton, visited the shelter and adopted her as a Christmas present for his then fourteen-year-old daughter, Keisha. Immediately thereafter either he or she renamed her Sophie and she took up residence with them in their seventh-floor apartment.

That act of compassion on Stupar's part in all likelihood saved Sophie's life in that the EHS was at that time a notorious feline killing factory. Although in recent years it allegedly has greatly reduced the number of cats that it slaughters, as far back as November of 2015 it was still whacking them at the rate of sixty-eight a month. (See the Edmonton Journal, July 29, 2018, "Edmonton Humane Society Cuts Euthanasia Rate by Half Since 2016.")

This phony-baloney shelter additionally was an especially uncaring and slipshod operation. For example, on March 27, 2018 two of its employees took receipt of an unspecified number of animals from the Grand Prairie Regional Animal Care Facility, four-hundred-fifty-four kilometers to the northwest, and proceeded to drive them back to Edmonton.

Upon arrival, something went terribly haywire when a trio of young cats -- four-year-old Lucky, one-year-old Magic, and two-year-old Chance -- were inexplicably left locked in their cages inside their transport van without food, water, heat, and litter boxes for the following twenty-three days. Compounding their already desperate plight, the overnight temperature outside during that period hovered slightly below the freezing point on the Fahrenheit scale.

They were not rescued until April 18th and only then because the EHS needed to use the van. By that time, all of them were suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition as well as having sustained urine burns to their paws. Their anuses additionally were caked with congealed feces.

Chance also was suffering from severe liver damage but all of them, allegedly, recovered and later were placed in new homes by the Calgary Humane Society. (See Cat Defender post of August 8, 2018 entitled "Under Fire for Allowing Three Cats to Languish in an Unheated Vehicle for Twenty-Three Days Without Food and Water, Staffers at the Edmonton Humane Society Are Now Attempting to Save Their Own Miserable Hides with a Trumped-Up Outside Inquiry.") 

Later in that same year, Integrated Risk Investigations and Security Solution (IRISS) of Calgary gave the EHS a clean bill of health by blaming the entire affair on the snow and employee fatigue and complacency. It even went to the utterly ludicrous length so as to excuse the shelter's negligence by arguing that the cats' cages were "kinda hidden" in an area of the van that normally is used for storage.

With its see-no-evil, hear-no-evil attitude, it is a bit surprising that IRISS did not blame what was done to the cats on either a troublesome case of the piles or an ingrown toenail. (See Global News of Toronto, December 20, 2018, "Changes Recommended at Edmonton Humane Society after Investigation into Abandoned Cats.")

Considering that Sophie easily could have been whacked outright or succumbed to gross negligence, she was extremely fortunate to have gotten out of that feline hellhole with her life. At that time, however, Stupar likely was totally ignorant about how that the EHS conducts business.

The two and one-half years following her adoption are another blank page in Sophie's life. What kind of existence did the "spunky and independent" calico have with Keisha and her father? Only they know the answer to that question and they so far have been remarkably unforthcoming on that matter.

Then sometime during the middle of 2017 Sophie's life took another disastrous turn. "I always go shower, and then I come out and she'd be sitting there, meowing at me like, 'Okay it's breakfast time'," Stupar recalled to the Edmonton Journal on December 30, 2024. (See "Home for the Holidays: How a Missing Spruce Grove Cat Was Reunited with Her Family after Seven Years.") "And that morning, she wasn't. When I went out to the front room and saw the screen I put it all together quickly."

What Stupar and Keisha did in order to have located Sophie is not known but it would appear that they did not do very much in that regard. For instance, how long and hard did they scour their neighborhood for her?

Sophie with Keisha Before Her Dangerous Fall and Disappearance

Did they look underneath any buildings? Comb through any wooded areas? Did they knock on any doors?

Did they fly-post their neighborhood with Lost Cat posters? Did they contact the EHS and local veterinarians? Did they utilize the resources of social media in their search for Sophie?

Most importantly of all, did they have the bon sens to have outfitted her with an old-fashioned collar and a tag? Even in this technology besotted world, they still remain the second best means that owners have at their disposal of protecting their cats. Best of all is to never to allow a beloved cat out of sight.

Even after having spotted what he thought to have been Sophie running across a street about a month later, Stupar still refused to have acted. Rather, he simply assumed in the face of all evidence to the contrary that she had run off on her own accord.

A cat that is given a home, food, and love never does a runner. On the contrary, if she should suddenly disappear it is because some mischief has befallen her and therefore is preventing her from returning.

It is conceivable, however, that the Stupars believed that she had been injured in the fall and afterwards crawled away to die all alone and that would not have been an unreasonable assumption for them to have made considering the intermediate height from which she had fallen. It sounds counterintuitive but, generally speaking, a cat's chances of surviving a fall actually increase, up to a certain point, the greater the height from which it plunges.

That is because once it reaches terminal velocity the force of its impact with the ground becomes relatively constant. Every bit as importantly, the greater the height the more time that it has in order to use its righting reflex in order to land on its feet. The specifics of how that this theory works in practice are not known but given that cats have been known to have walked away from falls of a much greater height, it might not be totally erroneous to classify Sophie's plunge as having been in the dicey middle range of survivability.

The surface upon which a cat lands also is of paramount importance and if Sophie had collided with concrete as opposed to either grass or dirt she could have been seriously injured if not indeed killed. Radiographs likely would be able to determine if she had incurred any fractures but evidence of other types of damage, such as abrasions and internal distress, likely disappeared long ago.

It additionally is entirely likely that she had attempted return to the building but could not negotiate the front door and elevators. On the other hand, such a fall could have left her disoriented and traumatized. 

It is only common sense but cats that get outside or simply get lost usually do not stray far. They are small animals with short legs and there are too many motorists and other impediments standing in their way for them to get very far in this outrageously overcrowded world.

In other words, it would never cross the mind of a cat in Spruce Grove who suddenly finds herself on the outside to think of taking a spring vacation in Fort Lauderdale. Ergo, she is all but certain to be somewhere close by. (See Cat Defender posts of September 22, 2020, January 29, 2021, January 9, 2022, May 23, 2023, and October 16, 2023 entitled, respectively, "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," "Mocha Is Saved from an Almost Certain Death at a Shelter by the Enduring Love and Compassion of Her Former Owner Who Had Not So Much as Laid Eyes on Her in Thirteen Years," "Marley Is Reunited with Her Family after Having Gone Missing Nine Years Ago but Her Deliverance Does Not Establish Either the Efficacy or Desirability of Microchipping Cats," "Tilly Is Returned to Her Owner after a Seventeen and One-Half Year Separation but Their Reunion Is Destined to Be, Sadly, a Bittersweet One," "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," and "Daisy Is Found in Poor Health Wandering the Forbidding Streets of Caerphilly Eleven Years after She Vanished Without So Much as a Trace.") 

 

Although cats such as Mimine, Mayhem, and Cookie have purportedly used their well-developed spatial memory and the movements of the sun in order to have traversed staggering distances in order to track down their former owners, the herculean feats of the latter two were made all the more incredible owing to the fact  that their guardians had changed addresses while they were, supposedly, on the road. (See Cat Defender posts of April 27, 2007 and April 10, 2014 entitled, respectively, "A French Chat Named Mimine Allegedly Walks Eight-Hundred-Thirty Kilometers in Order to Track Down the Family That Had Abandoned Her" and "Mayhem Inexplicably Finds His Way to the New Address of the North Carolina Woman Who Earlier Had Cruelly Abandoned Him," plus the Nice Matin, December 12, 2014, "Un chat, disparu à Grasse, parcourt mille kilomètres pour retrouver sa maîtresse en Normandie.")    

 

Many lost cats that later are found far from home have been stolen and then dumped. (See Cat Defender posts of November 16, 2007, December 11, 2014, January 29, 2020, and November 15, 2023 entitled, respectively, "Fletcher, One of the Cats Abducted from Bramley Crescent, Is Killed by a Motorist in Corhampton," "Uprooted from Home and Left Stranded Thousands of Miles Away, Spice Discovers to Her Horror That Not All the Ghouls and Goblins in This World Are Necessarily to Be Found on Halloween," "Brazenly Abducted from His Home in Broad Daylight by an Auto Parts Delivery Man and Then Allegedly Dumped, Dot Is Nowhere to Be Found Almost Four Months after the Fact," and "Basil Is Abducted, Shot in the Head, and Her Body Dumped in a Creek and, Although a Neighbor Was Immediately Implicated in Her Death, Apparently No Arrest Has Been Made More Than Two Months Later.")

At other times, cats take refuge in passenger cars and other vehicles and as a result wind up halfway across the country. (See Cat Defender posts of November 6, 2006, December 12, 2007, and June 1, 2012 entitled, respectively, "Trapped in a Moving Van for Five Days, a Texas Cat Named Neo Is Finally Freed in Colorado," "Bored with Conditions at Home, Carlsberg Stows Away on a Beer Lorry for the Adventure of a Lifetime," and "A Tattoo Unravels Burli's Secret Past but It Is a Radio Broadcast That Ultimately Leads to His Happy Reunion with His Forever Grateful Current Guardian.")

They even have wandered onto both freight and passenger trains and subsequently been transported to distant cities. (See Cat Defender posts of June 7, 2007 and April 5, 2024 entitled, respectively, "Rascal Hops a Freight Train in South Bend and Unwittingly Winds Up in Chattanooga" and "Lost and All Alone on the Rails, a Young Cat Is Befriended and Saved Through the Efforts of a Kindhearted Employee of the Chemins de fer Luxembourgeois.")

Sophie Toughed It Out at a Car Wash for Eighteen Months

A few of them even have, through no fault of their own, found their way onto ships and as a consequence wound up in foreign countries. (See Cat Defender posts of December 9, 2005, May 31, 2007, and July 25, 2014 entitled, respectively, "An Adventurous Wisconsin Cat Named Emily Makes an Unscheduled Trip to France in the Hold of a Cargo Ship," "Port Taranaki Kills Off Its World Famous Seafaring Feline, Colin's, at Age Seventeen," and "Poussey Overcomes a Surprise Boat Ride to Dover, a Stint on Death Row, and Being Bandied About Like the Flying Dutchman in Order to Finally Make It Home to La Havre.")

Airplanes also have played a role in cats being transported to the ends of the earth before being dumped by their utterly disgraceful owners and others. (See Cat Defender post of August 26, 2015 entitled "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.")

Some owners even have been so careless as to have sent their cats through the post. (See Cat Defender post of July 21, 2008 entitled "Janosch Survives Being Sent Through the Post from Bayern to the Rhineland" and Ruhr24 of Dortmund, May 13, 2022, "Nordrhein Westfalen: Katze aus Versehen mit der Post Funf-Hundert Kilometer weit verschickt.")

Once Sophie had found herself on the street her first order to business would have been to have attended to any injuries that she may have sustained in her fall. Following that, she would have been forced to confront the reality that she now was homeless and totally on her own.

Since absolutely nothing has been revealed about the first fourteen months of her life, it is impossible to know if she had had any previous experience of either being on her own or with the great outdoors. If the answer to both of those questions is no, she would have been left with precious little time in order to have gotten up to speed or to have perished.

Most pressing of all, she now had to procure her own food, water, and shelter from the elements. Secondly, she quickly had to learn how to avoid such prolific feline predators as motorists, poisoners, dogs, and an assortment of wild animals, such as cougars, wolves, and coyotes.

Thirdly, she had to stay out of the traps set for her and other members of her species by the ACCC. For example, in 2021 that agency admitted to killing at least one-hundred-forty-six cats and seventy-nine kittens. How many other cats that it killed in the field and did not even bother to report is not known. (See the Edmonton Cold Weather Animal Rescue Society, no date, "Animal Care and Control Centre Euthanasia Policies.")

"Communities throughout Canada share an immense feral cat overpopulation. Many thousands of healthy, adoptable cats are euthanized each year because we simply don't have enough homes for them all. Euthanasia due to homelessness is the largest cause of death in cats," Hanna Booth of the Toronto Feral Cat TNR Coalition admitted recently. "An estimated eighty per cent of kittens are born from feral mothers; and every kitten born is competing for adoption against cats already in the shelter system." 

The biggest threat to her continued existence however would have come from those two-legged monsters who enjoy torturing, mutilating, and killing both small and large cats and Edmonton and Alberta are chock-full of them. (See Cat Defender posts of August 26, 2018, November 25, 2015, and January 21, 2018 entitled, respectively, "The Brutal Slaying and Mutilation of Bebe Has Reaffirmed Edmonton's Longstanding Claim to the Title of Being Canada's Most Violent, Sadistic, and Murderous City When It Comes to Cats, "A Cruel Teenage Drunkard and Dope Addict Who Bound a Cat and a Dog with Tape Before Killing Them Is Let Off Easy by a Calgary Court," and "Steve Ecklund's Savage Killing of a Cougar and Vainglorious Gloating, Strutting, and Preening Are Resoundingly Applauded by Canada's Ever Obliging Media and Complicitous Universities.")

Clearly, Edmonton in particular and Canada in general is no place for any cat, big or small. It accordingly is nothing short of a miracle that Sophie survived and in that regard she likely owes her life to some unknown individual who took her in and cared for her for about five years before heartlessly abandoning her once again to the unforgiving streets.

It therefore was not until approximately July of 2023 that she once again showed up on anyone's radar screen and that occurred when she unexpectedly arrived at an unidentified car wash a scant four to five kilometers removed from Stupar's apartment and took up residence in a crevice in a concrete wall in the rear. Over the course the following eighteen months she was fed by an assortment of individuals from Sobeys supermarket, a next-door liquor store, and a nearby condominium but apparently not by anyone connected to the car wash.

To most area denizens she became known as the "car wash cat" but to retirees Bob and Maureen Baynes she was known as Flossie. "They would go every single day at noon to feed her. They would call for her, watch her eat, just kind of hang out with her," Jess Hood of Community Cats of Edmonton related to the Edmonton Journal on December 30th. "It was almost like it (sic) was their cat. They considered themselves her grandparents."

While having the Bayneses and other concerned citizens to feed her sans doute made her life somewhat easier, it contributed absolutely nothing toward her safety. Just as closeness only counts in pitching horseshoes, being an "almost" guardian does not count for much when it comes to caring for a cat. 

Furthermore, they cruelly left her to brave the elements which in Edmonton would test the survival skills of an eskimo. For instance, winter arrives in October and lasts until May and it brings with it below zero Fahrenheit temperatures and 48.6 inches of snow each year.

Not surprisingly, January is the coldest month of the year with daytime temperatures reaching an average of only 21.6 ° Fahrenheit with the thermometer plunging to an overnight average of -14.7° Fahrenheit. Absolutely no one who cared anything about a cat would deliberately leave it outside in such deadly cold.

Jess Hood Feeding Sophie in the Snow at Her Hole-in-the-Wall Refuge

Nobody ever has been concerned enough to even so much as hazard a guess as to the number of cats that Old Man Winter claims each year in Edmonton and elsewhere around the world but the total surely must be astronomical. Even those lucky few that somehow manage to persevere are often left crippled for life with missing appendages that have been lost to frostbite. (See Cat Defender posts of May 8, 2009, January 21, 2010, March 25, 2011, February 2, 2015, February 23, 2015, and March 23, 2019 entitled, respectively, "Domino, Feral and All Alone, Faces an Uncertain Future in Wisconsin Following an Unplanned Trip to Arizona," "Trapped Outdoors in a Snowstorm, Annie Is Brought Back from the Dead by the Compassion of a Good Samaritan and an Animal Control Officer," "Compassionate Construction Workers Interrupt Their Busy Day in Order to Rescue Chabot-Matrix from a Stream in Maine," "Cruelly Denatured and Locked Up Indoors for All of His Life, Nicky Is Suddenly Thrust into the Bitter Cold and Snow for Twenty-One Consecutive Days with Predictably Tragic Results," "Abandoned to Tough It Out in the Deadly Michigan Cold and Snow, Flick Sustains Horrific Injuries to His Front Paws When They Become Frozen to a Porch," and "Fluffy Is Brought Back from the Dead after She Is Found Comatose in a Sarcophagus of Frozen Snow and Ice in Frigid Montana.")

A cat's odds of surviving the cold, snow, and ice of winter are reduced to practically zero whenever foul play is involved. (See Cat Defender posts of January 13, 2006, March 5, 2007, December 9, 2008, March 14, 2015, February 26, 2022, July 10, 2022, and March 12, 2024 entitled, respectively, "Montana Firefighters Rescue a 'Lucky' Calico Cat Who Was Caged and Purposefully Thrown into an Icy River," "Run Down by a Motorist and Frozen to the Ice by His Own Blood, Roo is Saved by a Caring Woman," "Shaved from Head to Tail and Left to Freeze to Death in the Ontario Cold, Chopper Is Saved at the Last Minute," "Ace Is Found Frozen to a Porch with His Eyes Gouged Out but the Authorities Are Too Lazy, Cheap, and Ailurophobic to Go After His Assailant," "Intentionally Blinded, Crippled, and Abandoned to Freeze to Death in a Locked Cage at a Rest Stop on Interstate 95 in Connecticut, Highway Not Only Perseveres but Now Has Hope for a Brighter Tomorrow," "Unspeakably Mutilated and Then Dumped in the Bitter Cold, Highway Amazingly Defies the Odds and Now Has a New Guardian, a Home, and a Second Chance at Life," and "In One of the Most Abominable Acts of Cruelty to a Cat in Recent Memory, a Vile Conductress on the Trans-Siberian Railway Hurls Twix to His Death in the Bitter Cold and Snow of Kirov.") 

The next chapter in Sophie's topsy-turvy life began to unfold in May of last year when her plight belatedly came to the attention of an unidentified woman who contacted Community Cats. Having previously adopted from the charity, she sought its assistance in trapping her but that, regrettably, proved to have been a chore beyond its expertise.

"She (Sophie) was scared of everything," Hood told the Edmonton Journal on December 30th. "A car would drive by, somebody would get out of their vehicle, honking -- anything would scare her, and she'd run back into the hole."

In frustration, Hood resorted to the inhumane expedient of attempting to starve Sophie to death by advising others not to feed her. Not only is starving a cat patently immoral but it also endangers her life in that it forces her to venture far and wide, mostly at night, in order to search for food. That in turn brings her into conflicts with motorists, dogs, and other prolific feline predators.

"I had to really gain her trust," Hood acknowledged to the Edmonton Journal but anyone who believes that starving a cat is the way to gain its trust is delusional. Au contraire, it retards the socialization process.

It is a mystery as to why that Animal Control officers never seem to have any difficulties in trapping cats whereas so many rescue groups tend to be totally incompetent in that regard. For example, during December of 2022 and January of 2023 it took the Lewis County Humane Society of Glenfield in upstate New York more than a month in order to have successfully corralled a beautiful longhaired yellow and white tom named Warden at a trailer park in nearby Lowville.

That was in spite of the fact that he had been savagely chewed up by either a dog or a coyote and was all alone in enough snow and sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures as to have made Spruce Grove look like Miami Beach. (See Cat Defender post of March 8, 2023 entitled "Mauled to Within an Inch of His Life by Either a Dog or a Coyote and Afterwards Left to Suffer in the Bitter Cold and Deep Snow for More Than a Month by the Lewis County Humane Society, Warden Not Only Perseveres but Now Has Hope for a Better Life.")

None of that criticism is meant in any way to minimize either the practical difficulties or the moral dilemmas that are involved in deciding what is best for any homeless cat, especially one that has been roughing it for any length of time. Nevertheless, rescuers ideally need to be proficient in both short-term as well as long-term trapping strategies.

The first is required whenever a cat's life is in imminent danger, such as when it is being evicted from a building or an area. (See Cat Defender posts of June 10, 2005, March 31, 2006, and November 2, 2017 entitled, respectively, "The War on Terrorism Costs Cats Their Home -- and Maybe Also Their Lives," "The Idaho Humane Society Lends Its Support to the Demolition of a Derelict Seed Store That Claims the Lives of Dozens of Cats," and "Fate, Circumstances, Rotten Luck, and the Half-Hearted Efforts of Insincere Individuals and Groups All Conspire to Make a Quick End of Morris, the World Famous Glass Bank Cat of Cocoa Beach.")

Another formidable enemy of homeless cats is the United States Government in general and the National Park Service in particular. (See Cat Defender posts of August 7, 2014 and December 16, 2022 entitled, respectively, "The National Park Service Racks Up a Major Victory by Expelling the Plum Beach Cats but It Is Thwarted in Its Burning Desire to Dance a Merry Little Jig on Their Graves" and "The Bloodthirsty National Park Service Is All Set to Trap, Remove, and Kill the Famous Cobblestone Cats of Old San Juan as the Tyrannical Feds Ratchet Up Their Worldwide Campaign of Felicide.") 

More often than not, it usually is cretins who get their perverted jollies by injuring, mutilating, and killing cats that necessitates that entire colonies of them must be relocated. (See Cat Defender post of January 5, 2011 entitled "Gunned Down by an Assassin and Then Mowed Down by a Hit-and-Run Driver, Big Bob Loses a Leg but Survives and Now Is Looking for a Home.")

In cases such as those, cats must be trapped and relocated elsewhere and rescuers need to be capable of pulling off that herculean feat both humanely and expeditiously. Once they have been removed from harm's way, the process of socializing, fostering, and rehoming them can resume.

In those instances where cats are not under immediate threat a long-term approach can be utilized whereby an attempt is first made to socialize then before relocating them. Such an approach also allows their rescuers time in order to line up both foster and permanent homes for them. 

Unfortunately, there are not any guarantees that this approach will be successful. First of all, no cat is truly safe while it is outside and on its own. The clock on its survivability is therefore always ticking.

Sophie with Glenn Stupar as Donny Hendricks Looks On

Secondly, even though a cat may become friendly with its would-be rescuer, there is always the possibility that it will not accept domestication. For instance, it could somehow get out of its new home and disappear.

Therefore, instead of saving a cat's life its rescuer could end up actually initialing its death warrant. All cats are fundamentally different and nobody knows with any degree of certainty how that any of them are going to react to being uprooted, deprived of their unbridled freedom, and domesticated.

Owing to Community Cats' ineptitude, which saw Sophie escape from one trap, it was not until December 15th that Hood finally was able to have successfully lured her into a trap with the promise of some wet food. Afterwards, she took her home with her and confined her to a dog kennel.

Once she had lost the struggle to retain her freedom, Sophie morphed into a surprisingly sweet and docile cat and that allowed Hood to bathe her as well as to remove the tangles from her long fur. She then scanned her for an implanted microchip and that was when she discovered that she was Stupar's long-lost Sophie.

When Hood telephoned him in order to tell him the good news he at first did not even know what she was talking about. "She started off by asking if I ever had a cat named Stardust," he told the Edmonton Journal on December 30th. "It took me a second, because I (had) forgot her original name."

He also claimed that he was unaware that Sophie had been chipped and that is odd considering that just about all cats that come from shelters and rescue groups nowadays are not only chipped but sterilized and vaccinated as well. Quite obviously, he had not paid any of his database maintenance dues.

From this and so many other cases, it thus seems safe to conclude that once a microchip database gains possession of an owner's personal data it never lets go of it even if he fails to pay his annual fees. What else these databases do with that information is not known but it could not possibly be beneficial.

That which is known, however, is that they sometimes stand in the way of owners reclaiming their lost cats. (See Cat Defender post of March 24, 2017 entitled "Tigger Is Finally Reunited with His Family Despite the Best Efforts of the Administrators of a Microchip Database to Keep Them Apart.")

It took a while but Stupar finally came around to acknowledging his good fortune. "You got to pinch yourself. Like what do you mean she's alive?" he exclaimed to the CBC on December 31st. (See "A Tiny Microchip and a Big Community Effort Culminated in a Christmas Reunion.") "It takes a lot to put me into a state of like tingly numb, you know -- like, a shock feeling and that --and that did it."

The poignancy of getting Sophie back just in time for Christmas, however, was not lost on him. "I got her for her (Keisha) for Christmas and now she's getting her back two days before Christmas," he continued to the CBC. "I joked it's the ultimate re-gift."

Hood was seemingly even more elated than Stupar. "I was like, 'I am determined to get her home for Christmas, and it's gonna be a Christmas miracle'," she gushed to the Edmonton Journal on December 30th. "It was just so special. She was a Christmas present. To bring her home again for Christmas seven years later, it's just a full circle."

 

Her colleague at Community Cats, Vanessa Freeman, was a good deal more reserved. "It is extremely uncommon to find a cat that's been missing for this long," she told the CBC. "That's a credit to the people who were caring for her outside for so long. Sophie really did touch a lot of people's hearts."

Au contraire, the available evidence is overwhelming that she survived in spite of the callousness shown her by area residents more so than because of the morsels of food that they tossed her way. As everyone knows but few are willing to admit, this world is chock-full of individuals and groups who make a good living by passing themselves off as caring about cats but who in reality are merely exploiting them for their own selfish reasons and ego titillation.

"Human kindness is like a defective tap," noted English novelist Phyllis James once observed. "The first gush may be impressive but the stream soon dries out."

Even more remarkable than her rescue, Sophie was pronounced by a local veterinarian to be in good health despite all the deprivations that she had been forced to endure over the past seven years. Following that she was reunited with Stupar on December 23rd.

Sophie and Keisha Back Together for Christmas 2024

Given that he already has another resident feline that was given to him by his children a few months after Sophie had disappeared, she will not be residing with him but rather with Keisha and her boyfriend, Donny Henricks. They, presumably, live in either Spruce Grove or elsewhere in the Edmonton area.

Sophie is said to be more "cuddly and affectionate" than ever and supposedly spends her nights in bed with Keisha and Donny. According to Stupar, however, she has not changed all that much.

"She still has some of the old Sophie in her," he declared to the CBC. "She's doing great."

In reunions such as this, the question always arises as to whether long-lost cats still remember their former caretakers and while no one knows for sure the answer to that thought-provoking question, a 2017 Japanese study tends to suggest that they do, provided that they were well treated. "If your cat remembers you after a long separation, it's likely that the bond you shared -- whether through positive experiences or comfort -- left a lasting impression," Brian Foster of the Glass Almanac wrote on January 26th. (See "Do Cats Have Strong Memories?") "Cats may not remember everything, but they certainly retain the emotional connection they've had with people and places that matter most to them."

Like Homo Sapiens, cats also have a well-developed olfactory sense that helps them to recall individuals. "Cats rely heavily on their sense of smell to recall memories, which is why they can recognize their previous owners, even years apart," Foster continued. "Their keen sense of smell allows them to remember a person, a place, or an object long after they've encountered it, creating lasting impressions that transcend time." 

None of that should come as any surprise for an animal that is quite capable of finding its way home from faraway places by following the movements of the sun. Moreover, a cat can tell the time of day more accurately than Tag Heuer as well as to hear a lid being pulled off of a can of Fancy Feast® a hundred feet or more away.

Looking ahead, it is difficult to speculate as to what the future holds in store for the now eleven- and one-half-year-old calico. Stupar told the Edmonton Journal that Keisha was "ecstatic" to have Sophie back but how long that euphoria will last is anyone's guess.

"She's being well looked after, for sure," he vouched to the CBC. 

Considering how disgracefully that he and Keisha failed her the first time around it is impossible to be optimistic on that score. For instance, both Keisha and Donny likely have jobs, a busy social calendar, and they could even be going to school on the side and that most assuredly does not leave much room in their lives for Sophie. Judging from the photographs posted online, the intervening years appear to have, for one reason or another, taken quite a toll on Keisha and she may not be up to properly caring for Sophie. 

The sad truth of the matter is that, except for elderly dowagers, relatively few individuals have either the time or care enough in order to provide their cats with the attention and care that they deserve and require. That is in spite of them living such terribly short lives. Blink once and they are not only gone but gone forever and all time.

Not many owners therefore ever get second chances with their cats. Rather, they usually die suddenly, meet with foul play or, as was the case with Sophie, simply mysteriously disappear.

Since there is not any way of undoing the dirty work of the Grim Reaper, owners who truly care about their cats but nevertheless fail them in some way are destined to be left with profound regrets that intrude upon every waking hour and haunt every night. Perhaps worst of all, there is not any way that they ever can forgive themselves for their sins of omission. 

Even all the happy memories, photographs, and videos are of little comfort. Welcoming a new feline into one's life helps but the pain never goes away.

Hopefully Keisha fully appreciates the rare gift that she has been given and that she will endeavor not to fail Sophie this time around. Doing so could turn out to be just too painful for her to bear.

Photos: Community Cats of Edmonton (Sophie by herself, at the car wash, with Hood, and with Stupar and Hendricks) and Glenn Stupar (Sophie and Keisha).

Individuals and Groups Armed to the Teeth with Silicon Valley Snake Oil Are Now Vying with Traditional Abusers for the Coveted Title of Being the Number One Killers of Cats

Ally Failed to Survive a Ride in One of Albertsons' Trucks

"The charity regularly reunites owners with their much-loved cats, and in most cases this is only possible thanks to microchips."

- - Madison Rogers of Cats Protection

The laundry list of those individuals and groups who were complicit, to one degree or another, in the killing of Garfield by no means ends with his owners, David and Tina Villers, the Christians at Ely Cathedral, Cats Protection, and opportunistic artists such as Cate Caruth and Sally Dunham but rather it extends to, most notably, the management, staff, vendors, and patrons of Sainsbury's who used and exploited him for their own selfish designs without contributing anything positive toward his well-being and safety. (See Cat Defender post of August 27, 2024 entitled "A Tale of Two Cats: Garfield Is Long Dead and Teddy Is Being Led Down the Same Path in Order to Soon Join Him.") 

It should be obvious but a supermarket hardly qualifies as a safe and suitable home for a cat and Sainsbury's is far from being an anomaly in its naked exploitation and abject neglect of Garfield and his basic needs. Actually, such predatory, capitalistic enterprises have a long and checkered history of such utterly shameful behavior.

For example, on March 3, 2010 a simply gorgeous ten-year-old, brown and white Snowshoe Siamese subsequently dubbed Ally arrived in Billings in the back of one of Albertsons' delivery trucks. It never was specified but it is believed that she either climbed aboard or was shanghaied aboard in Salt Lake City and made the seven-hour journey on her own.

Upon arrival, she was taken to the Yellowstone Valley Animal Shelter (YVAS) in Billings where she was diagnosed to have sustained an unspecified injury to her back and possibly a broken hip. All of that was in addition to being famished and dehydrated. Despite the severity of her injuries, YVAS did not treat her but instead placed her in foster care where she either died on her own or, more likely, was killed off on March 9th.

Albertsons ordered its employees not to discuss the matter even though Ally's injuries were consistent with a heavy object, such as a case of sodas, having been either accidentally or purposefully dropped on top of her. It is only a guess but it nevertheless is believed that she could have been saved if YVAS and Albertsons had thought that her life was worth saving. (See Cat Defender post of April 18, 2010 entitled "Ally's Last Ride Lands Her in a Death Trap Set by an Uncaring and Irresponsible Supermarket Chain and a Bargain Basement Shelter.")

In January of 2015, a gray female with black stripes named Mango was, like Garfield, reportedly run down and killed by a motorist in the parking lot of a Tesco's in Tiverton, Devon. Her death was later contradicted. 

That which is not in doubt, however, is that she was cruelly evicted from the store shortly before her alleged death after having been allowed inside for four years by management. (See the Daily Mail, January 20, 2015 , "Is Mango the Cat Dead?")

Later that same year, a gray and white tom named Cecil, who had hung out inside Safeways in southeast Portland for seven years, was likewise rudely evicted. Afterwards he disappeared from the public's eye until an unconfirmed note posted on Reddit on December 30, 2018 reported that he was now living in the country and doing well. (See The Oregonian of Portland, December 3, 2016, "Portland Rallies Around Cecil, Beloved Safeway (sic) Cat.")

Supermarket cats additionally have been kidnapped. For instance, in 2014 a nine-year-old gray female with black stripes named Fudge was stolen from a Tesco's in Dumfries, one-hundred-twenty-seven kilometers south of Edinburgh in the South Uplands. Miraculously, she later was found in a garden but the only punishment that her abductor received was to be banned from the grocery store. (See Deadline News of Edinburgh, November 18, 2016, "Facebook Fight Erupts over Fudge the Celebrity Cat.")    

During 2016 and 2017, a brown tom with black stripes of an undetermined age named George visited Wilkos in the Kings Chase Shopping Centre in the Kingswood section of Bristol, one-hundred-seventy-one kilometers west of London. One day he was sickened by the food that someone had given him and  his family wisely got the message and thereafter reportedly kept him at home. (See the Bristol Post, articles dated February 13, 2017 and February 14, 2017 and entitled, respectively, "Celebrity Cat George Is Internet Famous Because He spends All Day at Wilkos and Refuses to Leave" and "Where Else in Kingswood Are You Likely to See 'Celebrity' Cat George?") 

In 2009, Claire and Adam Owens of High Street in Saltney, fifty–five kilometers south of Liverpool and on the border with Wales, adopted a brown and white homeless and formerly abused tom named Brutus. Like Villers with Garfield, they soon tired of him and when a year later Morrisons opened a supermarket across the street from their house they turned him loose to live there.

As Tesco was later to have done with Mango and Safeways with Cecil, Morrisons kicked him out its store in 2012. The cold–hearted, predatory capitalists did, however, permit him to still hang out in their unheated and drafty recycling center. 

 
Over the years he became both injured and lost from time to time but he only occasionally returned home for an odd meal and a nap. In 2013, he was diagnosed with kidney disease and the Owenses had him killed off on January 16, 2017.

Just as all that there now is left of Garfield is a bronze bust in Ely Country Park, all that remains of Brutus is a statue of him outside of Morrisons. (See the Chester Chronicle, January 16, 2017, "Heartbreak as Brutus the Morrisons' Cat Passes Away," The Telegraph of London, January 27, 2017, "Beloved Cat Brutus to Be Immortalized in Morrisons' Supermarket Statue," and Cat Defender post of April 24, 2019 entitled "The Life, Times, and Tragic Demise of a Supermarket Cat: Brutus of Morrisons, 2009–2017.")

So, what is the most common fate of supermarket cats? First of all, to be run down and deliberately killed by motorists and to die in their delivery trucks.

Secondly, to be nakedly exploited for profit only to be cruelly evicted into the elements and traffic as recompense for their loyal service. Thirdly, to b kidnapped, poisoned, and to disappear without so much as a trace.

All of that is on top of being forced to go without shelter, regular meals, water, veterinary care, and all protection. If mistreating cats in such a cavalier and inhumane fashion does not constitute animal cruelty, and in some instances felony animal cruelty at that, what the hell does? It thus seems clear to conclude that both owners and the operators of supermarkets who engage in such conduct belong nowhere but in jail and for long stretches of time at that.

Finally, the calling of the roll of what might best be termed as the traditional exploiters and abusers of cats never would be complete without giving the members of the thoroughly unscrupulous mass media their due. Most notably, they have been championing the abandonment, neglect, endangerment, abuse, and exploitation of cats like Garfield for as long as they have wagged their forked tongues and raced their stylos and pencils across the page. 

For example, in England, the capitalistic media have long supported cat food manufacturers and others who have sponsored dangerous roaming contests. (See Cat Defender post of December 5, 2006 entitled "Milo, Who Visits the Vet by Her Lonesome, Is Named Old Blighty's 'Most Adventurous Cat'.")

 Morrisons Cruelly Relegated Brutus to Its Drafty Recycling Center

When what they should be doing is campaigning for responsible cat ownership and the unqualified right of all members of the species to live and to be free from all abuse and exploitation, they are continuously beating a drum for the direct opposites. No improvement can be expected from the big liars and propagandists on Fleet Street but the taxpayers have every right to demand that the publicly-financed BBC stop cheerleading for the exploitation, abuse, abandonment, and killing of cats.

Or perhaps they support the conduct of the BBC? At any rate it would be interesting to observe their reaction if the network were to commence recommending that unwanted children be dumped in the street.

There never has been anything positive that could be said about the old mob of feline abusers but nowadays their efforts are being augmented by a new breed of dishonest and morally retarded villains: the Silicon Valley crowd and their stooges. First of all, there are the microchip manufacturers and database managers who have gone into collusion with shelters, veterinarians, and governments in order to shove these totally worthless devices down the gullets of a public already besotted by technology.

To run through the entire rigmarole one more time, implanted microchips do not afford cats so much as an iota of protection against those individuals and animals intent upon doing them harm. For instance, motorists who are intent upon intentionally running them down do not slam on the brakes because they suddenly remember that their intended victims are chipped.

Dogs, coyotes, foxes, and other animals do not spare the lives of cats because they might be chipped. What about serial killers, such as the Croydon and Brighton Cat Killers? Does anyone seriously believe that any of them are scared off by an implanted microchip?

Also, chips in no way deter poisoners, kidnappers, and a thousand other cat-haters, such as ornithologists and wildlife biologists, from perpetrating their foul deeds. The entire notion that microchips afford cats so much as a scintilla of protection is absurd. (See Cat Defender post of May 25, 2006 entitled "Plato's Misadventures Expose the Pitfalls of RFID Technology as Applied to Cats.")

Secondly, the jury is still out on the matter but implanted microchips have been linked to cancer. (See Cat Defender posts of September 21, 2007 and November 6, 2010 entitled, respectively, "The FDA Is Suppressing Research That Shows Implanted Microchips Cause Cancer in Mice, Rats, and Dogs" and "Bulkin Contracts Cancer from an Implanted Microchip and Now It Is Time for Digital Angel ® and Merck to Answer for Their Crimes in a Court of Law.")

Thirdly, some shelters and governmental agencies are so incompetent that they cannot even properly implant these devices and their malpractice has in turn ruined the lives of some cats. (See Cat Defender posts of April 28, 2016 and June 23, 2016 entitled, respectively, "Sassie Is Left Paralyzed as the Result of Yet Still Another Horribly Botched Attempt to Implant a Thoroughly Worthless and Pernicious Microchip Between Her Shoulders" and "The State of North Carolina's Veterinary Division Is Covering Up a Savage Beating Dished Out to Cooper at the Rowan County Animal Shelter During the Course of a Microchipping Fiasco.")

Fourthly, there are all sorts of difficulties with the databases that service microchips. For instance, administrators do not always cooperate in the return of lost cats to their owners. (See Cat Defender post of January 24, 2017 entitled "Tigger Is Finally Reunited with His Family Despite the Best Efforts of the Administrators of a Database to Keep Them Apart.")

Additionally, database operators are not running charities but rather they charge owners an annual fee for their services. Compounding an already considerably less than perfect scheme, many owners do not always keep their contact information current and that makes it almost impossible for shelters and veterinarians to contact them in the event that their errant cats should turn up out of the blue one day.

Fifthly, in the United States some shelters have admitted privately that they do not scan cats that they suspect of being homeless. Rather, they simply whack them as soon as they come through the front door.

Sixthly, other shelters are so incompetent that they cannot find and read the chips that are inside the cats that they impound. So, they too simply go ahead and kill them without so much as a second thought. (See WALA-TV of Mobile, May 16, 2008, "Cat's Microchip Didn't Save It from Being Euthanized" and WCAU-TV of Philadelphia, November 15, 2017, "Animal Shelter Euthanizes Man's Pet Cat after Failing to Find Microchip.")

Despite the mounting evidence against the efficacy of microchips, the lies continue to proliferate and the biggest prevaricator of all continues to be none other than Cats Protection. "The charity regularly reunites owners with their much-loved cats, and in most cases this is only possible thanks to microchips," the phony-baloney rescue group's Madison Rogers swore to The Independent of London on May 8th. (See "Cat Owners Urged to Take Action or Face £500 Fine Under New Laws.") "No matter how far from home they were found, or how long they have been missing, if a cat has a microchip there is a good chance that a lost cat will be swiftly returned home."

Despite her outrageous balderdash, it is highly doubtful that Cats Protection is reuniting all that many errant cats with their owners and that most definitely includes those that have been chipped and there are multitude of reasons for that. Topping that list are the machinations of some very clever cat-haters who steal, kill, and secretly dispose of the corpses of their victims. Still others transport them out of town and dump them at remote locations.

Secondly, although Cats Protection is loath to admit it, owners are arguably one of the biggest killers of cats. For example, some of them routinely drown kittens whereas others seal them up in trash bags and deposit them in Dumpsters. (See Cat Defender posts of July 3, 2006 and January 1, 2024 entitled, respectively, "Crooked Massachusetts Cops Allow an Elderly Politician to Get Away with Attempting to Drown a Kitten Named Lucky Girl" and "Seventeen Cats Are Found Dead in a Dumpster in Nashville in the Latest Sorry Chapter of Southerners' Longstanding Loathing for the Species.")

Quite obviously, implanted microchips do not protect cats and kittens from owners intent upon doing them harm. Even more damning, shelters such as Cats Protection are often complicit in the cold-blooded murders of these cats and kittens because they have failed to have done their due diligence in the first place.

They next compound their original mistakes by failing to conduct follow-up home visits in order to check on how the cats that they have adopted out a faring in their new environments. If the charity were willing to do at least that much it could save far more feline lives in a single month than all of its worthless microchips would in a year.

Thirdly, many kindhearted individuals take in homeless cats but since they do not own scanners they do not have any means of knowing if they have owners who want them back. Plus, they are not about to go to the trouble and expense of taking them to either a shelter or a veterinarian so that they can be scanned.

Fourthly, garbagemen and private citizens alike dispose of the corpses of cats that they pick up in the street and alongside roads every day by nonchalantly tossing them in the trash. None of them scan them for implanted microchips.

Fifthly, some of the miraculous reunions that shelters are able to facilitate do not occur until decades later and that puts the kibosh to Rogers' nonsense about cats being "swiftly returned home." (See Cat Defender posts of May 23, 2022 and October 16, 2023 entitled, respectively, "Tilly Is Returned to Her Owner after a Seventeen and One-Half Year Separation but Their Reunion Is Destined to Be, Sadly, a Brief and Bittersweet One" and "Daisy Is Found in Poor Health Wandering the Forbidding Streets of Caerphilly Eleven Years after She Vanished Without So Much as a Trace.")

Reliance Upon a GPS Tracker Killed Rather Than Saved Basil

Even more abhorrent, sometimes their former owners to not want any part of their long-lost cats and that raises the strong suspicion that they were the very ones who abandoned them in the first place. (See Cat Defender posts of September 22, 2020 and September 8, 2020 entitled, respectively, "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" and "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.")

Apparently it never has occurred to Cats Protection that owners dump their cats all the time and then something tragic happens to them. Even more sobering, no amount of electronic gadgetry is ever going to prevent them from doing so. Both cats and the charity therefore would perhaps be better served by requiring all would-be adopters to take and pass a brief course on the proper care of a cat instead of all the time blowing like a hurricane about worthless microchips.

It also seems clear that if Cats Protection truly believed any of the rubbish that it is all the time spouting about microchips it would at the very least purchase scanners and donate them free of charge to the public at large. It additionally would be lobbying for a law that would require local councils to scan all  deceased cats that are found in public for implanted microchips and then to inform their owners and return their remains to them.

That would at least provide them with some measure of closure. The mere fact that it is totally unwilling to undertake either of these two worthwhile measures calls into question its belief in the utter baloney that it is fobbing off on the public concerning microchips.

Nevertheless, Cats Protection's years of telling lies and brown-nosing the Tories, when it instead should have been saving feline lives, paid a huge dividend on June 10th when it became the law in England and Wales that all cats had to be microchipped by the time that they reach the tender age of five months. Violators will be fined £500 and the law empowers local councils to seize unchipped cats, arrange for their violation and subjugation, and then to stick their owners with the bills.

Quite obviously, the limeys have lost their minds. For example, after lockdown thousands of them cruelly returned the cats that they only shortly before had adopted. In doing so they ludicrously claimed that they no longer could afford to feed them.

That of course was a bare-faced lie but people who are too cheap to even feed a cat are not about to pony up for either its microchipping or to pay a whopping fine for failing to have done so. The only thing that this insane law is destined to accomplish is to lead to more and more cats and kittens being abandoned to the streets and dumped at shelters and there does not seem to be any way that will not translate into the wholesale slaughter of additional innocent felines.

Secondly, just how do the fool limeys propose to go about seizing unchipped cats?  Are they going to transform all of England and Wales into a police state whereby the local Gestapos regularly conduct midnight raids on individuals suspected of harboring an unchipped cat?

Other than being a sure-fire moneymaker for the manufacturers of microchips, database managers, veterinarians, shelters, and local governments, the only propose that England's new microchipping law serves is to put cats and their owners underneath the thumb of an ever-increasingly fascistic society.

The second recent development that ailurophobes have Silicon Valley to thank for are GPS trackers which, like microchips, endanger the lives of cats as opposed to protecting them. For example, on August 27th of last year Holly Mathews and Travis Lechner of Longmont, Colorado, outfitted a tuxedo named Basil that they had brought with them from Norway with one of these devices and then, apparently, went away for the day.

When they returned home at 9:05 p.m., her tracker alerted them that she was on the move inside an automobile in the eastern part of the city. They immediately gave chase in their old jalopy but when they reached St. Vrain's Creek they found her floating in a trash bag. Although her body was still warm, she had been shot in the head with either a conventional firearm or an air gun.

More than a year later no arrest apparently has been made in this shocking case even though it was immediately known which neighbor's house she had been visiting before she was taken on her last ride. 

A GPS tracker did not provide her with any more safety and protection than would have an implanted microchip. (See Cat Defender post of November 15, 2023 entitled "Basil Is Abducted, Shot in the Head, and Her Body Dumped in a Creek and Although a Neighbor Was Immediately Implicated in Her Death, Apparently No Arrest Has Been Made More Than Two Months Later.")

It is not known what motivated Mathews and Lechner to equip Basil with a GPS tracker and then to have turned her loose in order to have roamed the perilous streets of Longmont but most individuals who do so want to gather photographs and other information that they can use on social media. Others claim to foolishly believe that by occasionally knowing the whereabouts of their cats they can somehow still protect them.

Still others could care less what happens to their cats. (See Cat Defender posts of June 11, 2007 and March 29, 2017 entitled, respectively, "Katzen-Kameras Are Not Only Cruel and Inhumane but Represent an Assault Upon Cats' Liberties and Privacy" and "Archie Is Knowingly Allowed to Sleep Smack-Dab in the Middle of a Busy Thoroughfare by His Derelict Owners Who Are Content with Merely Tracking His Movements by Satellite.")

Whether owners who use GPS trackers are motivated by greed and a lust for fame or simply are too lazy and uncaring in order to take proper care of them, they are taking a terrible risk with their lives. For that reason, this new breed of irresponsible guardians are on a pace to someday supplant traditional ailurophobes as the number one killers of cats.

That is not meant to imply that all users of Silicon Valley Snake Oil are ailurophobes but they are at the very least misguided and the end result of their irresponsibility is often the same for their cats just as if they had deliberately killed them. Furthermore, it is pointless for them to plead ignorance because it long has been known that man always has used technology against the animals rather than to have employed it in protecting them.

For instance, wildlife biologists and meat producers have been using technology for decades in order to reduce all wild and farm animals to the status of inanimate objects that they can control, exploit, and kill at will. In doing so they have robbed them of all legal and moral protections. (See Cat Defender posts of April 7, 2006, May 4, 2006, February 29, 2008, and May 21, 2009 entitled, respectively, "Hal the Central Park Coyote Is Suffocated to Death by Wildlife Biologists Attempting to Tag Him," "The Scientific Community's Use of High-Tech Surveillance Is Aimed at Subjugating, Not Saving, the Animals," "The Repeated Hounding Down and Tagging of Walruses Exposes Electronic Surveillance as Not Only Cruel but a Fraud," and "Macho B., America's Last Jaguar, Is Illegally Trapped, Radio-Collared, and Killed Off by Wildlife Biologists in Arizona.")

As morally revolting as all of that is, the plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose and those owners who can still be bothered to care about their cats' lives and well-being fully realize that the responsibility for protecting them rests squarely upon their shoulders. Rescue groups, governmental entities, and Silicon Valley Snake Oil purveyors are the enemies of all responsible cat ownership and should be recognized as such.

For even that to occur, however, this world needs many more individuals like Thomas Harris' fictional Clarice Sterling who in his 1991 novel, The Silence of the Lambs, could still hear the bleatings of the lambs on their way to the slaughterhouse in her sleep. Above all, it never must be forgotten that every cat that meets with foul play as the result of its owner's negligence constitutes a victory for the species' innumerable enemies.

Photos: Larry Mayer of the Billings Gazette (Ally), Facebook (Brutus), and KDVR-TV of Denver (Basil). 

A Tale of Two Cats: Garfield Is Long Dead and Teddy Is Being Led Down the Same Path in Order to Soon Join Him

Garfield Spent the Last Seven Years of His Life at Sainsbury's

"It's almost as though the baton has been passed on. It's almost if he (Teddy) knows."

-- Hihine Lor

In 2007, the cathedral city of Ely, twenty-two kilometers north-northeast of Cambridge and one-hundred-twenty-eight kilometers due north of London, was gifted by the arrival of a good-looking, ginger and white tom. At some unspecified time thereafter he was adopted by David and Tina Villers who, in the tradition of Mark Twain, christened him with the long-winded, high-falutin name of Garfield Abercrombie Reginald Ferguson. Of course, no one ever called him that; instead, he was known to one and all as simply Garfield.

By 2012, if not indeed before, the Villers decided that they no longer wanted any part in his care and condemned him to spend the remainder of his days dividing his time between Sainsbury's and its dangerous parking lot. Who fed, watered, sheltered, and medicated him has not been so much as even broached in press reports but it would appear that he was pretty much left to scrounge around on his own for his daily needs.

Most importantly of all, he was forced to fight all of his battles alone against not only the elements but his species' multitude of sworn enemies as well. From the time that the Villers cruelly and inexcusably abandoned him, there is not so much as a shred of evidence in the public domain that a single, solitary soul in all of Ely ever took the slightest bit of interest in either his safety or well-being. A crueler and more unjust fate to have been foisted upon any cat is difficult to imagine.

According to Sainsbury's web site, its store on Lisle Lane is open from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Sundays. Garfield therefore apparently spent the vast majority of his days there lounging on a sofa in the lobby and in providing free amusement for the hordes of uncaring and exploitative shoppers who visited England's second largest supermarket chain. 

It has not been disclosed where he slept at night but the most logical guess would be that it was out in the elements somewhere near the store. Although the big shit capitalists at Sainsbury's were happy enough to have had him around during the day in order to have attracted paying customers, they were not about to have provided him with overnight lodging or anything else of value for that matter.

"I used to work security there at few years ago, and it always used to be a highlight of my day when the store closed and I had to carry him out to stop him getting locked in, telling him, 'Come on Garfield, time to go home'," JJ Senior, a former security guard at the store, testified to the Cambridge News of Waterbeach on July 2, 2019. (See "Ely's Much Loved Cat Mr. Sainsbury's also Known as Garfield Killed by Driver.") "One time we had a complaint that someone had left a cat in a shoebox outside the store; watching the CCTV back only to find that Garfield had jumped inside the box himself and closed the lid behind him."

From the general tenor of that testimony it seems safe to conclude that Senior did not want to know if Garfield had a home to go to or, if so, how that he was to have safely gotten there. That is the problem with all individuals like him in that they never want to know the pertinent side of any story.

Garfield Apparently Had the Run of the Supermarket

Based upon Senior's testimony, the Villers most assuredly did not even care enough about Garfield's welfare to have come and collected him at closing time. It is not even known if they ever stopped by the store during the day in order to have checked on his well-being unless, that is, such an expedition just happened to have coincided with their purchasing of provisions for themselves.

It thus seems perfectly clear that they did not care what he was doing or even if he were still alive. What they undertook instead was to establish the "Mr. Sainsbury's also Known as Garfield" page on Facebook in order to cash in on his growing notoriety. Over time, the page attracted a modest seven-thousand followers in Ely and around the world.

Since it is well established that cats who are fortunate enough to have owners who love and dote on them prefer to remain at home with them, the mere fact that Garfield sometimes attempted to get into the automobiles of shoppers as they were departing Sainsbury's attests to just how lonely that he was and how much that the longed for a real home and an owner of his own. The only notable exception to that rule are intact males who sometimes roam in search of females during Paarungszeit.

It therefore hardly came as any surprise to anyone when on July 2, 2019 he was run down by a motorist, presumably a hit-and-run one, in the parking lot of Sainsbury's. He was taken by an unidentified individual to a local surgery but he, allegedly, could not have been saved. He was only twelve years old.

His killer was never publicly identified, arrested, and prosecuted despite the fact that it is rather difficult for a motorist to run down and kill a cat in a parking lot unless he was acting with either malice aforethought or speeding. It likewise is a sure bet that the police never bothered to even look into his killing. What is another dead cat to those sworn ailurophobes?

"With great sadness, we have to report that Garfield died a short while ago. He was hit by a car in Sainsbury's car park earlier this afternoon and was rushed to the vet but they (sic) were unable to save him," one of the Villers announced on Garfield' Facebook page later that same horrible day. "Garfield brought joy to all our lives and his memory lives on. Give your cat an extra cuddle tonight and remember Garfy with love."

Garfield Did Not Have Much but at Least He Had Access to a Sofa

For the Villers to be dispensing such outrageous gratuitous advice to other owners when they never had so much as an ounce of love for Garfield in their black hearts is beyond hypocritical but perhaps that is the type of sottise that social media engenders in its users. It did, however, smooth the way for their subsequent naked exploitation of his memory.

Lauren Shereard, a patron of Sainsbury's, was a good deal more sincere. "This is so sad. He was a legend and will always be remembered," she told the Cambridge News. "I'm so shocked. I only saw him chilling by the doors just this morning."

His killing brought tears to the eyes of patron Sue Farrow. "Poor Garfield. Rest in peace beautiful boy. (I was) always thinking of you and you're always in my heart and always will be," she told the Cambridge News. "You gave me happiness and smiles."

"Happy memories, a sad day," security guard Senior added simply.

Even though there is scant evidence that the English ever have profited very much from their faith, they nevertheless like to pass themselves off as good Christians. So, it was anything but surprising that approximately four-hundred-fifty nominal animal lovers gathered for a blessing of the animals that was held in late September at ancient Ely Cathedral, the construction of which was begun by William the Conquer in 1083. This was not, however, a memorial service in honor of Garfield but rather for all cats, dogs, donkeys, ferrets, guinea pigs, and birds.

Not much time and effort therefore was put into eulogizing Garfield but author Cate Caruth of Bury St. Edmonds, forty-three kilometers southeast of Ely, did attend. Earlier in February of 2019, she and David Villers had published a tome about Garfield entitled What's THAT Doing There? A Garfy Book. It must be selling reasonably well because at last glance it was out of stock on Thrift Books but still available on Amazon.

As for Villers, he quite obviously had already started grabbing for shekels even while his cat was still alive. On the other hand, Caruth's appearance at Ely Cathedral afforded her not only another opportunity in order to flog her book, but also to showcase her morally warped and perverted soul.

Garfield Was a Big Hit with Little Boys...

"He was a pet for all of those who could not have no pet of their own," is how that she began her nonsensical homily according to the BBC's September 22, 2019 account of the proceedings. (See "Ely Cathedral Eulogy to Sainsbury's Cat Garfield.") "Garfield touched thousands of lives around the world. In remembering Garfield, we remember all those pets."

What she is really saying is that it is perfectly permissible for individuals to adopt cats on the pretext of being caring and responsible owners and then to turn around soon thereafter and do an about-face by abandoning them to the street in order to fend for themselves. It often has been remarked that a cat has the intellectual development of a four-year-old child and even in decadent old England anyone who abandoned a toddler to the street would not only immediately lose custody of it but likely wind up in jail to boot. So, why is it morally and legally acceptable to do likewise to a cat?

Secondly, those cretins who pretend to adore homeless cats like Garfield and those that are found at cat cafes are guilty not only of being outrageous hypocrites but they also are tacitly endorsing the abandonment, neglect, and naked exploitation of them. (See Cat Defender post of June 5, 2008 entitled "Teahouse Cats Are Given Shelter and Work but Precious Little Job Security and No Legal Protections.")

If any of them really cared so much as one whit about footloose cats they would either take them home with them or sic the authorities on the likes of the Villers and Sainsburys of this world. In reality, however, they only take an interest, and it is a passing and fleeting one at that, in those cats that they do not have to feed, house, medicate and, above all, be morally responsible for throughout their lives. 

Caruth concluded her spiel by denying all reality. "As the fictional Garfy might say, 'I'm not really gone'," she blew long and hard to the attendees according to the BBC. "'I'm just off on another adventure'."

Actually, Garfield is really and truly dead. He died a violent and painful death underneath the wheels of a murdering motorist on July 2, 2019 because absolutely no one is Ely cared enough about him in order to have taken personal responsibility for his well-being. He therefore died as he lived, alone and unloved.

Furthermore, he is not off on any new adventures and he definitely will not be coming back from the crypt as the Christians have long claimed that Jesus did all those years ago. The only thing that she got right is to have chosen Ely Cathedral as the ideal venue in order to have promoted the abuse, abandonment, and neglect of cats.

... and Especially Little Girls

"On New Year's Day (in) 1638, in Ely Cathedral, a cat was roasted alive on a spit in the presence of a large and boisterous crowd," John Gray disclosed in his 2020 book, Feline Philosophy. Cats and the Meaning of Life.

The English's long history of committing despicable acts of cruelty against the species is by no means however limited to what occurred in Ely Cathedral. Gray continued:

"A few years later Parliamentary troops, fighting against Royalist forces in the English Civil War, used hounds to hunt cats up and down Lichfield Cathedral (one-hundred-eighty-six kilometers west of Ely in Staffordshire ).

'During pope-burning processions in the reign of Charles II, the effigies were stuffed with live cats so that their screams would add dramatic effect. At rural fairs a popular sport was shooting cats suspended in baskets'."

It accordingly has taken the good Christians of Ely Cathedral only a measly four-hundred years in order to have advanced from roasting live cats on a spit to consecrating their abandonment, neglect, and abuse. At that exhilarating pace in another thousand or two years they could be worshiping them as the ancient Egyptians once did or, more likely, killing and dining on them as their Aussie cousins are doing today. (See Cat Defender posts of September 7, 2007 and November 18, 2016 entitled, respectively, "The Australians Renounce Civilization and Revert to Savages with the Introduction of a Grotesque Plan to Get Rid of Cats by Eating Them" and "A Clever Devil at the University of Adelaide Boasts That He Has Discovered the Achilles' Heel of Cats with His Invention of Robotic Grooming Traps as the Thoroughly Evil Australians' All-Out War Against the Species Enters Its Final Stages.")

Predictably, no mention has been made of what was done with Garfield's remains. It would seem likely, however, that the Villers did not want any part of them and therefore left them at the surgery for the veterinarians to have either incinerated or to have tossed out with the day's trash. Since they cared absolutely nothing about him while he was above ground, they were not about to have afforded him a memorial service, a proper resting place, and a suitable tombstone.

Moreover, Garfield has proven to have been significantly more lucrative to the Villers in death than he ever was in life. First of all, they hit up the public for £2,000 which they in turn gave to the local branch of Cats Protection which, although it most assuredly was fully cognizant of how horribly that they were neglecting and endangering him, did absolutely nothing in order to have saved him. If the charity had had any interest whatsoever of living up to its name, it would have taken Garfield from them, placed him with a responsible guardian who would have been willing to have safeguarded his life, and arrested the Villers and charged them with animal cruelty.

The Memorial Bench and Bronze Statue of Garfield in Ely Country Park

Failing to have done its job is not anything new for Cats Protection which regularly kills off cats instead of medicating them. (See Cat Defender posts of August 26, 2015 and February 16, 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.")

Earlier this year, its branch in North East Lincolnshire condemned "lots" of kittens to early graves long before their lives had hardly begun due to a lack of shelter space. The death toll was reportedly the highest in Woodhall Spa, Grimsby, and Horncastle and Louth. 

"Over the last few weeks we've not got to calls quick enough due to a lack of spaces in the branch, so when we've gone to meet the people and bring cats in there have been lots of kittens dead on arrival which is really distressing," the branch's Michelle Mohamed confessed to the BBC on May 31st. (See "Kittens Being Found Dead as Charity Flounders.")

The only way to interpret that admission is that neither Mohamed nor any of the hundreds of staffers that Cats Protection employs at its many shelters were willing to have fostered the kittens until shelter space became available. Saving so many young and innocent lives surely would have been worth the inconvenience if Cats Protection had cared anything at all about them.

Secondly, the Villers conned another £7,000 out of not only the residents of Ely but Americans, Thais, and Kiwis in order to retain the services of Sally Dunham of Soham, nine kilometer southeast of Ely, to sculpture a life-sized bronze statue of Garfield. Unveiled on October 14th of last year, it now sits, mounted on a plinth, and alongside a memorial bench in Ely Country Park, one-tenth of a mile southeast of Sainsbury's via Cresswells Lane. The engraving on the bench reads: "In loving memory of Garfy -- sit and relax for a moment with me."

"It's so overwhelming, just phenomenal," David Villers gushed to the BBC on October 16, 2023. (See "Bronze Memorial to Garfield the Ely Sainsbury's Cat.") "We started raising money for the memorial about a year ago, but I never thought we'd get there."

"We really hope people who loved Garfy will come along to the park sit and stroke his statue -- we're actually looking forward to seeing it worn a little from all the attention," Dunham, perhaps angling for another commission, told the BBC.

Since she had met him so many times at Sainsbury's while he was still alive, she easily could have saved his life if only she had acted. Instead, she bided her time until long after he had been violently killed so that she, like all the other vultures who swooped in and out of his life, could join the gold rush after his death.

Teddy Has Developed an Uncanny Affinity for Garfield's Bench

"I still miss the little fella, but the statue is amazing -- bittersweet because the memories come flooding back -- but wonderful to have a statue," Villers concluded to the BBC.

Three things need to be said about such outrageous hogwash. First of all, it strains all credulity that he could possibly still care about a cat that he abandoned to the streets a dozen years ago. Secondly, he could not possibly have very many cherished memories of a cat that he had not cared for and had only rarely laid eyes upon during the last seven years of his life.

Thirdly, he likely was sincere, however, in his praise of the statue. After all, it not only is enhancing his presence on Facebook but also bringing in the big bucks.

The limeys and the Scots (Irish) always have much preferred their cats to be dead and profitable as opposed to alive, healthy, safe, and at home where they had to take care of them and to be morally and legally responsible for their well-being and staying alive. For instance, Hamish McHamish's owner, former BBC producer Marianne Baird, and the citizens of St. Andrews inexcusably abandoned him to tough it out on his own in the cold and on the street for fourteen years without so much as a second thought as to either his needs or to what he wanted out of life.

Consequently, when he became ill in 2014 Baird had him killed off rather than treated. (See Cat Defender posts of June 20, 2014, October 18, 2014, and October 20, 2017 entitled, respectively, "St. Andrews Honors Hamish McHamish with a Bronze Statue but Does Not Have the Decency, Love, and Compassion in Order to Provide Him with a Warm, Secure, an Permanent Home," "Hamish McHamish's Derelict Owner Reenters His Life after Fourteen Years of Abject Neglect Only to Have Him Killed Off after He Contracts a Preeminently Treatable Common Cold," and "Beautiful and Noble Hamish McHamish Who Suffered Through Fourteen Years of Abject Neglect and Naked Exploitation Is Remembered as Cat of the Year for 2014.")

According to a December 3, 2023 posting on Garfield's Facebook page, the Villers are now raking in £350 apiece from their sale of miniature statues of the cat that they long ago abandoned. Individuals residing outside of England must also pony up an undisclosed amount in shipping and handling. Their take from these mementoes accordingly must make what they raked in from the book that he co-authored with Caruth and the bronze statue that now sits in Ely Country Park look like chicken feed.

Even more deplorably, the simply god-awful example that they have set not only by their abandonment and neglect of Garfield but their crass exploitation of his fame for monetary gain has found a copycat adherent in the person of Hihine Lor who has now placed the life of her three-year-old, ginger-colored tom, Teddy, in grave danger by deliberately grooming him to follow in their dead cat's pawprints. Specifically she has turned him loose in order to roam Sainsbury's deadly parking lot by his lonesome but it has not been disclosed if he is allowed inside the store. Actually, he would be far safer inside than outside.

Teddy Is Still Alive but Garfield Has Been Reduced to Bronze

"Teddy seems to love Sainsbury's and, like Garfield, he gets into customer's automobiles," she disclosed to the BBC on June 1st. (See "The Cat That Sits Quietly Near a Feline Memorial.")

Unlike the Villers, however, she does appear to be in possession of something remotely resembling a conscience, albeit a stunted, underdeveloped, and warped one. "It does worry me sometimes. He is a hunter and a wanderer," she continued to the BBC. "He has tags and a GPS so I can see where he is, and where he's been, but I've lost count of the times people have rung me to ask if I have lost my cat."

Also in marked distinction to the conduct of the Villers, she apparently still plays some minimally constructive role in Teddy's life. "I say no, I know exactly where he is -- but sometimes I do have to go and fetch him home," she quickly added to the BBC. 

First of all, knowing the occasional whereabouts of cat hardly qualifies as acceptable guardianship of it given that it only takes a split-second in order for either someone or some animal to kill it. Secondly, building an online presence clearly counts for considerably more with her than safeguarding Teddy's fragile life.

"This page is dedicated to Teddy, (a) little ginger cat that is getting well-known around the Ely area," she wrote in the introduction to his Facebook page, Teddy of Ely. At last check, the page has attracted three-hundred-eighty-two followers.

In addition to irresponsibly allowing Teddy to hang out in Sainsbury's dangerous parking lot where he has been photographed in front of passenger vehicles and delivery vans alike, she also is allowing him to roam the grounds of Ely Country Park where he now spends considerable time on the bench beside the bronze statue of Garfield.

Most astounding of all, Lor is the one who has put Teddy up to imitating Garfield. "I'd taken him there once to show him, then I took him home," she frankly admitted to the BBC. "But he kept going back and now he seems really comfortable there."

Minka on the Last Day of Her Life Before Daniella Gasda Had Her Killed Off

That admission raises the strong suspicion that she additionally is the one who introduced him to Sainsbury's parking lot by dumping him out there. She therefore is knowingly and intentionally playing Russian roulette with his life.

Being far too dishonest and mindlessly greedy, however, to admit such a thing, she is instead attempting to fob off on an equally callous public the absurd notion that Teddy's rambles are being motivated by something akin to either intuition or fate. "He could go anywhere but he's choosing these places, Sainsbury's and the park" she equivocated to the BBC. "It's almost as though the baton has been passed on. It's almost as if he knows."

Although cats often have been alleged to possess psychic powers, it is difficult to believe that Teddy could conceivably have any knowledge of a cat that was killed two years before he was even born. It is even more insane to think that he would have any psychic connection to either Sainsbury's deadly parking lot or to a bench and a statue in Ely Country Park.

The only connection that he has to both venues is Lor. Perhaps he is waiting for her to come and take him home with her and to be a proper guardian to him?

As if any additional evidence were needed as to what she is up to it can be found in the following revealing note that she posted August 3rd on Teddy's Facebook page:

"Teddy is out and about without his tracker for a week as we are away. Food will be left for him daily but I doubt he will come back. I think he will make the most of his freedom. Would love to see what he is up to whilst away so photos welcome if you spot him around." 

Considering the myriad of ailurophobes that there are in this world coupled with the seemingly endless number of calamities that have been known to befall them, leaving a cat alone for so much as a minute, even in a locked house or an apartment, is not totally without its risks, but to sashay out of town for a week while leaving a cat to roam constitutes the very epitome of irresponsible ownership as well as insanity. Nevertheless, that is precisely what fifty-four-year-old Daniella Gasda of Mühlgraben Street in the Volkstedt section of Rudolstedt in Thuringia also did with her two to four year old (press reports differ) tortoiseshell, Minka.

A Bronze Statue Is Hardly Any Substitute for a Live Garfield

When she finally returned home on September 27, 2020 she found her cowering in her basement covered in blood and with her rear paws cut off. Since she had been inexcusably left to roam while Gasda was away, she apparently had been abducted on the street, mutilated, and afterwards hurled into Gasda's cellar through a window.

Initially, Gasda had elected to have the attending veterinarian treat and bandage Minka's stumps but on October 11th she changed her mind and had her killed off. That was in spite of the fact that it would have been relatively simple and inexpensive for her to have had her fitted with a rear end support with wheels (a feline wheelchair) and with it she could have lived a long and relatively normal life.

Most importantly of all, Minka's eyes were bright and she certainly did not appear in photographs to have been in any pain. Cats are highly resilient animals who are fully capable of adjusting to just about any tragedy but they must first be given a chance in order to do so.

It is almost superfluous to add, however, that anyone who would go on vacation and leave her cat unprotected to roam the perilous streets was not about to care for her once she had become handicapped. As far as it is known, no arrest was ever made in this horrifying case; none ever is whenever the victim is a cat, no matter how despicable the crime. (See Thüringen-24 of Berlin, October 2, 2020, "Rudolstadt: Wer hat Minka das angetan? Katze erlebt abscheuliches Martyrium," the Osthüringer Zeitung, October 16, 2020, "Verstümmelte Katze gestorben: Rudostädterin sammelt Spenden, um Tierquäler zu ergreifen," the Wetterau Zeitung of Geißen, October 7, 2020, "Katze furchtbar verstümmelt: Polizei veröffentlicht Shock-Photo, das nicht nur Tierfreunde wütend macht," the Ostthüringer Zeitung, November 9, 2020, "Mysteriöser Katzen schwund in Rudolstadt-Schwarze," and Saalfeld Polizei press release of October 2, 2020, "Zeugen nach Verstümmeling einer Katze gesucht.")

Mercifully, nothing tragic happened to Teddy during the week that Lor was out of town and according to his Facebook page he was still alive and, apparently, in good health at last check on Tuesday, August 20th. In that same posting, Hihine revealed that he does sometimes come home in order to eat and sleep but she failed to disclose how often that occurs.

Since it is not known where in Ely she lives, it is impossible to speculate if she is endangering his life by allowing him to travel back and forth at all hours of the day between Sainsbury's and her house. As for the park itself, it poses all sorts of dangers for him with dogs and unspecified wildlife topping that list. Poisonous plants, kidnappers, and the machinations of ailurophobes are additional concerns.

Lor is right about one thing, however. The baton has indeed been passed but what she is totally unwilling to admit is that her cat is running in a relay of death where the only winner is destined to be the Grim Reaper.

Unless she has an epiphany and comes to her senses and immediately brings Teddy home and keeps him there, his days above ground are surely numbered. It therefore is not too early to begin a death watch for him.

Photos: the Cambridge News (Garfield on the floor and with a boy and two girls), the BBC (Garfield in front of an escalator and up-close), Dawn Sykes (Garfield on a sofa), Sally Dunham (memorial), Faye Moore (Teddy on the bench and beside Garfield's bust), and Daniella Gasda (Minka).