An anonymous would-be cat rescuer who is part of an effort to save the stray cat pictured here said a Benihana manager at an Arizona mall threw her off the premises when she tried to rescue the kitty.

She writes:

On October 12, 2009, an unbelievably skeletal cat was spotted as our family left the Benihana Restaurant parking lot, where, as we have.told so many people,the PetSmart employees generously gave us 2 bowls and filled them with dry cat food at no charge.

Many animal organizations were contacted, and [redacted] of Cactus Cats replied and stated in her November 8, 2009, email :

” In the coming months..I will be working on the entire mall as a project..trying to get some feral saving groups to help me with it now so I don’t have to go it alone.”

At 1pm yesterday, Sunday, March 14, the manager of Benihana approached us and told us this was private property and he was calling Mall Security. We explained that we have been trying to catch the orange cat and have a cage in our trunk. The bowls were totally hidden from view, no customers would ever go near the specific location, and when we added that we also pick up any other trash such as beer bottles thrown in the rocks during our few minutes there daily to refill the food and water, he only replied with “Did I ask you to do that”? Even after explaining that these are living creatures now dependent on us after so many months, he dialed security so we had no option other than leaving.

As frequent shoppers, upon speaking with a couple of Nordstrom employees during store visits, we were informed that strays are common and have always been common at [redacted] Mall, and employees see them frequently.

Obviously, we must remain anonymous and will not go near [redacted] Mall after today’s incident but if you can find an organization that Benihana will allow on the Mall’s private property to trap the orange cat and the others, kindly notify me via email of where the cat has been taken as there will be a home found for the orange cat.

Please, your help is urgently needed. The orange cat would wait for us daily at the bowls. We cannot imagine how the manager could be so insensitive and also why the manager of the Benihana would have a problem because the feed area is not at all anywhere near the customers and not at all visible to anyone.

Attached photo was taken a few days ago, on March 11. Unfortunately, when attempting to get closer than about 2 feet, he would bolt. Thank you.

Poll time, folks! We know this is only one side of the story, but some of you have got to be in Benihana’s dojo, right? So here you go:

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