Cat custody dispute settled in Superior Court case

October 25, 2006

By MARY AMES/Frontiersman

PALMER — There was no feline fur flying during an Oct. 6 court hearing, but only because the cat in question was absent.

The hour-and-a-half hearing in Palmer Superior Court centered on Carl, an orange tabby cat, and the dispute between two women who claim him.

Should Carl remain with Staci and Jason Fieser and move to Dillingham with them, or should the Fiesers return Carl to Catherine Fosselman, the woman who owns the accounting office in which he lived since 2000?

Fosselman filed a lawsuit against the Fiesers on Oct. 2, asking for an injunction to keep Carl from moving to Dillingham and for “in excess of $100,000 damages.”

Fosselman claims she suffered “extreme emotional distress” because the Fiesers “deprived her of the company of Carl.”

Andrew Robinson, Fosselman’s attorney, presented Judge Eric Smith with several notarized affidavits attesting Carl was Fosselman’s office cat. Robinson put Fosselman on the stand to testify she was Carl’s rightful owner.

Eric Conard, defense attorney for the Fiesers, said Carl belonged to them now. Conard cross examined Fosselman and put a witness of his own on the stand.

Both sides agreed on

some things. Traci Weiland, Fosselman’s former business partner, found Carl as a stray kitten and brought him to the office. After some attempts to find him a home, four employees voted whether to keep Carl as the office cat.

Fosselman declined to add her vote, saying she was aware some employees may be allergic to cats. But when the four pieces of paper were removed from the cup, the vote was unanimous — Carl was in.

When Fosselman’s building burned on Feb. 14, Staci Fieser, a Fosselman employee, took Carl home.

Then came the cat fight. Fosselman asked Fieser to return the feline. Fieser demurred. Fur flew in the form of increasingly hostile e-mails between the two. Fieser, who was hired on as a Fosselman employee in July 2002, resigned Sept. 29, according to court records.

Things came to a head, in part, because Jason Fieser, an Alaska State Trooper, was transferred to Dillingham. Carl would fly out with the Fiesers unless Judge Smith determined Fosselman to be the true owner or allowed Carl to be placed temporarily with someone else, much like feline foster care.

In court, Fosselman said she bought Weiland’s half of their business on Nov. 22, 2002. Carl was one of Weiland’s business assets, although Fosselman had no bill of sale for Carl nor any city license for him.

Several notarized affidavits in the court record affirm Fosselman’s claim that Carl belonged to her accounting office.

Helen Porreca, who started working for Fosselman in 2004, said Carl and Chloe, another office cat who died in the fire, “basically ran the office.” Carl would drink from everyone’s cup, Porreca wrote. Wilhemina Kay Foreman backed that up, writing, “Carl likes drinking out of peoples’ water bottles on their desks.” Foreman missed Carl — he was part of the reason she took that job, she wrote.

Cherie Hankins, another Fosselman employee, said she enjoyed having the animals at work.

“It was the best benefit ever offered to me by an employer,” she wrote.

Janet Whitfield, a Fosselman client, said she and her children often would drive to Palmer from their home in Wasilla just to see Carl. They watched the fireworks during Colony Christmas at Fosselman’s office with Carl, she said. In her affidavit supporting Fosselman’s ownership, Whitfield wrote that Carl, “purred his bulk into my lap on many occasions.” Carl also signed all the company’s Christmas cards, according to Amy Levinson.

Weiland never terminated ownership of Carl, according to Patty Arnold, a former Fosselman administrative assistant, feline lover and witness for the defense.

Arnold said she was “meticulous” in keeping Carl’s litter box clean, scooping it twice daily and “more when he got busy.” She came in evenings, weekends and on vacation time to clean the litter box, she said.

Fosselman presented time sheets showing she paid Arnold $14.75 an hour for those duties.

Robinson said it was basically a theft case — with a trooper as a co-defendant.

Conard Arnold said it was a personal property issue, not a custody issue.

Judge Smith left the courtroom for about 20 minutes before returning with his decision.

Carl had no original owner, Smith said, but Weiland was a first-finder.

“I hear nothing that amounts to ownership,” Smith said. “I guess it’s fluff.”

Smith awarded the Fiesers interim custody of Carl, which meant they could take the cat to Dillingham. The case has not been resolved, but no other court dates have been set.

Several attorneys watched all or part of the Friday afternoon hearing. Two private defense attorneys remarked on the irony of a trooper sitting at the defense table. One state-paid defense attorney mentioned it was time to get into private practice. A prosecutor mentioned how many drug and murder cases in the Palmer court system are delayed because of overcrowded

dockets.

Contact Mary Ames at

352-2284 or mary.ames@

frontiersman.com.