Cosmo's survival tale
Shorewood cat: Feline safe after being dumped by cop in the wild
ROBERT SUMNER / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Cosmo the cat rests on a couch this week at his Shorewood home while his owner, Maribeth Cardwell, takes a phone call. Cosmo was lost for nine days after
he was dumped in a field by a Shorewood police officer.
By
Joe Hosey
STAFF WRITER
SHOREWOOD — Police responding to a call of a cat wandering into a garage drove the declawed feline 5 miles away and dropped it off in a cornfield outside
of town — leaving the animal's owner to search frantically for the next nine days.
By some miracle, Cosmo the cat survived his ordeal in the wilderness and was reunited with his owner, Maribeth Cardwell.
"I prayed so much, and I'm not even a religious person," said Cardwell, telling how she made a promise to herself to go to church if she got Cosmo back
alive.
"I can't go back on my word," she said.
While Cardwell may have found God while searching for her cat, she is not ready to turn the other cheek to what she sees as animal cruelty on behalf of
police.
"It's so horrifying to think these people have a badge and they're so sadistic," Cardwell said of the cops.
By all accounts, Cosmo wandered away from his South Raven Road home and ended up in a neighboring garage June 17.
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The neighbors called police because the cat wore no collar or tags and had proved to be a nuisance for some time. The cat had been using their planters
as a litter box, the neighbors said.
The neighbors asked police the have the cat taken away because they were told there was no Animal Control to assist.
The officer carted the cat out of the village and dumped him at a cornfield off Shepley Road, 5 miles from home.
Cardwell, who owns two other cats, said she started worrying about Cosmo's whereabouts soon after he sidled away from her home. She combed the neighborhood
for the cat past midnight and resumed the search with daylight on June 18. Cardwell also said she called Shorewood police to inquire about missing cats
and was told they had no such reports or help to offer.
Neighbors produced fliers for Cardwell and her fiance, Scott Mitchell, and they plastered the area with about 400 of them. Cardwell also cut up some of
Mitchell's work shirts and hung them along roads in hopes Cosmo might catch the scent and follow the trail home.
Cardwell expressed gratitude to all the friends, family and strangers who helped her in the quest to locate Cosmo.
"This search continued every day," Cardwell said. "I lost sleep, work — every day got worse. Every possible moment I looked for him, or I would look out
the back door, or hope he would be sitting there."
Cardwell also said she called police twice more and was told they had no information on missing cats.
Finally, on the sixth day of Cosmo's disappearance, Cardwell said her neighbor Karen Strysik came over to tell her a cat was taken out of her garage by
police.
"This woman walks her dog every day past my house, has lived here many years, more than 10, knows I have cats, and never said to the officers: 'You might
want to try the lady three doors down. She has cats,'" Cardwell said.
Cardwell said she and her fiance made numerous calls to police, but could not get them to divulge their cat dumping ground. The next morning, she said,
her parents pried the information from police.
Two more days of desperate searching for Cosmo ended Sunday with a telephone call from a family on Shepley Road who had found the cat. Cardwell and Mitchell
were out looking for Cosmo and not home to take the call, but the family returned the cat on their own and were at the house when the couple returned.
The family had fed, watered and showered affection on Cosmo, and he was in good health when reunited with his owners, Cardwell said.
Police Chief Robert Puleo said he was pleased to hear this. He also said the situation was "being looked into."
Puleo said his police department is licensed annually by the state to dispose of "wild creatures," is authorized to "release animals back into the wild,"
and officers are permitted to leave their jurisdiction in the line of duty as the situation dictates.
The chief also pointed out that the village has ordinances that pet owners should keep their animals off other people's property.
All these factors will be considered in the investigation of the case of Cosmo, he said.
Cardwell blames her neighbors for Cosmo's disappearance and remains at a loss as to why a police officer would drop off a cat, without front claws, in the
wild to fend for himself.
"They need to blindfold these cops and take them out to a field with no water or food," she said.
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