WESTCOAST NEWS
Cat came back, after island-wide search
Saltspring residents, RCMP monitor ferries after community cat disappears from theatre

Nicholas Read
Vancouver Sun

Thursday, August 04, 2005
SALTSPRING ISLAND - On Saltspring, people talked of little else for 24 hours. Fritz, their beloved cinema cat, was gone, snatched by a stranger who decided he would be better off living somewhere else.

And if it took the RCMP, the SPCA, and a whole army of determined volunteers to get Fritz back into his custom-built cathouse in front of the Central Cinema, so be it. After all, Fritz was an institution, and on Saltspring Island, they take their institutions seriously.

It all started on Sunday evening when Michael Levy, the cinema's projectionist, arrived for his shift to discover that Fritz, a long-haired white cat with brown spots who had been living in and out of the cinema for the past five years, was gone -- abducted by a strange woman who, according to a witness, had placed him in a cat carrier and driven off with him to parts unknown.

"We were both flabbergasted," Levy said of himself and another cinema employee who arrived at the theatre with him. "I used some pretty colourful language to describe that lady."

Then they sprang into action.

They announced his disappearance to that night's cinema crowd, which reacted with horror. They called the local SPCA, the RCMP, which sent two squad cars to investigate the crime scene, and the chamber of commerce, which immediately blanketed local business owners with e-mails asking them to be on the lookout.

It wasn't long before the whole island was on alert. People phoned. People searched. People threatened.

"Some people were ready to draw blood," Levy said.

Fritz became an island icon after showing up five years ago at the door of the Central Cinema, an old church that doubles as a community hall midway between the main town of Ganges and the village of Vesuvius, and making himself at home.

He greeted visitors to the cinema and sat on their laps during screenings. He exercised with the local Tai Chi society. He accompanied voters to their booths on voting day. He liked to sit on top of a phone box outside the cinema and survey the scene like a lion.

A couple of years ago, Levy's brother, Geoff, built Fritz his own cathouse, complete with inch-thick insulation, a retractable roof, two picture windows, a sheepskin rug for the floor, and a deck.

His nominal guardian, Cathie Newman, fed him each day, and arranged for his shots and flea treatments.

Nothing was too good for Fritz.

So with his disappearance creating an island furore, the focus turned Monday morning to Saltspring's three ferry terminals, to make sure his abductor didn't leave the island with him.

The police, who had threatened to charge the woman with theft under $5,000 if she were caught, Newman, and various ferry officials were stationed at the ferry terminals checking for a red subcompact fitting the description of Fritz's kidnapper's car.

Then, just as the cat dragnet was about to go into overdrive, a miracle. Fritz was back. The woman, who obviously had heard about the stir her little caper had caused, decided discretion was the better part of valour and returned him, unwitnessed, to his place of residence at about 8:30 a.m.
The island's reaction? "Rejoicing and jubilation," said Levy.

"It could only be on Saltspring Island that the tale of a stolen cat could cause such an uproar," said Levy's father, David.

And the kicker to the tale? The woman was an avowed cat rescuer. Donna Arola-Guler of the Richmond Animal Protection Society came clean about her intentions to the weekly Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper, which ran the story on its Wednesday front page, to say that despite everything, she still believes Fritz would be better off with her.

Calls made to the Richmond Animal Protection Society by The Vancouver Sun weren't returned, but Arola-Guler told the Driftwood that the traffic corner where Fritz lives is dangerous, and "he's going to go running out there one day and meet his end. This is not a cute story, believe me."

No it isn't, agrees Levy.

"I think we would have gone pretty far to get him back," he said Wednesday. "This woman is lucky that some people didn't meet up with her. They were ready to tear a few shreds off her."

nread@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2005