Family Home With Cat Sells By a Whisker

An Australian family sees the value of their home rocket when they throw in their beloved feline Tiffany with the sale

An Australian family have sold their beloved pet cat in order to get an extra $140,000 (£75,000) for the sale of their home.

The bizarre property 'claws' came after a potential buyer saw the house and said they would buy it as long as the cat, named Tiffany, was included in the sale.

The cat's owners, the Perceval family, didn't pussyfoot around, agreeing to let the buyers take their home in a leafy Melbourne suburb along with its feline resident.


  The house is in the leafy Melbourne suburb of Glen Iris


Fran Perceval told reporters that when the five-bedroom house in Glen Iris was being viewed Tiffany got numerous admirers.

"We jokingly said all the people coming through are loving her," she said.

"We said to the agent, 'She goes with the house, hahaha' not expecting at all to actually have a clause written into the contract saying it includes the cat."

The house was auctioned at the weekend and bidding reached just over $AU2.06m (£1.125m).


 

But at the last minute a bidder got the house by a whisker.

He upped the stakes, offering $2.2m (£1.2m) if the cat was included.

The agent, Glen Coutinho, told Channel Nine: "I've had plenty of people say they'll throw in their partners but not pets. It's a first."

One person who might not be so happy with the deal is Michael and Fran Perceval's 19-year-old son, Sam.

He bought the cat four years ago and was particularly fond of the pet.

His parents have told him they may well soon be making a trip to the local animal shelter.

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent
Sky News: http://news.sky.com/story/1352537/family-home-with-cat-sells-by-a-whisker

If Sam bought Tiffany himself then it wasn't his parents' cat to sell. I think it was cruel to sell his pet, even if he is 19 (the son, not the cat), especially as the article mentions that he was particularly fond of Tiffany.
Since they did it anyway, he's at least entitled to the extra money paid for including the cat in the sale.
Nobody seems worried that the poor cat might not adapt easily to new owners.
Money helps in life, but some things are more important, Sam's parents need to learn that.

I'd sell my cat for £75,000 any day!

Umberto Cocopop wrote:I'd sell my cat for £75,000 any day!

I don't doubt it, Umbo.  

Is it pure coincidence that I received an email today which contained this lovely little ditty.
OK, it's about a dog but the same could apply to a cat.
(There were some really cute photos that came with it, but I can't reproduce them here at the moment)

The email said:  " Every human should get a chance to read this!! "

"Dogs  Welcome"

A man wrote a letter to a small  hotel in a Midwest
town he planned to visit on his  vacation.
He wrote: I would very much like  to bring my dog
with me. He is well-groomed and  very well behaved.
Would you be willing to permit me  to keep him in my
room with me at  night?"
 
An immediate reply came from the hotel owner, who wrote:
SIR: "I've been operating this  hotel for many years.
In all that time, I've never had a  dog steal towels,
bed clothes, silverware or steal  pictures off the walls  
or use them as a coloring  book.
 
I've never had to evict a dog in the middle of the night
for being drunk and disorderly..  
And I've never had a dog run out  on a hotel bill.
Yes, indeed, your dog is welcome  at my hotel.
And, if your dog will vouch for  you, you're welcome to
stay here,  too."

As far as the news story goes, though, I imagine it has been written in a style to make it newsworthy ... we shouldn't assume that the family are as heartless as made out to be.

Cats are territorial creatures.  They are most comfortable and happy in their own home, whoever else may be living there with them.  For that reason, if a cat "owner" goes away on holiday it is always best to have someone to come and stay in the house to feed them and see to litter trays or letting out/in times etc, rather than take the cat to a friend's house or a cattery.  No matter how well they may know the friend or how well they're looked after in the cattery, it's a foreign territory to them and can be a very distressing experience (not only for the cat!) ... I remember one time (before I knew any better) going away on holiday and we left our cat Poppet with some very dear friends.  Poppet was well used to to them and they loved him to bits also.  I wouldn't have dreamt of leaving him with them were that not the case (first time away from him).
Back from our hols, we went to visit our friends and bring Poppet back with us.  It was around Christmas time and they had a lovely big Christmas tree up in their living room.  Unusually, they had hung lots of chocolate budgies on the tree and I was remarking on that when it suddenly dawned on me - the budgie's cage was gone.  Where was their budgie?  I was just about to ask when my friend's eyes welled up and said that the budgie had died - they believe it was actually frightened to death.  Poppet hadn't touched it - and it hadn't been let out of the cage or anything - but he had gone over to the cage to investigate - just looked at, and that was enough for the poor thing who had probably never seen anything like it in its short life before.  

Anyway, this family in the news story have obviously met the new owners and could see that the cat got on well with them, so they knew he was going to be in good hands and happy also to stay in his own home.  For all we know, they could be moving to somewhere quite nearby and arranged to come and visit(?)

Then again, if they really are as heartless as it might appear to some - putting money before 'love', then quite honestly the cat is far better off without them and staying where he is anyway - with people who were willing to pay a lot of money for him and obviously appreciated him.

So, really, it's a happy ending all round.  

The cat is probably happier being in its "own" territory as cats don't bond with humans and couldn't give two hoots about who's in there with them as long as they are feeding them and cleaning up after them etc.

Stardust wrote:If Sam bought Tiffany himself then it wasn't his parents' cat to sell. I think it was cruel to sell his pet, even if he is 19 (the son, not the cat), especially as the article mentions that he was particularly fond of Tiffany.
Since they did it anyway, he's at least entitled to the extra money paid for including the cat in the sale.
Nobody seems worried that the poor cat might not adapt easily to new owners.
Money helps in life, but some things are more important, Sam's parents need to learn that.

  Such a beautiful cat too.  Who wouldn't fall in love with it.  
It does say when they move they will be going to a rescue centre to get another cat.  This sounds like a bribe to their son who wasn't happy about losing his pet that he loves.