When Tobias Paul adopted Donald from the SPCA in June, he noticed he was a lot friendlier than most cats.
Paul started taking him for walks around the neighbourhood, as Donald liked to follow him and his partner as a dog would.
“Donald doesn’t just follow us around, Donald will follow anyone he finds, and he’ll follow them home and try to go inside their house.
“So in a community like this, that behaviour started to get noticed.”
Paul lives in central Sackville, close to the downtown core and the university. This means Donald is close to all sorts of people he can tag along with.
Sackville residents started posting about him online, worried he was a stray cat.
Jean-Paul Lavoie, noticing the frequency of the posts, decided to create a Facebook group dedicated to Donald sightings.
“It became sort of a sensation after a few weeks,” he said. “Within 24 hours we had 250 members, and now we’re at almost 800 members.”
Lavoie said with pandemic fatigue and other topics dividing the community online, he felt the fixation on a furry feline was a great way to unite the community.
The group’s description includes a quote from member Molly Tomlik.
“Donald is an actual cat, yes. But doesn’t he represent more? A sense of freedom; of community; an openness and boldness; the assumption that everyone is a friend and everywhere is home.”
Brewing up online popularity
Lavoie is a regular customer at Bagtown Brewing Company, a microbrewery owned by Anthony Maddalena.
The idea to release a beer dedicated to Donald started off as more of a joke, with Lavoie noticing the number of members quickly rising.
“We said, what’s better than getting this small brewery we have downtown, and if we can get 500 members perhaps we can get them to do a beer in the honour of Donald,” Lavoie laughed.
That took no time at all, and Maddalena accepted the challenge, brewing up a milk stout named after Donald.
He released the beer on Thursday, and anticipates he will be out of stock by the end of the weekend.
“They’ve really come out and gotten their share of the beer and it’s been pretty good so far.”
Paul’s (and Donald’s) house is mere steps away from the brewery, and Donald often comes in to spend time with patrons.
Paul is a little bewildered by all the attention, but he thinks it’s a positive thing.
“I would rather no one know anything about my cat, but I am much happier that it is known that he has a home and he is taken care of.”