Cat Leaves $15,000

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31863, 16 December 1968, Page 3

Cat Leaves $15,000

(N.Z. treat Assn.— Copyright) CHICAGO, Dec. 14. A rich Chicago cat has died, leaving his owner about SUSIS,OOO richer and much sadder. It was the cat. Flat Nose, and not the money, which dominated William Fields’s thinking as he prepared a funeral for his departed friend. Flat Nose, who would have been 20 at Christmas, the equivalent of 140 human years, was one of five cats left to Mr Fields in 1960 by their owner, Mrs Margaret Montgomery. She left SUSIS,OOO for their care, which was to go to Mr Fields when all the cats were dead. Two of the cats died in 1963 and two in 1966. All were more than 17 years old. They were buried in the yard of the apartment building Mrs Montgomery had left to Mr Fields for their lodging. Flat Nose, who apparently died of a heart attack yesterday in the building’s hallway,

will also be buried in the yard. Mr Fields said Flat Nose had already received seven Christmas and birthday cards, and others were expected daily until December 25. There were people who called Mr Fields regularly about the cat and would have to be told of his death.

A small birthday party had been planned, Mr Fields said. His niece was coming from St Louis, and dinner was to have featured turkey, rather than the pot roast Flat Nose usualy ate.

With the last of the cats gone, Mr Fields plans just to

stay and take care of the building. At 79, he said, he had few friends alive and saw little need for the money. The money, which has gone untouched while Mr Fields and the cats lived on his social security payments and World War I pension, will be transferred from a lawyer to Mr Fields’s bank account, where it will stay until he needs it to live on. “After all, I don’t figure on dying soon,” Mr Fields said. Mrs Montgomery, a seamstress, at one time had 14 cats. She was a semi-invalid. Mr Fields helped care for her for 18 years before she died.