I’m glad Prince Chunk found a home. But wait, the previous owner lost their home, so they just ... let their cat go? I mean, I guess they assumed he could live on his own body fat for a while (because they were idiots) but jeebus. That’s just rotten. If they couldn’t cart the cat around with them, the least they could do was to take it to a shelter. There are plenty of no-kill shelters in the area.

Further research yields this:

"It broke my heart to give him up,” Donna Oklatner told MyFOXPhilly.com. “I could not take care of him. I love him. It broke me heart. I wanted him to have a good home.”

She said she gave the cat to friends who said they’d bring the cat to a shelter, but Prince Chunk was found by Animal Control, the shelter said.

A few weeks ago we linked to a story about the effect of the housing and foreclosure crisis on pets but, yeah.  Basically people just leave there pets behind and figure, They’re animals, they can rough it out.

but Prince Chunk was found by Animal Control,

with no collar…

I guess the collar could have fallen off, but still.  I call bullshit on the friends story, it sounds like a cover up to make herself look better now that the story’s gotten international attention.

Yeah, I agree. I think she left the cat behind. I don’t know what goes through people’s heads.

I just found out more info from a coworker:

She apparently gave it to a friend to take in because she tried to take it to the shelter herself but the shelter said they only took in strays, not people’s unwanted pets. So she was going to have her friend say, “I found this cat in the street.”

Not sure if I buy that, or if I believe that was the only shelter.

Furthermore, of the 500 people who offered to adopt Prince Chunk, not one of the 499 who were rejected as his owners said, “yes” when they were later asked if they would consider adopting another cat besides Prince Chunk.

A friend of mine was moving and asked me to take his cat whom he’d found as a stray. It was an outdoor cat. I got it home, and put food out for it. However, when it heard my car start up the next morning, it took off, never to be seen again. :(

As Chunk appears to be an indoor cat, I doubt this was the case in his adventures.

my backyards full of stray cats, because my landlord feeds the fuckers every day. during feeding time there can be 15-20 cats out there, and it often leads me to wonder where they come from. some are clearlly ferals, but others look pretty well cared for.

i’m no fan of cats, but how do you just leave your pet behind??