Have You Seen My Cat? Have You Seen My Bat?

A man who lost his cat found it at a nearby animal shelter.  When he heard about how much it would cost to get the kitty out of the cage, he took matters into his own hands.

From the AP here:

‘That’s my cat!’ says man with bat

Police are looking for an irate pet lover so intent on liberating his lost cat that he wielded a bat to fend off animal shelter employees.

Dallas Animal Shelter manager Kent Robertson says the man found his missing gray and blue short-haired cat at the shelter, where it had been brought by someone who thought it was a stray.

He blew his stack when told he had to pay a $132 fee to take his cat.

Police say the man returned Monday, loaded his cat into a carrier without paying the fee, and threatened the staff with the baseball bat. No one was injured.

I think we got the Eric Carle book above as a gift for our kid and it is one of his favorites, even though it drives you crazy as a parent to have to read its repetitive theme over and over again.  A character in the story is asking people all over the world if they have seen his cat.  Page after page says “Have you seen my cat?  This is not my cat!”  And it shows different cat types from around the world painted in Carle’s distinctive watercolor style.  And the end, the character finally finds his cat, and he declares triumphantly, “This is my cat!”

So when I read this story, I immediately thought of the Carle book and could imagine this pet owner asking everyone he met, “Have you seen my cat?  This is not my cat.  Have you seen my cat?  This is not my cat.”  Finally, he finds the right animal shelter.  “This is my cat!  What do you mean I can’t have him back?  Have you seen my bat?”