[News] A Cat Roundup

If you're in Chicago, you can still catch Samantha Martin's cat show tomorrow night at the Gorilla Tango Theatre, which features the Rock Cats trio (kitties on guitar, piano, and drums) as well as a tightrope walker, barrel-roller, and skateboarder, among other daring performers. The Rock Cats' music "sucks," Martin admitted. "I mean, when they're playing, they're not even playing the same thing." And being cats, they're subject to not playing at all if they damn well choose. They're "really like diva actresses," she said, "always walking off in a huff." (Worried especially about the drummer, she has two backups.) "This is why you don't see trained cat acts. Because people—namely, the managers—can't take the humiliation." (News of the Weird 527, 1-23-1998, reported on Russia's long-running Moscow Cat Theater, aka Moscow Cat Circus, which appeared in 1998 at least to be a financially stable enterprise. There are numerous YouTube videos available via both search terms.)
On a more somber note, Heidi Erickson, 48, has returned to the headlines. The Plymouth, Mass., woman has been battling the law for a decade, with more than 40 cases of cat confiscations or lawsuits emanating from cat confiscations. NOTW 799 [6-1-2003] reported on alleged cruelty involved .in her scheme to breed the "imperfections" out of Persians. An eviction or two later, she moved in with a black, hermaphrodite woman, with whom she had a falling out over the woman's reading a Bible while driving Erickson down Interstate 495
[NOTW 897, 4-17-2005]. She also had a thing for storing cat carcasses in her freezer (but the state's highest court said that, by itself, was not illegal). This week, the city Board of Health, acting on a smell complaint, authorized a search and removed her current three cats and a dog and also found two cat carcasses in the freezer. Throughout her years of ordeal, by the way, she has never, ever, ever, ever gone quietly. Chicago Tribune /// Boston Herald

Today's Newsrangers: Gary Davidson, Caroline Lawler