Cat wanted by two families causes online firestorm
Nov. 24—He is a cat of many names.
Zeus was the name his first owners gave him. Big Grey was the name given to him at the animal shelter where he ended up in late October.
And now presumably he has a third, unknown name, given to him by new owners after they adopted him from the Blue Earth Nicollet County Humane Society, not knowing upon adoption that Zeus's original owners wanted him back.
It was Oct. 30 when Sarah Halbmaier discovered her cat Zeus, who she describes as an escape artist, had been brought to BENCHS after he got out between her legs a few days earlier and ran up a neighbor's tree. Relieved that he had been found and brought into BENCHS, Halbmaier went to the shelter to retrieve Zeus, only to be told she couldn't take him home.
"It was devastating," she said. "My 14-year-old was really devastated and said that Zeus was his buddy. He had grown attached to Zeus. He's a very friendly cat. I felt defeated."
"Our hearts are in the right place," said Kristin Dauk, secretary for the BENCHS board of directors and spokesperson for the agency. "We want pets to be reunited with their families. That's part of our mission, that's the goal. We aren't in it for the money."
But Halbmaier said money is precisely what the situation came down to. When she visited the rescue facility on Oct. 30 to claim Zeus, she said she was told she owed an impound and chip fee of $188. Halbmaier said she couldn't afford that and "an intense discussion" ensued, Dauk recounted.
"It went sour fast," Dauk said, and added the chip fee was optional for Halbmaier to pay but the impound fee was set at more than $150.
The women also disagree on what happened next. Halbmaier said she had paperwork and photos proving Zeus was hers and the only point of disagreement with BENCHS staff was about how much Halbmaier had to pay to get Zeus back. Dauk said Halbmaier's proof wasn't sufficient.
Halbmaier's vet records had her aunt's name on them, but Halbmaier said she offered to bring her aunt into BENCHS with her to confirm Halbmaier was the rightful owner of Zeus. Halbmaier also contends the BENCHS staff told her that if she couldn't come up with the $188 fee, Zeus would be put up for adoption shortly thereafter when his stray hold was up.
Dauk said no manager was on duty when Halbmaier came in on Oct. 30 but according to reports, that an "intense discussion" ensued about the fee for Halbmaier to get Zeus back. Halbmaier contends a ransom was put on her cat's head at "kitty jail."
Dauk also said the photos Halbmaier showed had no people in them, only the cat, so BENCHS staff was unable to confirm that Zeus or Big Grey was in fact Halbmaier's. Halbmaier reports that she showed pictures of Zeus with her family members in them, including her baby.
Halbmaier left and decided she would wait for Zeus to be listed for adoption by BENCHS, knowing that was cheaper than paying the impound and chip fee. She planned to have a friend adopt him for her on that day. But on Nov. 4 when she returned for him with her friend, she discovered he'd already been placed with another family and was no longer available for her to adopt.
Dauk said she was present on Nov. 4, and she remembers a woman she now knows to be Halbmaier asking about Big Grey. Halbmaier didn't identify herself as his original owner, Dauk said and Halbmaier agrees, and if she had, the entire Zeus saga could've been avoided.
There Halbmaier disagrees. She said BENCHS representatives have told her that once adoption paperwork was completed, there was nothing they could do to get her her cat back.
Dauk was in the dark about the turn of events until about Nov. 9 or Nov. 10, which is when a friend of hers alerted her to a Nov. 8 Facebook post Halbmaier had made about her cat being adopted by someone else.
"I spent that evening trying to piece together what was happening," Dauk said. "I talked to staff, volunteers and looked through records to see what had transpired."
Halbmaier's Facebook post, meanwhile, went viral, drawing 599 shares and 739 comments. Halbmaier said the majority of the commentary has been supportive of her.
Dauk, however, said BENCHS has communicated about the Zeus debacle to its supporters, and most of that commentary has been supportive of the animal rescue agency.
Dauk said BENCHS also lost thousands of dollars in support on Give to the Max Day earlier this month, when the facility was poised to raise $75,000 but only raised $58,000. Dauk attributes the shortfall to the damaged reputation of BENCHS after Halbmaier made her social media post.
Regardless of who did what when, or who was harmed, the end story is that Zeus remains with his new family. They declined to return him when BENCHS called to ask on behalf of Halbmaier, with the new owners saying they had had enough time to grow attached to the cat.
"My family loves and misses our cat very much," Halbmaier posted on Facebook during the firestorm that took over the online world. "We have been wronged, the people that adopted Zeus have been wronged, and most of all my cat Zeus has been wronged!"
Dauk said BENCHS staff and volunteers are accustomed to being unpopular at times, but the Zeus situation has reached new heights of online venom directed at the agency.
"My take on it is that both sides have ownership in what happened," Dauk said. "It was terrible and everyone at the shelter feels just horrible about the whole thing."
She said several policies and procedures have been changed at BENCHS to make sure this bad experience never repeats. And one key move the agency is making is to hire an executive director who, if on board at the time, could've prevented the debacle from occurring, Dauk said.
BENCHS offered both Halbmaier and the new cat owners a replacement cat at no fee, but both parties say they only want Zeus as their pet. Halbmaier said she can envision Zeus escaping his new owners' home, and finding his way back to her home.
"Maybe he'll just come home," she said. "It's sad. His water bowl and food dish are out and his toys are around the house. It's lonely and devastating."
