Cat Sends Man to Psych Ward

Posted by Miss Cellania in Animal on July 25, 2008 at 8:49 am


After finding Chris Muth of Brooklyn barricaded in a neighbor’s apartment, police took him to a psych ward, where he was confined for six days.

He has the “bizarre delusion [that he] was trying to ‘save’ a cat of his friend,” medical records show.

This story was bizarre, but the “delusion” was actually quite real.

The friend’s cat Rumi had fallen 30 feet down a hole in the bathroom of his third-floor apartment and was trapped for 15 days!

It proved easier for Muth to earn his freedom than Rumi, who was still trapped in the duct when Muth was released six days later.

According to animal rescue experts, Rumi’s confinement proved to be one of the field’s greatest riddles.

“This was a very difficult cat rescue because there was no way to maneuver,” said Mike Pastore, director of field operations for the Center for Animal Care and Control. “There was no way to reach the cat and because of the length of time, I was getting worried that the cat would pass away.”

The story has a happy ending, as authorities advised Muth and the cat’s owner to stop feeding him so he would be hungry enough to walk into a lasso and be pulled out. Link -via Fark




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COMMENT

17 comments to "Cat Sends Man to Psych Ward"

  1. johzephine
    July 25th, 2008 at 9:27 am

    I know when I’m hungry lassos are the first place I go!

  2. ty
    July 25th, 2008 at 9:32 am

    What? So because he was trying to save his cat, they thought he was crazy? What the heck?!

  3. Gail Pink
    July 25th, 2008 at 11:05 am

    Huh? He barricaded himself in his apartment to save a cat that fell down a hole FIFTEEN DAYS EARLIER? What am I missing here?

  4. the man
    July 25th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    Remind anyone of the Soviet Union yet?

  5. matt
    July 25th, 2008 at 11:43 am

    So if the cat died later that day, would the guy be stuck in the mental hospital? Just rocking in a chair by the window, year after year saying “here kitty, kitty, kitty”?

    Maybe they’d let him out once he “learned” there was never really a cat.

  6. Tim
    July 25th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

    Ahh psychiatry, you just gotta hate it…

  7. Video Game Dork
    July 25th, 2008 at 12:48 pm

    Still, barracading yourself in an apartment seems like an odd way to rescue a cat that has fallen down a big pipe. Why not, you know, call for animal rescue or something.

  8. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    July 25th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

    Did the guys who came to drag him away think the cat noises were in their own heads, too?

  9. Larry
    July 25th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    “Muth claims he called 311, the fire department and police to help him save the cat, but couldn’t get through the bureaucracy.”

    I don’t know what 311 is there, but it doesn’t sound like “barricaded” is factual, he had after all broken into somebody else’s apartment and had some responsibility for controlling who else came in after him, doncha think?

  10. Ali S.
    July 25th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    Ok, I’m thinking the guy maybe a bit eccentric since he did barricade himself in. When all he had to do was call the authorities to help…or maybe the neighbor.

  11. the man
    July 25th, 2008 at 3:00 pm

    I have heard the term barricade used for a two year old who locked themselves in the bathroom by accident. I have also heard cops use it against people who closed an unlocked screen door in the face of a cop who was trying to enter without a warrant.

    Ignore the term. It is just a word cops use to sound important.

  12. ted
    July 25th, 2008 at 6:42 pm

    Tim, at least your psychiatry-bashing is almost relevant to the story this time.

    There’s got to be more to this story. He could not have been acting very rationally if they kept him locked up for a few days.

    Of course, maybe it’s the minions of Xenu at work, or big pharm and evil governments locking up marijuana smokers to be anally raped in prisons.

  13. byte
    July 26th, 2008 at 12:18 am

    that’s nothing, have you heard about non violent citizens being thrown into jail with violent rapists and murderers ready to rape them after they were convicted for owning, using, or growing cannabis? sounds crazy, I know, I mean it’s just a plant!

  14. prophet
    July 26th, 2008 at 12:39 am

    I couldn’t understand anything…

  15. Larfin Jackarse
    July 26th, 2008 at 5:26 am

    How many cats did Frances Farmer own?

  16. ted
    July 26th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

    Byte, I already covered that angle.

  17. Worrymon
    July 29th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

    Larry,
    In NYC, 311 is a non-emergency emergency number. Basically, it’s like 911 for situations where an immediate response is not required (i.e. a murder or assault happening would require an immediate response, while a trapped cat or losing your wallet would not.)


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