Of all the escaped cats from cat hotel Bollie owned by Saskia Brasser from Benningbroek, one is still missing. This one goes by the name Freddy Heineken. Quite appropriate, the owner thought, because ‘the real one was also kidnapped’. Cat hotel owner Saskia Brasser is still very sad about the incident and fervently hopes that the last cat will return.
About three weeks ago, Saskia got the shock of her life when she found out that five of her babysitting cats had disappeared. Presumably taken or released, given the large hole cut in the mesh of the cat run. “I searched everywhere in the area,” an immensely sad Saskia said at the time. “It makes me sleep badly and I can barely think.”
The last incident still haunts Saskia. “Things aren’t going so well,” she says with moist eyes. The disappearance followed an incident about two weeks earlier. When an emergency door was cut and as many as 25 cats escaped. “We luckily found them all together with the neighbors.”
It looks like someone is targeting Saskia. Because since then she has also been missing a ladder and a high-pressure sprayer from her garden. “I have no idea who does something like that, because I don’t have an argument with anyone. I’m now in the process of buying cameras and a spotlight. Then maybe I can see who keeps passing by. This is really not nice. I don’t sleep well, I can’t I no longer relax in my own home and I no longer go out at night.”
So one of the escaped cats is still gone: Freddy Heineken. “Red, with a white face,” Saskia knows. “I hope we still find him.” The other cats were found near the cat hotel on Oosterstraat. Including that of Emmy de Vries from Nibbixoud, Chiel. And the brother of the missing cat, Gijsbrecht van Amstel, is also back home. “It walked on the Nieuweweg, near Wognum.”
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The drastic event generated many reactions for Saskia. “Fun, but also less fun. I sometimes get burned on the internet, but I also received bunches of flowers from customers and I was even offered a holiday. It feels good when people sympathize with you.”
She doesn’t know yet whether she will continue with the cat hotel. “I hold off on new customers for a while. Things have gone well for ten years and now strangers are making it impossible. Working with animals is just fun. But a cat is increasingly seen as part of the family, so if disappears, then that’s terrible.”