AMERICA:JACK THE Cat seized the collective imagination in the US. Now he has united thousands of Americans in grief.
It started last August 25th, when Karen Pascoe (42) checked in for an American Airlines flight from New York to San Francisco with her pet cats, Jack and Barry. Pascoe was moving to San Jose, where she had found a job with a software company.
Just before boarding, Pascoe received a call on her mobile phone. Jack and Barry’s carriers had been stacked one on top of the other in the baggage section. When Jack’s cage fell over, it unlocked and Jack escaped, a memo from the Department of Transportation explained later.
Hurricane Irene was barrelling towards the eastern seaboard. Parts of New York were being evacuated. The airport was to be shut down. Attempts to find Jack were delayed by several days.
The Facebook page started by Pascoe’s sister, called “Jack the Cat is Lost in AA Baggage at JFK”, would eventually have 23,000 friends.
American Airlines tried to mitigate bad publicity over its failure to find Jack. The airline flew Pascoe across the country repeatedly to aid in the search, issued a “pet Amber Alert”, hired a “pet search-and-rescue specialist,” employed a scent-tracking dog and monitored food and water dishes placed in the area where Jack disappeared.
Jack, a five-year-old marmalade-coloured Norwegian forest cat with copper eyes, was missing for 61 days. Out in San Jose, Pascoe adopted another cat to keep Barry company.
Then, on October 25th, Jack fell through the ceiling of the customs area in Terminal Eight. The airline heaved a sign of relief. Pascoe wept for joy. Jack’s supporters flooded the animal hospital where he was taken in a pet ambulance with cards, toys and blankets.
But the happy ending was short-lived. Jack was euthanised this week. He was severely malnourished and dehydrated, explained the notice on his Facebook page. His skin was so thin, it tore like paper.
Antibiotics couldn’t cure his infections, and vets could not operate because the cat did not have enough skin to close the wounds. They likened Jack’s condition to having burns over 50-60 per cent of his body. No possible treatment gave Jack much chance of survival and he was suffering.
American Airlines said it would pay Jack’s veterinary bills and proffered “sincere apologies to Karen and Jack’s family and friends”. The Facebook page said Jack had “gone over the rainbow bridge”.
It is only a matter of time before Jack the Cat is immortalised in song or verse, like Laika, the Moscow stray terrier who perished in the Sputnik satellite 54 years ago this month, a pawn of the Cold War.
"Two Sputniks in the skies had everybody hypnotised/Now I am very sorry for the poor little puppy in the Russian satellite,"sang Mighty Sparrow, the Trinidadian "Calypso king of the world". If you don't know this sad and funny song, watch it on You Tube. You'll see heart-rending photos of Laika, which means "barker".
I think of Laika every time President Obama says that now is America’s “Sputnik moment”, as he pleads for money for education and research, so China won’t overtake the US.
The Americans nicknamed Laika “Muttnik” and accused the Soviets of cruelty to animals. The satellite was never intended to return to earth in one piece, and the Soviets claimed they had pre-programmed a poisoned food portion so Laika would not suffer.
Knowing Laika would die, one scientist took her home to play with his children before the launch. After the fall of the Soviet Union, another scientist said the knowledge gained from putting Laika in orbit did not justify her death, that he felt more and more remorse as time passed.
In a more recent animal tragedy, 47 exotic animals were killed by sheriff’s deputies in Muskingum County, Ohio, last month, after their owner cut open their cages before taking his own life.
The dead creatures included 18 Bengal tigers, an endangered species of which there are fewer than 3,000 left in the world. Nine male lions, eight lionesses, three mountain lions, six black bears, two grizzly bears, two wolves and a baboon also perished.
Sheriff Matt Lutz called the slaughter “terrible . . . senseless . . . crazy”, but said he had no choice because it was getting dark and the beasts were endangering humans in the surrounding area. Tranquilliser darts were not part of his arsenal.
Deputies began killing the animals with revolvers. But after several deputies were charged by big cats and bears, the men cornered the animals, then gunned them down with high-powered rifles from the beds of pick-up trucks.
Terry and Marian Thompson had started their menagerie on 73 acres of land in eastern Ohio 14 years ago, when he bought a lion cub named Simba for her as a birthday present.
The couple had separated, and owed $56,000 in back taxes and fines.
Marian Thompson arrived on the scene as the massacre was under way. “Please don’t take my babies,” was her futile plea to the sheriff’s deputies.
