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0:24

final days of Sergeant Tibbs. Sergeant

0:26

Tib is the name of a cat who goes missing.

0:29

and who then winds up at

0:31

the center of an absolutely epic

0:33

dispute between neighbors. The series is

0:35

hosted by my friend and colleague

0:37

Todd Bookman. I've been helping out

0:39

as a producer and by creating

0:42

original music for the series. And

0:44

look, obviously I'm biased, but I

0:46

really recommend this story. It is

0:48

a wild ride. And you know,

0:50

while I wouldn't call it true

0:52

crime... It's actually not that far

0:54

from it. There's a mysterious death,

0:57

an investigation, police reports, even a

0:59

courtroom scene. It also manages to

1:01

be funny while also moving and

1:03

serious at the same time. Ultimately,

1:05

it's a story about the lengths people

1:07

will go to out of love for

1:09

their pets. We're going to put the first

1:12

episode in the Bearbrook feed

1:14

for a while to listen

1:16

to the next three episodes.

1:18

Look for the link in

1:20

the show notes or just

1:23

search... the final days of

1:25

Sergeant Tibbs in your preferred

1:27

podcasting app. In the meantime,

1:29

we are still following the

1:31

stories behind both seasons

1:34

of Bearbrook. We

1:36

hope to have an update

1:38

on season two out sometime

1:41

this year. Okay, with that,

1:43

here is part one of

1:45

the final days of Sergeant

1:48

Tibbs. There's explicit language throughout

1:50

this series that might not

1:52

be suitable for all years.

1:54

Also, if you're interested, we

1:56

have photos, links, and more

1:59

at nhpr.org/tips. I

2:04

want to start by playing you

2:06

a little sound. It's from a

2:08

protest. I'll do my best

2:10

to describe what's happening. But

2:13

it's not easy. But it's

2:15

not easy. It's not easy.

2:17

It's a strange scene. I

2:19

wasn't there, but I spoken

2:21

to people who were, and

2:23

there's plenty of videos. The

2:25

protest takes place in Manchester,

2:27

New Hampshire. Bright sunny June

2:29

Day last summer. There are

2:31

five people standing on a

2:33

sidewalk, evenly spaced in front

2:35

of a business. Maybe you

2:37

think there's a lot to protest

2:39

these days, maybe you don't. But

2:42

this is not a protest, you've

2:44

seen on the news before. This

2:46

protest is about someone's pet. The

2:49

internet didn't teach you anything,

2:51

you don't fuck with people's

2:53

cats. Gets weirder. A woman

2:55

drives up, parks her

2:57

car, gets out. Apparently,

2:59

she's the target of

3:01

the protest. But rather

3:03

than say anything to

3:05

the protesters, she just

3:07

stands near them, looking

3:09

at them, twirling her

3:11

keys. Six people on

3:14

a sidewalk, five protesting

3:16

one. It's 3 p.m. on

3:18

a Sunday. Traffic streams by.

3:20

If an alien came down

3:22

to Earth, and this is

3:24

what they saw. They'd be

3:26

right to wonder. Is this

3:29

typical human behavior? The

3:31

cat at the center

3:33

of all this is

3:35

19 years old, practically

3:37

ancient, a main

3:40

coon with tiger

3:42

striping and white

3:44

whiskers, soft eyes. His

3:46

name? Sergeant Tibbs,

3:48

yeah, from 101 Dalmatians.

3:51

And this is

3:53

Rose Garcia. Rose is

3:55

Tibbs' person. The cat

3:57

actually belonged to Rose's ex.

3:59

talk to the guy anymore. He's

4:01

like such a loser, but... When Rose

4:04

and the loser split, she took two

4:06

of his cats, Toby and Tibbs. And

4:08

Toby's cool, he's got little

4:10

brother energy. But Sergeant Tibbs,

4:12

man, Rose and Tibbs are tight.

4:15

She showed me some videos of

4:17

him, hitching her eyes on her shoulders,

4:19

snuggling up. Tibbs is a

4:21

fluffball, but also kind of a

4:23

bad boy. He has a little

4:26

snaggle tooth. He's missing one

4:28

of his little teethies because

4:31

he broke his tooth on a rat.

4:33

What? Yeah, I had to bring

4:35

him to the freaking vet

4:37

the next day because they were

4:39

like, okay, we need to suggest

4:42

to make sure that he

4:44

didn't ingest anything because he

4:46

brought home a freaking big-ass

4:49

mouse. And he killed? Yeah,

4:51

he killed it. I was like, thank

4:53

you. Rose is in her mid-30s, works

4:55

from home, keeps an eye on the pets.

4:57

Tibbs is an indoor-outdoor boy.

4:59

He likes to circle his little

5:01

corner of Manchester, New Hampshire, where

5:04

Rose now lives with a new cat guy,

5:06

Cody. Cody drives a tow truck, not

5:08

a loser. And there have been times

5:10

when Tibbs has disappeared for a

5:12

night or two. Rose would let him out,

5:15

and he wouldn't come home right away. She

5:17

leaves food out on the porch for him.

5:19

She'll move his litter box outside.

5:21

He'll move his litter box outside.

5:23

He always knows the way home.

5:25

Tibbs comes back. No matter

5:28

what, he comes back. But

5:30

in early June, 2024, Tibbs

5:32

leaves. And this time, he does

5:34

not come back. I look around

5:36

the neighborhood, and so I

5:39

look at all his spots, and

5:41

he's not there. I go down

5:43

by the park, and he's not

5:45

there. And I go down the

5:47

block, and I look around there,

5:49

and I look around there, and

5:52

he's not there. You know if

5:54

he left he did not want

5:56

me to find him like like

5:58

he's gone gone like Yeah, that's

6:00

when I kind of realize that

6:02

he's probably not going to

6:04

come back. Rose spends days

6:06

searching for Tibbs, and then

6:09

starts to come to terms with it.

6:11

Remember, he's really old, 19. Just

6:13

a week before Tibbs went missing,

6:16

Rose had to rush him to

6:18

the vet. He was having trouble

6:20

breathing. She says the vet told

6:22

her that Tibbs was not long for

6:24

this world. He has arthritis,

6:26

asthma, he's rapidly losing weight.

6:28

He can't really groom himself.

6:30

So Rose has been shaving

6:32

mats out of his fur,

6:35

the kind of elder care we

6:37

all deserve. So when Tibbs goes

6:39

missing, Rose starts to think

6:41

he went off to die on

6:43

his own, the way some animals

6:46

do. The hide at the end, even

6:48

from the people they

6:50

love. But what Rose

6:52

didn't know is that

6:55

Tibbs was not dead,

6:57

wasn't even lost. something

6:59

that would turn out

7:01

to be so much

7:03

worse for Rose had

7:05

happened. Tibbs had been

7:07

found. My name is

7:09

Todd Bookman. I'm a

7:12

reporter for New Hampshire

7:14

Public Radio, also a

7:16

cat guy, and I've been

7:18

investigating the final days of

7:21

Sergeant Tibbs. which I have

7:23

to say did not initially

7:25

make sense to my editor.

7:28

Generally, I'm covering news, like

7:30

news news in New Hampshire,

7:32

the governor, the legislature, court

7:35

cases, that sort of thing. But

7:37

Tibbs, Tibbs was impossible to let

7:39

go. This story about a cat

7:41

lost and a cat found. A

7:43

story about what we owe our

7:45

pets and what we owe our

7:47

neighbors. A story about what happens

7:49

when a dispute between two people

7:51

IRL becomes fodder for the internet

7:54

for the internet. And maybe

7:56

what all this says or doesn't say

7:58

about the way we relate. to each

8:00

other these days. Tibbs is not news

8:02

news news, but for a

8:05

few chaotic days last summer

8:07

in Manchester, New Hampshire, Tibbs

8:09

was the biggest story around.

8:11

And for whatever reason, I

8:13

just wanted to figure out

8:16

what happened. The

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last thing you want to hear when you

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8:41

Restrictions apply. west side

8:43

of Manchester is largely residential.

8:45

Across a river from the city's downtown.

8:47

A lot of multifamily units in

8:49

a dense street grid. Vinyl siding,

8:52

working class. And I found

8:54

myself in an apartment here with

8:56

two women, a mother-daughter pair. We

8:58

can stand here. It's fine with

9:01

me. Is everybody comfortable with that? We

9:03

can all sit. The floors are clean. Shall

9:05

we sit? You want to sit

9:07

on the floor? Sure. Yes. Debbie

9:09

Ann Valenti invites me to sit

9:11

down in an echoy apartment. Debbie

9:14

is the landlord here. The units

9:16

being renovated. There's being renovated. There's

9:18

no furniture. So we pop an uncomfortable

9:20

squad. It's rude to have my feet

9:23

in your face, but I can't bear

9:25

my leg. Debbie's daughter Sabrina is here

9:27

too, because Sabrina is the one

9:29

who actually first found tips. But

9:31

Debbie does most of the talking.

9:33

Here, if you go down the stairs,

9:35

we came in on, there's a back

9:38

parking area. He was there. Sabrina and

9:40

her friend were changing a car battery

9:42

when this scragly cat with some shaved

9:44

patches walks up behind them. Sabrina sends

9:47

pictures of the cat to her mom,

9:49

Debbie. And what did he look

9:51

like? I'll show you pictures. Very,

9:53

he was bleeding a little bit.

9:55

It looked like he'd been run

9:57

over by car, but he wasn't.

10:00

crushed. Okay. If you touched that, if

10:02

you touched his little body, he hurt

10:04

like crazy. Poor Tibbs, he seems to

10:06

be in bad shape. Sabrina, Debbie's

10:08

daughter, tries to give him some food

10:11

and then rushes him to an emergency

10:13

vet. The cat, the records did

10:15

say that the cat didn't have any

10:17

microchip. It wasn't spayed. There was no

10:20

collar or anything on the cat when

10:22

it was found. So there was no

10:24

way of us tracing where it could

10:26

have belonged. The vet wants to do

10:28

a whole bunch of tests. I want

10:31

to know if the cat doesn't look

10:33

like it's going to make it. It

10:35

honestly looked like it had cancer. I

10:37

honestly thought it had cancer. Okay, well

10:39

if it's got cancer, you can't let

10:42

an animal carry on in pain. And

10:44

you can't let an animal stay in

10:46

this condition. So I asked, Oran Speaker,

10:48

is he going to live? Does he

10:51

have cancer? Does he have cancer? Does

10:53

he have cancer? He doesn't look like

10:55

he's in pain. We don't know what's

10:57

all wrong with him, but we reached,

11:00

and they did all the tests.

11:02

Tibbs is anemic. The vet gives

11:04

him fluids and an anti-noger

11:06

drug. Sabrina takes Tib's home,

11:09

not really sure what to do. Debbie

11:11

and Sabrina are animal people, so

11:13

they try to nurse him back

11:15

to health, try to get him to

11:17

eat something. But he knows his

11:19

away everything they offer, wet and

11:21

dry food. What he did eat. Chicken

11:24

livers. Chicken livers. Initially, it

11:26

was chicken livers and rice, but

11:28

sometimes he just wanted the livers.

11:30

He didn't want the rice. A

11:32

few days go by, and Tibbs is eating

11:34

a bit. He's lounging in sunny spots

11:37

on the floor, becoming a little social

11:39

with them. How would you describe his

11:42

personality? Very gentle, very loved

11:44

getting patted. You had to be careful

11:46

when you patted him, though, because he

11:48

was... It was all bone, so you

11:50

couldn't just pat him normally. You had

11:52

to like take two fingers and, you

11:54

know, rub him. You couldn't pat him

11:57

normally. Mundebby and Sabrina first

11:59

found tips. on June 7th, they

12:01

say they called the Manchester Animal

12:03

Shelter, but the shelter wasn't taking

12:05

in any cats. They were full. Sabrina

12:08

posted a found cat listing

12:10

on Petco's Love Lost website.

12:12

It's like a missed connection

12:14

page for Lost Animals, photos

12:16

and all. I've seen the

12:18

posting. Tibbs, looks like hell,

12:20

Scrani, and half-shaved. The posting

12:22

doesn't get any bites. Debbie

12:24

and Sabrina also put up a sign

12:26

in a business they own. I'm asking

12:29

people, everybody I see talked

12:31

to in the neighborhood because

12:33

we work there, you know,

12:36

telling people we found this

12:38

cat. And one lady says,

12:40

I know that. She saw the

12:43

picture. She goes, I know that

12:45

cat. That cat, the lady says

12:47

to Debbie, I think he

12:49

lives in the house next

12:51

door, like right next door.

12:53

Debbie leaves work, walks the maybe

12:56

30 feet behind her building to

12:58

the house next door. Rose's house.

13:00

Debbie knocks on the door. And the

13:02

knock on the door that Friday catches

13:05

Rose off guard. She's still grieving,

13:07

what she thought was the death

13:09

of Tibbs, who had disappeared from

13:11

her life. It had been three

13:13

weeks since she'd last seen him.

13:15

And now, suddenly, someone's

13:17

at the door, telling her. He's still

13:19

alive. She comes on on on my

13:22

door Friday, tells me that she has

13:24

she's had my cat for the last

13:26

three weeks, and she's paid $6,000 in

13:28

medical bills, and they don't know what's

13:30

wrong with them. Did you know who she

13:32

was? I did, yeah, and you know, I

13:34

know because she's the landlord from this place.

13:37

Rose points to the building Debbie, she

13:39

says she's seen her across the yard,

13:41

but they don't formally meet till

13:43

that Friday, on Rose's porch. Rose

13:46

remembers that she thanked Debbie. thanked

13:48

her for taking care of tips for

13:50

taking him to the vet. Debbie's memory

13:52

of this conversation though, quite

13:54

different. She came out, she said it was

13:56

her cat, so I said well what's wrong

13:58

with your cat because I'm doing all these

14:01

tests on your cat and it would save

14:03

your cat a lot of stress not to

14:05

do them and a lot of issues if

14:07

we can figure out and you know what's

14:10

wrong with your cat and we can get

14:12

it back to its health. She said she

14:14

had let the cat out to go and

14:17

die on its own terms. The miscommunication

14:19

of all miscommunication

14:22

here, Rose's fear was that Tibbs had

14:24

gone to die on his own terms.

14:26

But what Debbie hears. is

14:28

that Rose had abandoned a

14:31

19-year-old cat on a busy city

14:33

street. And then, according

14:35

to Rose, she asked me if

14:37

I wanted my cat back. She

14:39

was like, yeah, but if you

14:42

want him back, you know, obviously

14:44

I'll give him back because it's

14:46

your cat, you know, it's your

14:48

cat. And I was like, yeah,

14:50

I do want him back, you

14:52

know, he's got men in here,

14:54

he's got brothers in here. Thank

14:56

you. Rose is left with the impression

14:59

that Debbie was going to come

15:01

back, like that afternoon with the

15:03

cat. Rose and Debbie trade some

15:05

texts. Debbie actually sends photos

15:08

of Tibbs. Rose writes back, I can't

15:10

really express to you how much you

15:12

helping him means to me. But Friday

15:14

afternoon stretches into Friday

15:17

evening. Debbie's headlights don't swing

15:19

back into the driveway. And

15:21

Rose starts to get anxious.

15:23

What's taking so long? Where's Debbie?

15:26

Where's Tibbs? A few

15:28

more hours go by. Rose texts

15:30

again, asking if Debbie had

15:32

an estimate of what time

15:35

she's coming. Debbie asks if

15:37

she can call Rose later,

15:39

but she doesn't call. Finally,

15:41

9.56 p.m. Rose calls Debbie,

15:43

and Debbie picks up. And

15:46

then she said, um... Yeah, you know, you're

15:48

not gonna, you shouldn't be waiting out there,

15:50

you're not gonna get this cat back, you

15:52

know, from when we talked it, it sounded

15:54

like you can't really afford this cat, and

15:57

he was starving, and I was like, what

15:59

the fuck? I was like, what are

16:01

you talking? You said you were

16:03

coming to my cat, my house

16:05

with my cat. Here I am,

16:08

thinking of doing something nice. And

16:10

she's like, I don't have to

16:12

do anything for you. And

16:14

that's when I hung up

16:16

instantly because I was seeing

16:18

Red and I couldn't even breathe.

16:21

Like I was like choking. And

16:23

that's when I started panicking. My

16:25

whole world turned upside now. and

16:27

with a neighbor. A neighbor who

16:30

seems helpful at first, but now

16:32

what? She won't give tips back?

16:34

Rose is losing it. What can

16:37

she do? She decides to take

16:39

to social media. She writes, this

16:41

lady is stealing my cat. I'm

16:43

going insane. Rose clicks the post

16:46

button, a click that would

16:48

have serious consequences

16:50

almost immediately, because

16:52

over the next few

16:55

days, things would

16:57

spiral out of

16:59

control. Online, comments

17:01

start flooding in.

17:03

Hashtag Justice for

17:05

Tibbs is born. The

17:08

internet has decided

17:10

to weigh in.

17:12

Was Sergeant Tibbs

17:14

rescued or stolen?

17:16

That's next time,

17:18

on part two

17:20

of the final

17:23

days of Sergeant Tibbs.

17:25

at New Hampshire Public

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