REDWOOD CITY, CALIFORNIA, USA — NEWS AND COMMENT: Olaf, a male tabby kitten barely a month-old, living in a cage at a shelter, Whis-Purr Rescue Inc., with his mother and sister was stolen by an unknown person sometime on May 14. The Redwood City shelter was closed at the time but there was access to it through a hallway shared with Peninsula Feed Store. The address is 346 El Camino Real.
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The founder and manager of the shelter, Lucy Brock, believes that the thief is a man who came into the shelter on May 8 while a handyman was installing some cameras. The person looked around at a camera and at Olaf’s pen. This raised suspicions.
As I say in the title, this hurts three times because (1) Olaf is missing his family. He is not weaned and has been torn from his mother and (2) his mother is missing her kitten and is distressed and (3) Olaf’s sister is missing her brother and (4) the shelter staff are upset for obvious reasons and have offered a $2,000 reward for Olaf’s return. They feel that that will do the trick because this is a casual theft and $2,000 will buy you a high-quality purebred cat from a breeder.
Brock has reported the theft to the local police. Unfortunately, the cameras that were installed were not pointed at the area concerned. Brock is obviously worried that the person who stole the kitten does not know how to take care of such a young cat. It certainly does take some skill and knowledge to do it properly. Olaf is at risk of dying. And being weaned too early may leave him with behavioural problems going forward e.g. wool sucking.
Brock said that she keeps the cages covered where Olaf was kept so that people aren’t able to see the nursing kittens. Brock thinks that Olaf might be a Maine Coon but I would doubt that. She would know about it if that was a suspicion. He looks like a charming little brown tabby random-bred kitten who very much deserves to be back with his family. The thief committed a cruel act and this is more than just a simple theft of an “item” because this is a sentient being.
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