Monster Cat
Tragic Lies or the Staggering truth?
YOU BE THE JUDGE
We're not quite sure what to say about this photograph, which has become the subject of legendary volumes of Usenet messages, e-mails and countless streams of
cyber data. Is it a fake?
Cynthia S. Lassnoff has offered to help in tracking down the truth ... or is it?
"Now you must have known that giant cat couldn't be real! Here's some info from the Urban Legends Reference Pages (snopes.com), specifically
http://www.snopes2.com/spoons/photos/bigcat.htm. "According to the Ottawa Citizen, the picture actually shows an Edmonds, Washington, man named Cordell Hauglie
and his cat Jumper, and the photo was manipulated with PhotoShop to create the effect of a feline of much larger-than-ordinary size. According to Mr. Hauglie:
'My daughter wanted to send an electronic photo of her cat to her friend. I got a little carried away. When we sent it to her friend, we never dreamed anyone would
believe the photo was real.'
He's had many chuckles over the analysis of the photo. Some viewers assert the cat appears stuffed, while others say it's standing, not being held. Still others suggest
the man in the photo doesn't look as though he's holding a 40-kilogram object. Truth is, he isn't. His son held up the cat for one photo, proving you can suspend a cat in
that fashion, and Mr. Hauglie stood in the same light for the next shot."
We're not sure, but our friend Jennifer Chan submitted a "story" to The ErotiCat News, which claims to explain the origin of the photo, circulated in the
hundreds of thousands throughout cyberspace for years now. You be the judge:
"Rodger Degagne, a former employee with the Atomic Energy Commission Laboratory (AECL) in Chalk River, Ontario, Canada may be embarking on a new career
as Feline Breeder. Relaxing in his spacious home on the shores of the Ottawa River, Mr. Degagne recalls how 15 years ago he befriended two stray young cats on the old Atomic Energy Commission Laboratory
research facility at Chalk River.
The kittens had appeared in late summer and apparently had gotten under a security fence around the old labs abandoned since the
late 50's. With the help of his tuna sandwich, Mr. Degagne was able to coax the kitty's close enough so that he could pick them up. A self-described animal lover, he
did not want to place the kittens in the local Humane Society.
In this largely rural area, cats of all stripes and ages largely go unwanted and are humanely disposed of after a few days. Later that evening his wife Louise and their two
children, Nicole and Kelly came to a family decision to keep the kittens, which they named Lost and Found. Lost turned out to be female and Found a male. When nature
finally took its course, a litter of kittens was born 6 years later. One of the litter was a big white female with a unique black markings on her side and tail.
Something about the kitten captured the hearts of the family and while her siblings eventually found homes elsewhere, Snowball stayed with the Degagne's. While Lost
and Found are no longer with us, their progeny live on. In her 9 years, Snowball's size has seemed to snowball. Put simply, Snowball is no ordinary cat, she measures
69 inches from nose to tail and weigh in at 87Ibs. She started out a big kitty and she just seemed to keep growing.
She always meowed for more food and would climb up on the counter to eat food that I forgot to cover. Chicken is her Favorite. "Once I left a cooked chicken on the table
that I was going to use for a boat picnic, an hour later the chicken was gone", Louise said. We knew that snowball wasn't your average cat when the neighbour's German
Shepherd ran yelping away from his first encounter with her. She just isn't afraid of any animals.
After we found a half-eaten Racoon out by the garage, we decided that maybe Snowball should be kept fenced in. We soon discovered that while we can keep snowball
in the yard, we couldn't keep racoons from Snowball. At least it kept the food bills down Rodger laughed, "Like all female cats she is very territorial, but with us she is just
a big ole kitten" he said.
So what does an 87-pound cat eat? Snowball goes through about 3 lbs. of cat food a day, along with cooked chicken, supplemented with deer and moose that Rodger
hunts in the fall. She likes Pike a lot, so I don't throw them back any more. Snowball often accompanies Rodger fishing on the Ottawa, eagerly peering over the side of
the boat as soon as his line goes tight. So what do the Degagne's attribute Snowball's size to? Rodger says, "Well, the vet thinks it could be her thyroid, but she isn't
she's just a real big cat". I think maybe her parents got into something at Chalk River that they shouldn't have".