Posted on 04/12/2012 10:53:48 PM PDT by Huntress
CHICAGO (CBS) — You’ve heard curiosity killed the cat. In this case, curiosity actually saved one.
As CBS 2′s Jim Williams reports, Boots was about to be put down, but an alert bank official worked to block the execution, going against the wishes of Boots’ late owner.
Boots is a friendly cat and doesn’t at all mind being held by a stranger.
“She’s lovable, playful. Though she’s 11 years old, she doesn’t act like it,” said Sandra Buturusis, the cat’s neighbor in the western suburbs.
It’s hard to believe someone wanted this perfectly healthy cat euthanized. Even harder to believe it was Boots’ owner, Georgia Lee Dvorak.
“She had a really big heart,” Buturusis. “She loved animals.”
In fact, Dvorak so loved animals, that when she died last December she left all of her $1.3 million estate to animal charities. So why put in her will that she wanted her beloved Boots euthanized, especially after she rescued the cat from an abusive home?
“She was so afraid that if something happened to her that the cat would not be taken care of and she’d go to another abusive home,” Buturusis said.
The executor of the will, Fifth Third Bank, went to court, to ask a judge to actually block Ms. Dvorak’s request.
“We brought a petition asking that the language be set aside or stricken,” said bank senior president Jeffrey Schmidt. “We didn’t want to euthanize this healthy, living animal.”
The judge agreed, and Wednesday, Fifth Third arranged for Boots to be taken to a loving home with a history of caring for cats.
“I guess you could say this time curiosity saved the cat,” said Schmidt. “We’re very happy for that.”
Bank officials also donated cat supplies and food to Boots’ new home, a cage-free sanctuary in Andersonville.
Schmidt recommends pet owners set up a separate trust for their care.
Dvorak had no family members and her neighbors are allergic to cats.
Ping!
Oh my goodness, what a great story!
Good job Fifth Third Bank! Wonderful that you all took legal action to save this kitty’s life.
Oh Huntress, what a great post, thank you!
What a sweet cat.
A will cannot make someone do something they don’t want to do.
That is why I laugh at movies and TV shows that make that a premise.
“Stay in this house a year to get my 10 million dollars.”
LOL
Thank you! Love this story.
I’m glad someone tried to exercise common sense here - for a moment. Then they went and did something completely insane - they went to a judge about it. Really? You need a court order to not do something stupid?
We do not need court permission to exercise common sense. The courts do not have domain over it. Unless someone sold the property (the cat) and embezzled the money away, I can’t fathom a reason why anyone would even challenge such an exercise of common sense.
The cynical side of me urges a following of the money, and an accounting of how much money came from the estate for this Kabuki theater. Nothing? Great! Anything? Then that just seems like an elaborate method of embezzling money. You know you’re old when you remember when reporters would actually check that out.
And a lawyer comes through.
And if I lived there, I’d take all my business to this bank! God bless these people.
I thought they were trying to kill Schroedinger’s cat again!
I agree...I’m glad they intervened.
Agreed on all counts.
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