University student abandons her young cat on a park bench on Christmas Eve

NEWS AND COMMENT: This is a peculiar story in one way in that the owner of a one-year-old black cat named Mila, said that she loved her cat. But in a note left with Mila who was abandoned in a carrier on a park bench, the woman, who is a university student, said that she had to go back to university and could somebody take her cat and love her as she did.

Image: RSPCA

You wonder whether a person who abandons their cat like this on a park bench genuinely loved their cat. Does it make sense to you? It doesn't to me because the woman jeopardised the life of her cat. She put her cat in harm's way. She could have taken Mila to the RSPCA or to any other animal shelter. Or better than that, she could have used her best efforts to find a new owner.

But it seems to me, and I don't want to be horribly critical, she has been lazy in deciding to carry her cat to the nearest park and dump the animal on a park bench with a note begging people to look after her cat. Not great as far as I am concerned. And the RSPCA would agree with me.

Mila - rescued. Image: RSPCA

There are other questions which this story asks the reader. The woman in question says that she is returning to university. This tells us that she is already at university. It also means that she adopted a cat while she was at university knowing that she could not look after the cat when she was in a students' residence at the university. If that's correct and it looks like it is she should not have adopted the cat in the first place.

You don't adopt a companion animal of any sort unless you know with as much certainty as you can that you will have the means both in terms of time and funding to look after that animal for the remainder of their life. That's the ideal. Certainly things can intervene to upset that objective but at least you must start with that firm objective and do your best to stick to it. Yes, I'm being dogmatic perhaps and perhaps I am lecturing but I think this woman needs a bit of a lecture without, as I say, being overly critical.

She did abandon her cat which arguably is a crime in the UK. It is an act, arguably, of animal cruelty or abuse. The cat was rescued fortunately but what if the cat hadn't been rescued? What if the cat had been attacked by a dog inside her carrier? What if some idiotic person had found the cat and abused her. There are many possibilities.

Apparently the RSPCA are investigating the abandonment. That tells us that they see that it as at least potentially a crime under the Animal Welfare Act 2006. Animal abandonment per se is animal cruelty. It depends on how it pans out as to whether it is an actually act of cruelty.

Lee Ricketts, an RSPCA investigating animal rescue officer said that Mila was "very likely to be found when she was. It was getting dark and it was unlikely that there would be much footfall in the park for the rest of the evening or on Christmas Day. She could have been attacked by a dog or a fox and the cold weather could have been really dangerous as well as having no food or water in the carrier. She was taken to Finsbury Park animal Hospital for a check up and is now at an RSPCA branch."

Woman watched her neighbor abandon their cat and then gave him a new life until he passed

Rolo being abandoned. Screenshot.

The first part of this story is all in the video which I found charming of course. What I really love about this video is this charming woman talking about the cat opposite, over the road who was abandoned by their owner. The cat's name is Rolo. He's quite masculine looking with quite a square face which indicates to me that he was neutered after puberty, relatively late in life. 

He's got that masculine appearance which I like in male cats. Sadly, a lot of male cats have a slightly feminised appearance because of neutering before puberty but that's a personal viewpoint and a different topic.

This woman observed Rolo over the road and saw the moment that he was abandoned, as her neighbours drove away in their car. His former owner even petted Rolo on the head before she disappeared into the sunset never to be seen again. Rolo waited patiently outside the home. He appears to have been and remained a mainly outdoor cat.

His owners never returned and the kindness in the woman who tells the story, was kindled by seeing Rolo alone and abandoned. Like a lot of good people she had to do something which was to firstly gain his trust by feeding him and then gain his trust some more by playing with him and then eventually adopting him, bringing him into her family. 

A family that was going to be better at caregiving than the previous one. She lives with a nice man as well who is good at making toys and is sensitive to her desire to help this cat. It was a good ending.

Rolo landed on his feet and was in a better home; all thanks to her, this charming whose name, I just discovered (at the end of the video) is Maria Montes. And I have searched out her social media channel: TikTok mariamontes862.

Second part of the story

Having found Maria's TikTok channel, I then discovered some shocking news; Rolo had passed away. He must have been fairly elderly when she rescued him from her neighbour's abandonment. I don't know how many years Rolo lived with Maria and her husband but it probably wasn't that long, certainly not a full life. But a great life with her and her husband. She is a cat lover and a gentle, kind woman. The world needs more of them.

"Thank you for the life you’ve given him. You’re an amazing person for helping him live the best life possible. Fly high sweet boy 💕💕💕" - Koda a commenter on the above video.

"Thank you so much!! And thank you for loving our sweet baby rolo ♥️♥️" - Maria

In the world of cats there are two main categories of human

I'm simplifying things but it is true. In the cat world - the domestic cat world to be more accurate - you can divide humans into two groups or categories.

1. Those that don't see sentience in the domestic cat and have the potential for cruelty towards their cat; not blatant or obvious cruelty but sometimes insidious slow-motion cruelty.
2. Those that are sensitive or very sensitive to the fact that the domestic cat is a sentient being with the capacity to feel pain and to suffer. These people pick up the pieces left by the other group. To put it another way they rescue cats and the other group throw them away.

Here is a story told by a woman which illustrates the categorisation:

She says that a cat "tried to come into my house at the end of June of this year while we were in the middle of a heat wave in WA". So, this is the US and it must have been damnably hot. The pic below is of the tabby cat concerned before and after rescue.

Rescued cat adopted so respectfully and with kindness. Image: Kitten LaRue (Quora.com).

I have just written an article about whether feral cats come into homes. Well, this story answers the question. They do if they are strays and not true ferals. This tired, old cat had been dumped by their owner because - I guess - they were old and tired and also sick. 

The woman: "discovered the cat was very old, she has been declawed, so there was no way for her to catch any food for herself. The cat was horribly dehydrated, had 104 temperature, she was skin and bones and yet she was so sweet and loving!"

She took the cat to a vet immediately. She was x-rayed and found to have bad arthritis in her back. This may have come about due in part to being outside for a long time. She had survived despite being declawed.

The first category I mention above declaw cats while the second category do not. A profound difference in attitude.

The woman concluded her story with these words:

"Poor kitty could barely walk! So, this is quite a success story, I named her Ladybug and she is so much happier now! You can tell she feels like someone’s pet again. She loves to cuddle and gives back so much love, she didn’t deserve to be abandoned and left for dead."

You'll agree that far too many people throw away their cat companion when it is convenient to do so; when the cat becomes a bother or a nuisance. When they get ill because they are old. This is not treating cats as sentience creatures but as 'objects' to possess to decorate the home.

Singaporeans conspired to abandon 16 cats on the street

NEWS AND VIEWS: Nur Hajjar Osman, a 35-year-old woman, was no longer able to care for her 16 cats. She decided to get rid of them by simply abandoning them on the street. She conspired to do this with what appears to be a friend whose name is Muhammad Haidhar Zulkifli, aged 33.

 Singaporeans conspired to abandon 16 cats on the street. One of the captured cats.
Photo: Sayang Our Singapore's Community Cats/Facebook

On 28 February 2019 Nur Hajjar Osman asked Muhammad Haidhar Zulkifli to get rid of the cats. On 1 March 2019 he arrived at her flat in Punggol and they brought the 16 cats down in five cages. They loaded them onto a lorry which he had borrowed. They drove around and decided to release the cats in the vicinity of 222A Sumang Lane at around 3 AM.

Members of the public noticed what was going on and apparently reported it. The cats were found and rescued. They were successfully prosecuted and Nur Hajjar Osman was fined $4000 on 10th March. Muhammad Haidhar Zulkifli was also fined $4000. They were told by the judge that they had shown a "totally unacceptable disregard" of their duty towards the animals. They were reminded that "pets are for life".

Muhammad Haidhar Zulkifli couldn't or wouldn't pay the fine and decided to take his punishment in jail. He was sentenced to a 10 day jail term. Although the maximum sentence for abandoning a companion animal in Singapore is up to a year in jail and a fine of USD10,000 or both on a first offence.

Source: Yahoo News Singapore.