News Briefs for the Week of September 30, 2002
By Marcella Durand for Cat Facts
- Couple Sues Airline Over Lost Cat
Here's a court case that proves cats can be worth millions to their owners. These
owners, Andrew Wysotski and Lori Learmont, are suing Air Canada for $5 million for
losing their 15-year-old tabby cat, named Fu, on a flight from Canada to San Francisco.
According to court documents, before the fateful flight, the couple spoke to Air Canada
representatives about safety procedures for transporting Fu and their four other cats,
and were assured the kitties would be handled carefully and hand-carried on and off the
aircraft.
However, their claim states that, upon landing in San Francisco, Fu's crate had a large
hole in a corner, the front door was broken and open, and Fu was gone. A crate for one
of the other cats was missing 10 of its 12 rivets, but the cat was still inside. In a third
crate, litter was scattered and the water bowl was upside down. In addition, the
documents say Learmont was allowed only seven minutes to search the area where she
thought the crate had been dropped, while Wysotski had to wait an hour before being
allowed to search for 20 minutes.
The couple has tried flyers, sniffer dogs, humane traps and even a psychic, but Fu's
whereabouts, tragically, remain a mystery.
- First All Cat Auction in U.S.
Going once, going twice, gone! The fur flew as feline art objects of all types were
snapped up at the All Cat Auction at the Boston gallery of Skinner auctioneers and fine
arts appraisers on September 20th. It was, according to Skinner, the "first-ever All Cat
auction" to be held in the United States. Says the gallery, "Skinner's Cat Auction is
perhaps the greatest tribute to the cat as a muse for artists, artisans and art lovers that
the auction market has ever seen."
The auction featured 200 lots of paintings, sculpture, furniture and textiles featuring
feline subjects, and included a giant painting, six feet by eight and a half feet, titled My
Wife's Lovers, by Carl Kahler. The painting was commissioned in 1891 by Kate Birdsall
Johnson, a cat fancier and arts patron who herself owned some 50 Angora and Persian
cats, and features 42 cats of different breeds. Check out the catalog online at
www.skinnerinc.com for some views of the fetching felines, but be warned—these are
paintings of cats, not paintings by cats.
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