Can you believe it?
The King of Avalon was lost, but now has been found.
Leroy the cat is back. That is, the statue of the cat who once owned the community of Avalon, has been found.
Leroy was brought into the Tuesday, Oct. 7, council meeting in a cat carrier before being unveiled to the council.
The audience “awed” at the sight of the statue.
City staff is looking at potential places to place the statue.
Can you believe it?
The King of Avalon was lost, but now has been found.
Leroy the cat is back. That is, the statue of the cat who once owned the community of Avalon, has been found.
Leroy was brought into the Tuesday, Oct. 7, council meeting in a cat carrier before being unveiled to the council.
The audience “awed” at the sight of the statue.
City staff is looking at potential places to place the statue.
In real life, Leroy—sometimes known as “the King of Avalon”— was the town’s cat. He belonged to no one person, but managed to capture the heart of the entire community.
Islander columnist/local historian Chuck Liddell remembered the small town celebrity.
“I knew Leroy as well as anyone else in the town did. He/she was pretty independent, but spent most of the time on or around the pier. Liz Greison wrote the only book that I know about Leroy. Glad that they found the statue,” Liddell said.
The Greison book, “Leroy the Catalina Cat,” was published in 1979.
At this week’s council meeting, Mayor Anni Marshall said the book was popular.
Greison also wrote a sequel, “A Letter from Leroy,” in 1985.
Leroy reportedly retired from public life in the late 1980s. A local woman looked after him in his declining years, but he remained as Liddell described him: an independent indvidual.
City Manager Ben Harvey, a comparative newcomer to Avalon, apologized for not recognizing the significance of the statue’s recovery.
Council Member Oly Olsen said Leroy used to own the town.
Dennis Jaich, interim director of Public Works, said no decision had been made about where to place Leroy’s statue.
“Staff has begun discussions but as you might imagine, we are considering many possibilities,” Jaich said. “We hope to reach a decision next week.”
Leroy’s statue has disappeared not once, but twice since it was first created.
“So Leroy has three lives gone already,” Mayor Marshall said.
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