Cat Rescue of Marlborough and Hudson hosting feline film fest
By Taryn Plumb | GLOBE CORRESPONDENT
JANUARY 16, 2014
There’s just something about cat videos.
Whether it is the sardonic and introspective “Henri, le chat noir,” or the carefree keyboard-playing kitty, or any of the assorted other cats mewing, singing, talking, stalking, catching rides on Roombas, making faces, and being terrorized by popcorn machines or printers, millions of eyes have spent countless hours watching them online.
“Cat videos rule the Internet,” said Teresa Scarpato of Marlborough, whose curious, playful, orange-and-white feline Sunshine is the star of his own Facebook page and YouTube channel.
Hoping to capitalize on the world’s obsession with furry creatures doing amusing things, the nonprofit Cat Rescue of Marlborough and Hudson (or CaRMaH) organization will host the inaugural Feline Film Festival on Sunday as its first major fund-raising event.
From 1 to 3:30 p.m. at the Strand Theatre in Clinton, the homage to cats in all of their quirkiness will feature videos of not only international stars like Maru and Henri, but local up-and-comers like Sunshine, a slide show and cat commercials, as well as auctions, raffles, and music from guitarist Joe D’Angelo. Dale LePage, who was won numerous entertainer and vocalist of the year awards, will serve as emcee.
“CaRMaH has a Facebook page, and we have many fans who love cat videos,” the group’s president, Jocelyne Durrenberger, a pediatric nurse-practitioner for Reliant Medical Group in Worcester, said of the inspiration for the festival. “When we post videos of adoptable cats on our page, their chances of being adopted goes up.”
The nonprofit was also inspired by the Somerville Arts Council’s Copy Cat Festival last February, and the celebrated, touring Internet Cat Video Festival.
“I think cats are just funny, they do funny things,” Monica Hamilton, CaRMaH’s special event manager, said of the feline video phenomenon. “If you don’t have a cat or don’t know them, you might think they’re aloof. But they’re very, very funny little pets. They have a lot of personality.”
Founded in 2002 as the Metrowest Animal Awareness Society, CaRMaH is a volunteer-run rescue organization comprising more than a dozen foster homes (it has no physical shelter). Animals taken into its care are treated by a veterinarian, vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and microchipped, and then offered for adoption through the group’s website or monthly meet-and-greet events called “Meow Mixers,” Durrenberger said.
Organizers also run a regular program through which feral cats are trapped, spayed or neutered, vaccinated, “ear-tipped’’ (a quarter-inch of their left ear is removed, a universal symbol for a fixed feral cat), and then returned to their outdoor homes.
“The colony’s population stabilizes — no more kittens,” Durrenberger said of the program’s goal, and it “improves their lives and their relations with the community. The behaviors and stresses associated with mating stop.”
The organization has placed more than 2,000 cats and kittens, and has spayed or neutered more than 500 feral cats, officials said.
For this weekend’s film festival, CaRMaH sought photos of local cats to be featured in the slide show (which will include each cat’s name, hometown, preferred food, favorite pastime or quirky trait, and astrological sign) as well as videos. The festival received nearly two dozen entries, Durrenberger said, which will be mixed in with Internet sensations such as the Japanese Maru, Henri the existentialist, “An Engineer’s Guide to Cats,” and cat commercials.
Scarpato’s contribution, 2 minutes and 30 seconds set to a jaunty soundtrack, features spliced scenes of the fluffy Sunshine chasing after a tiny red ball and batting it back and forth with her husband.
“They do this almost every day,” she said.
The dapper kitty, who will be 2 on Jan. 24, has his own YouTube channel — another video shows him playing with his “Catmas” toys — and Facebook page with almost 100 “likes.”
Featured in dozens of pictures, the white-and-gold kitty does typical cat stuff — curling up in bags and boxes, mooning for the camera, taking the occasional passive-aggressive nap on the open laptop — while the accompanying text (written in Sunshine’s voice) jokes about inducing his “male subject” into playing with him, puzzles over the magic water cooler, and professes his love of tissue paper and bite-size birds.
“I knew I was going to get obsessive about taking pictures, but I didn’t want to annoy my friends,” Scarpato, who works at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton, said of her decision to create the page. “I don’t expect Sunshine to be the next ‘Grumpy Cat.’ It’s just an outlet for me to be creative.”
But Sunshine has his fans — 93 of them, as of Tuesday — and his page has gotten “likes” from as far away as Great Britain and Australia. Scarpato has also used the page as a charity mechanism, last month hosting Giving Tuesday — complete with a picture of Sunshine holding a dollar in his demure paw — that provided $1 to CaRMaH for every “like.” They ultimately donated $100.
The shy and mellow cat was rescued as a kitten after living in a trailer park in Marlborough, and adopted on Nov. 12, 2012.
“We’ve definitely become ‘those’ people,” Scarpato said. “My friends keep saying we’re ‘stupid in love.’ ”
For more information or to order advance tickets, visit www.carmah.org or carmahfilmfestival.brownpapertickets.com .
Original story link.
© 2014 BOSTON GLOBE MEDIA PARTNERS, LLC
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