A deceased cat recently found downtown triggered a phone call to the New Canaan Police Department’s animal control unit and an unusual step for the head of that group.
Though no state law requires it, Officer Mary Ann Kleinschmitt logged the information from the call in a ledger: domestic all-black cat, found at 10:46 a.m. on Jan. 22 at 76 Park St.
“My procedure is that if I have a dead cat, I treat it like a dog,” Kleinschmitt told New Canaan Patch. “People with cats are just like people with a dog, so I will hold and advertise and hope the owner comes forward so that they have closure.”
Unlike dogs, cats are considered wild by the state of Connecticut, so there’s little action Kleinschmitt’s unit takes for outdoor or stray cats unless they're injured.
"We do not take a found cat," she said. "We take a hit cat."
Another exception is when a cat bites somebody. In those cases, the cats go into quarantine for two weeks and, if nobody claims the animal, “we put the cat right back where we found it,” Kleinschmitt said.
