After just over a week and becoming a story across the nation, the Troy Police Department surpassed 10,000 Twitter followers overnight and will get their police cat!
It started on March 6 when they put the call out, saying "Trying to broker this deal now: If we get 10,000 followers by April, we want a police cat. If you support this important public safety initiative, follow us & RT #BigGoals #PoliceCatAssociationofAmerica.
That post got more than 2,600 retweets and likes and went viral with celebrities across the nation sharing it.
Overnight from Tuesday into Wednesday, they passed that goal and tweeted out the news of the future police cat!
10,000! 😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺 #WeAreGettingAPoliceCat THANK YOU! pic.twitter.com/h8Rc3bfSG5
— Troy Police Dept. (@TroyMI_Police) March 14, 2018
Last week, Troy Police Sgt. Megan Lehman said, "We've been trying to come up with a way that we can have a pet in the workplace."
The police chief told the officers if their Twitter page gets 10,000 followers by April, they can have a police cat.
MHS brought in two cats for an interview.
Narwhal and Wombat are interested in "paw" enforcement.
Lehman liked Wombat's behavior.
"Very alert and seems to be very observant too," she said. "Narwhal appears to be really friendly."
They will have to also pass a background check; cats caught with catnip need not apply.
"Friendly and works well with the public just like officers," Lehman explained. "There's a bunch of other skills we think cats have that are law enforcement skills too, like being able to watch people, being alert."
No taxpayer money will be used to care for the police cat.
So, what will the cat's name be?
Troy police will turn to social media for that.
"Probably some type of naming contest."
If Narwhal or Wombat don't get the job, they'll still need a new home. They are up for adoption with the Michigan Humane Society.
