Garfield, a ginger-and-white tabby, who spent a lot of his time in a Sainsbury’s supermarket in Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK, and who was a social media celebrity with a good Facebook following, has been killed in a car accident.
Garfield was 12-years-of-age and had become a very familiar sight at Sainsbury’s (for international people Sainsbury’s is a large food chain in the UK). The store, apparently, had been built on his home range and therefore he stayed after it was completed. He was simply using his home range as before.
The news of his death was made known to the public on his Facebook page which has 6,300 followers.
His owner, David Willers, said:
“Garfield brought joy to all our lives and is memory and his legacy lives on.”
Garfield was hit by a car in the supermarket car park. He was taken to a veterinarian but died of his injuries.
“He was hit by a car in Sainsbury’s’s car park earlier this afternoon and was rushed to the vet but they were unable to save him. Give your own cat an extra cuddle tonight and remember Garfy with love.”
More than 1,100 messages of condolence have been left on his Facebook page. Garfield was known as ‘Mr Sainsbury’s’ after he first visited the store when it was built in 2012. He lived in a flat opposite the meadow where the supermarket was built. No doubt he had used the field a lot before the building was completed.
He regularly made the trip to the store and became popular with customers and staff.
There appears to be a red sofa inside the supermarket where Garfield spent a lot of his time (see picture above). Many customers spend time with him and were friends with him. They feel privileged to have met him. He no doubt brightened up the supermarket and it is pleasing to know that the management appreciated his presence. Not all shops would have.
On a more serious note, it has to be said that it is not surprising that he was killed in a car accident in the car park (‘parking lot’ in America). Lots of vehicles travel around these very large car parks which must have put him under considerable danger for very long time. An accident was forseable sadly.
