Tag: Miami

Actress Shares Why She’s A ‘Crazy Cat Lady,’ PLUS: Waymo Denies Responsibility For SF Cat’s Death

Waymo says KitKat “darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away” in the accident that killed the popular bodega cat.

Last week when we wrote about a San Francisco cat hit by an autonomous taxi, the Google subsidiary that produces the cabs hadn’t responded to media requests for comment.

Now Waymo has confirmed one of its driverless taxis did strike KitKat late on the night of Oct. 27, but claims the nine-year-old tabby got in the car’s way as it began to move. Here’s Waymo’s statement:

“The trust and the safety of the communities we serve is our highest priority. We reviewed this, and while our vehicle was stopped to pick up passengers, a nearby cat darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away. We send our deepest sympathies to the cat’s owner and the community who knew and loved him, and we will be making a donation to a local animal rights organization in his honor.”

People in the neighborhood where KitKat was a fixture are not happy with the response. Per Mission Local: “Waymo did not reply to a request to review the video, and did not say how much it would donate or what group would receive the gift.”

Mission Local noted witnesses gave slightly different accounts of the collision, saying KitKit was in front of the taxi for several seconds before it began moving.

As testament to how well-known and beloved KitKat was, there’s now a considerably sized memorial to him in front of the store he called home, with flowers, candles, drawings of KitKit and even cans of cat foot left on the spot. The San Francisco Chronicle has photos of the memorial.

KitKat featured prominently on Instagram, where photos show him hanging out with customers, patrolling the sidewalk in front of the store, and curling up for naps on the counter. Credit: https://www.instagram.com/randasmarket/

The paper also quotes a local who explained the outpouring of grief: “If you’re not a 16th Street regular this can seem silly, but this cat meant so much to this community. If you knew KitKat, you’d understand.”

KitKat’s death has soured more people on Waymo, with the Chronicle noting it “struck an emotional nerve in a neighborhood already wary of driverless cars weaving through its crowded streets.”

Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. (Google’s parent company), operates driverless fleets in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin (TX) and Atlanta, with plans to offer automated taxi service in Washington, D.C., and Miami.

“When they show up in your yard and they need you, we can’t look away.”

As someone who avoids medical dramas like the plague, I’m not familiar with Wendi McLendon-Covey’s work, but I’m sure many PITB readers will know the St. Denis Medical star. In an interview, McLendon-Covey talks about rescuing cats, earning their trust, and getting satisfaction from knowing she’s improving one life at a time.

The actress with one of her feline friends. Credit: https://www.instagram.com/wendimclendoncovey/

Most recently she’s been earning trust with a stray she calls Harvey, saying it’s “taken me forever to bond with him” and she still has work to do before he trusts her enough to go indoors.

Cats, she said, are “cuddly, they’re cute, they’re hilarious. They all have their different personalities and they have their little meetings and their little way of talking to each other, and it’s just fascinating to watch. So that’s a hot Friday night for me, is just throwing treats to the cats.”

You can read the rest of the interview here.

‘Merica Saves A Cat On The 20th Anniversary of 9/11

Humans can be the cruelest of creatures, but sometimes we can be among the most compassionate.

That compassionate side came out on Saturday, the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, at a Miami Hurricanes game of all places.

Craig and Kimberly Cromer are Hurricanes season ticket holders who bring a large US flag to every game, which they’ve been doing for seven years.

Per the Miami Herald:

Early in the second quarter of No. 22 Miami’s home-opener against the Appalachian State Mountaineers, a murmur rose up from the student section at Hard Rock Stadium. The students, many attending their first-ever home game, noticed a cat dangling from the upper deck. The Cromers turned around and first thought it was a dog. Another fan nearby thought it was someone’s kid.

Once the Cromers realized what was happening, they sprung into action. Craig ripped his flag free from his zip-ties, and he and his wife stretched it out to create a landing pad for the terrified cat.

No one’s sure how the cat got into the stadium or ended up on the upper deck railing, but the entire stadium began paying attention when the cat lost its footing, grabbed a wire hanging from the underside and was desperately trying to hold on, its little body dangling precariously.

People seated in the upper deck tried to help, but by that point the black-and-white domestic shorthair was out of reach.

Video of the dramatic incident shows the fearful feline hanging on by its claws. At that point, the entire stadium was invested in the poor kitty’s plight, with thousands of people inhaling nervously as one claw broke away and kitty continued to hold on by a single paw.

The cat had drawn the attention of the game’s announcers as well by that point. There was no way the cat could have known people below were scrambling to break the fall, and kitty inadvertently released droplets of terror pee on the fans in the lower deck.

The Cromers grabbed the flag, “snatched it off the handrail and used it to break the cat’s fall,” Craig Cromer told the Herald.

Catching the little one was “probably the strangest thing that’s happened” to the couple, Kimberly Cromer said.

Footage shows the cat landing on the flag, then quickly tumbling into the section below, eventually ending up in the arms of a kind-looking woman who (we hope) was able to soothe raw nerves.

It was not immediately clear what happened to the cat, but it wasn’t a stray.

“It had a collar so it must be someone’s,” Miami student Dylan Marinov told WPLG, a local news station. Marinov recorded the drama on his smartphone and shared it online.

Hard Rock Stadium’s official Twitter feed said it had made a donation to the Miami Human Society in honor of the kitty’s safe landing, and said stadium staff “wish the cat the best in his remaining eight lives.”