Toronto Police Marine Unit adopts a surprising mascot
Rescues ‘wet, cold and frightened’ cat near airport, finding itself a chief mouser
There’s a new cop on patrol at the Toronto Police Marine Unit and he takes no prisoners.
In fact, he either scares them away or eats them.
Meet Porter, a green-eyed black feline who began prowling the unit’s docks on the Toronto Harbour last September. Or, as Const. Rick Gomez, his black shirt covered in cat hair, calls him: Honorary Officer-in-Charge.
“He’s more of a boss than a colleague,” says Crewhand Steve Bode, a civilian who works at the unit, and who is known as the cat whisperer by the officers.
And although housing is hard to come by, and expensive in Toronto, Porter has a rather enviable room complete with blue paint, and his name tacked to the entrance, Porter’s Cat House, should anyone be in doubt. His blue and white polka-dotted water bowl sits by the entrance, and his brown, soft bed sits atop the house.
It’s his house — he can have his bed wherever he likes it.
In early September, the unit rescued a “wet, cold, shivering, and frightened” cat near Billy Bishop Airport. When he was found, Porter had health issues and was undernourished, says Const. Rich Baker, a community service officer with the unit.
Notices were put up about him but no one came for Porter, so the unit officially adopted him.
“We struck up a donation with all the officers,” Baker says. “Everyone chipped in for the costs.” The two or three year old cat, is now quite chubby.
On a warm afternoon, Porter’s house was empty, and the officers hadn’t seen him for a while.
Bode eventually found him curled up on the Sergeant’s desk.
“He’s picked up favourite places he likes to go,” Baker says.
Porter’s got his secret ways and tricks in and out of the police station, including simply waiting by a door if he wants to go in or out of the station.
“He’s free range in the entire unit,” Gomez says. And he has his favourite people too. “He likes to go to people who feed him,” Baker says
He’s hopped, quite a few times, into the driver’s seat of contractors’ vehicles; gotten into patrol cars when the door is open; and jumped into boats, but hasn’t gone out on a boat ride yet.
“If and when he wants to get on a boat that wants to go out, it will be his decision, not ours,” Bode says. Porter doesn’t fear water, he adds. “He will happily sit in the boathouse with his tail in the water,” Bode says. “He’s not normal. He’s more dog than cat.”