Sybil the cat was often on the Mt Eden community Facebook pages as fans posted about their adventures with the vivacious feline.
Sybil the cat was often on the Mt Eden community Facebook pages as fans posted about their adventures with the vivacious feline.
The ex-owners of Sybil, a beloved community cat, say they surrendered her for her own safety.
Sybil survived catnappings, ransom demands, and was shot at with a BB gun.
She has been rehomed with a couple in their 70s in an effort to ensure her safety.
The former owners of a beloved community cat have revealed the reason behind her sudden disappearance from her regular post outside a supermarket in Mt Eden, Auckland.
When Sybil the cat, a frequent figure on the Mt Eden community Facebook page and icon among residents, appeared for adoptionon the SPCA website last month, locals were outraged.
However, the cat’s owners told the Herald removing her from the community that adored her was the only way to keep her safe after she was kidnapped, held for ransom and shot at with BB guns.
Sybil the cat was an icon in Mt Eden before her owners rehomed her because of safety concerns.
Sybil’s former owners - who wished to remain anonymous - adopted her from the SPCA in 2017 when she was 3 months old, and had envisioned having Sybil in their lives forever, they told the Herald.
“Her original name was Ivy Mclively; that should have given us a clue about her personality,” they said.
As soon as Sybil discovered the Woolworths supermarket in Mt Eden, and all the people there, she never looked back, they said.
Sybil’s curious and friendly personality quickly endeared her to regulars, as she jumped into supermarket bags, into laps and onto the bonnets of parked cars.
She became a frequent feature of the Mt Eden community page on Facebook, members sharing their daily interactions with the beloved cat.
Sybil's ex-owners said although she was loved by many, a minority maltreated her.
“People loved Sybil so much, and the majority of the community looked out for her but there was a flip side no one really saw.”
Her previous owner said the first thing that started was the phone calls.
Sybil wore a collar that told shoppers she was “not lost”, she was well fed and to only phone if she was somewhere other than the Woolworths parking lot.
“We would get lecturing, angry, aggressive phone calls from people all hours of the night ... people were disgusted that we would let her be there.”
Despite the collar explaining she was not lost, people would take Sybil to their homes. Her owners drove all over Auckland to pick her up.
Sybil has been catnapped and shot at with BB guns.
Another time, a parent took Sybil home for their child to play with.
“When they were done playing with her they brought her back to Woolworths. We were so worried.”
It happened again when a flat of women in their early 20s believed they could provide Sybil with “a better home” and kept her for several months.
At the beginning of this year, the kidnappings and violence towards Sybil began to ramp up, her former owners said, including a ransom note demanding hundreds of dollars.
