There have been threats to storm the hospital to grab him. It is difficult to know where to start in this updating story. You may remember Bart the cat who has been unkindly called “Zombie Cat” because he dug himself out of a grave where he had been placed after his owner, Hutson, thought he had been killed on the road. That is his story. There are doubts.
Mr Hutson has a neighbor whose name is Dusty Albritton. Dusty made a video which you can see below. In the video a voice says that when they found Bart on the road he was “moving and stuff”. This indicates he was alive when found. Dusty Albritton says that the woman who thought that Bart was moving was mistaken. She claims that the woman was in shock and made a bad judgement.
http://youtu.be/fpHzfQt12EY
The people who are now looking after him, Humane Society of Tampa Bay, say they will not return Bart to his owner after extensive treatment at their hospital.
They are not convinced of the veracity of Hutson’s account. They suspect foul play and cat abuse but have no firm evidence. There are suspicions that he might have been alive when he was buried, if he was buried at all.
The whole thing is highly confusing which is now being compounded by the fact that Dusty Albritton started a crowd funding page to raise cash for Bart’s medical expenses. She has raised over $7,000 thus far, which is far more than she had envisaged.
The money is not required for Bart’s medical expenses because the Humane Society hospital are able the fund medical treatment themselves through an emergency fund and donations.
As a result, Dusty has stated that she will return the money to those who donated and any money remaining will be given to charity including the Tampa Bay Veterinary Emergency Service. Will this happen when the dust has settled (pardon the pun).
In the meantime, it seems Bart is being attended to around-the-clock. He needs extensive medical care. He has regained his appetite and has even purred but we know a cat can purr for all sorts of reasons other than being content.
Bart is making progress but has some way to go. What is not making progress is the search for the truth. What exactly happened? Was Bart assaulted by his owner? We don’t know. Mr Hutson denies any wrongdoing and is demanding his cat back, when he is well. Indeed, there are calls from other people on the internet supporting him in his demand.
It actually goes further than that. As mentioned, there has been a phone call threat from an anonymous person or persons that people will be storming the Humane Society hospital to reclaim Bart for his owner. This has put the hospital on notice and they have been advised by the police to call them should the threat be carried out.
To add to the confusion, Bart not only has his celebrity name “Zombie Cat” but he also has a nickname which is Markie.
How will this saga end? Well, Hutson is going to have to go to court to obtain a court order to recover his cat because the Executive Director of the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, Sherry Silk, is determined to ensure Bart’s safety and she is not convinced that by returning him to his owner he will be safe. Accordingly, she declares that she is prepared to fight in the courts if needs be but she has stated that she may lose the court battle.
I believe that she is saying this because like everybody else we don’t know the truth behind the injuries suffered by this black-and-white random bred cat who’s lost his eye and his privacy.
Where there is abuse there are lies and there is fog. I am on the side of the Humane Society. They are asking that Hutson hands his cat over to them. Although he currently refuses, I believe he’ll comply in due course. Update: Hutson has sued for the return of his cat! He must be confident.
Why you think it is propaganda? When I read an article on the Examiner I don’t see propaganda. Perhaps I’m missing something?
Elisa, my experience tells me that the dog is more popular than the cat on the internet despite what people think and despite the “celebrity cats”. Do the Examiner admin discuss these things with you?
Susan, it is interesting you should say that the Examiner is dog-centric. I think the dog website is more popular than the cat website judging from my experience when researching. This is probably why admin at the Examiner focus on digs. I am just guessing. Even though the celebrity cat is outstanding, overall the dog is more popular.
I may write about cats more than any other Examiner. I’m not sure. Anyone who needs an article on getting a senior cat out of a shelter or raising donations for medical for a rescued cat needs to PM me. I don’t see when I’m mentioned in a comment. I’ve cut back some on my days off but still cover emergencies. I focus most on seniors. My problem is people aren’t sharing. Last month I barely made enough to cover my internet plan.
Thanks, Elisa. When I arrived at the page I found I had an invitation to like it … from you … and since I think you probably don’t know which Susan is posting here, you must have invited me the last time I was bitching about the Examiner dissing cats. So I apologize for not liking you earlier, but I like you now!
The readers are upset there’s not a cat Examiner category. It’s thrown in under pets. So I started a Facebook like page under Greenville Cat Examiner. I do articles about cats from all over the country. I’m not sure how many writers go as indepth at getting both sides of a story as I do. The #1 dog writer Penny Eims basically taught me to write more efficiently. I have a lot more people know me from Examiner but get better exposure on PoC.