The Washington Post recounts how a man was living in a car with 50–yes that’s right, 50–cats, and they were rescued from the car when it was left closed and overheated. One of the cats, named “Hercules”, was at death’s door, but they brought him back to become a model for Target’s store-brand kitty litter.
Click below to read, or go here to find the story archived for free.
The scene was heartbreaking: Nearly 50 cats were crammed into a hot car at a rest stop near Minnesota’s Twin Cities.
The cats were piled from floor to ceiling inside an SUV, and police soon learned that their owner had been living inside the car with them.
The owner agreed to surrender the cats to area animal shelters, but during the rescue, one of the cats escaped. Hercules, a gray and white feline, scampered off that sweltering day in June 2022, said Nicole Perreault, a veterinarian who runs Tuff Start Rescue, a Minnesota foster and adoption nonprofit.
Be sure to look at the photos of the cats in the car. It’s is indeed heartbreaking. But wait! There’s more:
Animal rescue volunteers searched for the cat for a month, she said, until Hercules was finally spotted sitting on someone’s doorstepin the area. His jaw was fractured, he was covered with maggots and his tongue was severely damaged, Perreault said.
The person who found Hercules outside brought the cat to the veterinary clinic.
Perreault said she suspected the cat was Hercules and contacted his previous owner, who confirmed it.
“This gentleman said he had fallen on hard times and had been evicted so he was staying in his car with all of his cats,” she said. “He was very polite, and it seemed he loved them very much. He was happy to know that Hercules had been found and was getting a lot of love.”
“We suspected he might have been hit by a car,” Perreault said of Hercules. “He was so near death that I wondered if it would be more humane to euthanize him.”
But then Hercules lifted his head and looked right at Perreault.
“I got the impression that he really wanted to fight,” she said.
Perreault and her team fed Hercules and cleaned him up, then gave him fluids through an IV and put him on pain medication. When the 6-year-old feline was strong enough, Perreault took him to an animal oral surgeon to have his jaw repaired.
Here are pictures of Hercules on Perreault’s FB page taken right when he showed up. He looks really awful! (You can donate there to help him, though he’s pretty good now):
Perreault said she posted a few photos of Hercules on her Facebook page to let people know the cat had been found and was gradually healing.
“He ripped my heart out when I saw him,” she wrote. “… I decided we owed it to him to give him every chance to recover from this horrible ordeal, so that hopefully he can experience the love and TLC that awaits.”
Jill LeBrun, a pediatric nurse from St. Paul who has fostered dogs and cats for Perreault’s rescue over the years, was immediately interested.
Last fall, LeBrun said, she was scrolling on social media when she came across a post from the Animal Connection, a pet talent agency in search of cats with unusual faces. It was scouting pet models for Target, which is based in Minneapolis.
LeBrun said the agency loved the photo she sent of Hercules with his tongue hanging out. She was asked to bring her cat to a studio for a photo shoot so his personality and star appeal could be assessed.
“Hercules did great — he’s a friendly cat and everybody loved him,” LeBrun said, noting that she was paid $100 to participate. “They told me his picture would appear on something for Target in early 2024.”
. . .In mid-March, when LeBrun still hadn’t heard back, she made a trip to her local Target and walked down the pet aisle.
When she came to a display of store-brand cat litter, she was stunned and delighted to see her cat’s image — with his dangling pink tongue — on every bucket of Up & Up Fragrance Free Clumping Cat Litter on the shelf.
And here’s a video about Hercules showing starring on the cat litter:
And there’s still more:
LeBrun said Hercules was recently called in for a second Target photo shoot, which means he’ll probably be appearing on other merchandise in a few months. The TV station Kare 11 recently reported on the cat’s sudden fame as a model.
Do watch the update on Hercules at KARE.
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Bored Panda has a collection of 50 pets at the vet’s, and I’ll show just a few cat pictures with the credits:
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Here’s a still-active bill in Pennsylvania, sponsored by Carolyn Comitta (a good-hearted Democrat, of course) that bans the cruel declawing of cats. You can click to read the bill, or read a more recent update from the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF):
I join the ALDF in supporting the bill. Their summary:
The Animal Legal Defense Fund supports this bill.
Sponsor: House Bill lead sponsor Rep Liz Hanbidge (D-61) and Senate Bill lead sponsor Sen Carolyn Comitta (D-19)
Introduction Dates:
House Bill: March 17, 2023
Senate Bill: April 22, 2024This bill, H.B. 508/ S.B. 1178, would prohibit the declawing of cats unless the procedure is medically necessary for a therapeutic purpose and performed by a licensed veterinarian. Under this measure, declawing for cosmetic or aesthetic reasons, as well as for reasons of human convenience, would be strictly prohibited.
Declawing is an invasive surgical procedure in which the last bone of each toe is amputated, similar to severing a human finger at the last knuckle. The procedure is commonly performed for human convenience — often to protect furniture — rather than for the cat’s well-being. Declawing causes significant post-surgical pain and leads to a cat’s inability to scratch, eliminating a critical natural behavior. This can cause lifelong physical problems and lead to behavioral issues, such as biting and aggression, which the cat may resort to because they have been stripped of their primary defense mechanism.
Similar legislation has been enacted in three U.S. states — New York, Maryland, and Virginia — as well as numerous large cities that have jurisdictional bans such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Madison, West Hollywood, Austin, Denver, Beverly Hills, and Berkeley. In Pennsylvania, communities such as Allentown, Easton, Etna, and Pittsburgh have successfully passed local laws to prohibit declaw procedures.
There’s no down side to this bill that I can see. Saving a sofa (if no other scratching posts work) is less important than saving your cat’s feet and their ability to defend themselves.
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Lagniappe: I can’t remember where I got this–probably on Facebook.
h/t: Divy, Barry, Ginger K.
Great post! I love the “Have you seen this cat?” notice at the end (and the rest as well).
Yay for the return of Caturday! That poster is SO funny. I’m sure there are people wondering why the owners don’t simply keep their portly cat indoors–we’ve discussed the indoor/outdoor dilemma here before–but some cats truly can’t/won’t be kept indoors. They literally go nuts when confined. I’ve always wanted to have an enclosed patio and may do that here if I ever decide to bring my dog a cat.
Hooray for Hercules. Only $100? No royalties? Great rescue story, though.
Hold out at least for a lifetime supply of kitty litter?
Where’s my collection of UNICODE cat emojis – I think there’s a tongue-out kitteh …
Maybe not. Let’s see how they render. Been a while since I looked through this lot.
😸 or in hex 1F638 ; GRINNING CAT FACE WITH SMILING EYES ;
😹 or in hex 1F639 ; CAT FACE WITH TEARS OF JOY ;
😺 or in hex 1F63A ; SMILING CAT FACE WITH OPEN MOUTH ;
😻 or in hex 1F63B ; SMILING CAT FACE WITH HEART-SHAPED EYES ;
😼 or in hex 1F63c ; CAT FACE WITH WRY SMILE ;
😽 or in hex 1F63d ; KISSING CAT FACE WITH CLOSED EYES ;
😾 or in hex 1F63e ; POUTING CAT FACE ;
😿 or in hex 1F63f ; CRYING CAT FACE ;
🙀 or in hex 1F640 ; WEARY CAT FACE ;
No sticky-out tongue cat? Oh well, faulty memory.
Check a few more references.
WTF is a “Nazar Amulet” �x1F9FF; ? “Evil Eye” or “surveillance” – verily, a symbol for modern times.
Well, that was a wasted trip into the inner depths of character standards, but this might be useful for one of the running themes here :
1FAC3 🫃 PREGNANT MAN ;
1FAC4 🫄 PREGNANT PERSON ;
1F930 🤰 pregnant woman ;
(if your browser, and WordPress, has caught up with the 2023 edition of Unicode). Try also the full codes : �x1fac3; ; �x1fac4; and �x1f930; .
Love the Caturday pix!
All good stories! Hercules certainly has an amazing story to tell—I’m glad he ended up in such a good situation.
A wonderful collection for Caturday–and I’m SO glad it is back, as I missed it last week (I know why it was missing–for a good cause–but I still missed it!).
I’m so happy for Hercules. I hope he is getting love and comfort and doesn’t have to deal with paparazzi too often.
It’s a heartbreaking story. I hope the other cats have found stable loving homes as well. And while we’re at it, I hope somebody is helping the human.
I love Caturday!