Todd Bookman
Appearances
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
It's from a protest. I'll do my best to describe what's happening. But it's not easy. It's a strange scene. I wasn't there, but I've spoken to people who were, and there's plenty of videos. The protest takes place in Manchester, New Hampshire, bright sunny June day last summer. There are five people standing on a sidewalk, evenly spaced in front of a business.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Maybe you think there's a lot to protest these days. Maybe you don't. But this is not a protest you've seen on the news before. This protest is about someone's pet. If the internet didn't teach you anything, you don't fuck with people's cats. It gets weirder. A woman drives up, parks her car, gets out. Apparently, she's the target of the protest.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
But rather than say anything to the protesters, she just stands near them, looking at them, twirling her keys. Six people on a sidewalk, five protesting one. It's 3 p.m. on a Sunday. Traffic streams by. Hey! If an alien came down to Earth and this is what they saw, they'd be right to wonder, is this typical human behavior? The cat at the center of all this is 19 years old, practically ancient.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
A Maine coon with tiger striping and white whiskers, soft eyes. His name?
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
And this is Rose Garcia. Rose is Tibbs' person. Not originally, though. The cat actually belonged to Rose's ex.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
When Rose and the loser split, she took two of his cats, Toby and Tibbs. And Toby's cool. He's got little brother energy. But Sergeant Tibbs, man, Rose and Tibbs are tight. She showed me some videos of him, hitching rides on her shoulders, snuggling up. Tibbs is a fluffball, but also kind of a bad boy.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Their own love language. Rose is in her mid-30s, works from home, keeps an eye on the pets. Tibbs is an indoor-outdoor boy. He likes to circle his little corner of Manchester, New Hampshire, where Rose now lives with a new cat guy, Cody. Cody drives a tow truck, not a loser. And there have been times when Tibbs has disappeared for a night or two.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Rose would let him out, and he wouldn't come home right away. She leaves food out on the porch for him. She'll move his litter box outside. he always knows the way home.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
But in early June 2024, Tibbs leaves. And this time, he does not come back.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Rose spends days searching for Tibbs and then starts to come to terms with it. Remember, he's really old, 19. Just a week before Tibbs went missing, Rose had to rush him to the vet. He was having trouble breathing. She says the vet told her that Tibbs was not long for this world. He has arthritis, asthma. He's rapidly losing weight. He can't really groom himself.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
So Rose has been shaving mats out of his fur, the kind of elder care we all deserve. So when Tibbs goes missing, Rose starts to think he went off to die on his own, the way some animals do. They'll hide at the end, even from the people they love. But what Rose didn't know is that Tibbs was not dead, wasn't even lost. Something that would turn out to be so much worse for Rose had happened.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
My name is Todd Bookman. I'm a reporter for New Hampshire Public Radio, also a cat guy. And I've been investigating the final days of Sergeant Tibbs, which I have to say did not initially make sense to my editor. Generally, I'm covering news, like news news in New Hampshire, the governor, the legislature, court cases, that sort of thing. But Tibbs, Tibbs was impossible to let go.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
This story about a cat lost and a cat found. A story about what we owe our pets and what we owe our neighbors. A story about what happens when a dispute between two people, IRL, becomes fodder for the internet. And maybe what all this says, or doesn't say, about the way we relate to each other these days. Tibbs is not news news.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
But for a few chaotic days last summer, in Manchester, New Hampshire, Tibbs was the biggest story around. And for whatever reason, I just wanted to figure out what happened. The west side of Manchester is largely residential, across a river from the city's downtown. A lot of multifamily units in a dense street grid, vinyl siding, working class.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
And I found myself in an apartment here with two women, a mother-daughter pair, We can stand here. It's fine with me. Is everybody comfortable with that?
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Debbie Ann Valente invites me to sit down in an echoey apartment. Debbie is the landlord here. The unit's being renovated. There's no furniture, so we pop an uncomfortable squat.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Debbie's daughter Sabrina is here too. Because Sabrina is the one who actually first found Tibbs. But Debbie does most of the talking.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Sabrina and her friend were changing a car battery when this scraggly cat with some shaved patches walks up behind them. Sabrina sends pictures of the cat to her mom, Debbie. And what did he look like?
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Poor Tibbs. He seems to be in bad shape. Sabrina, Debbie's daughter, tries to give him some food and then rushes him to an emergency vet.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Tibbs is anemic. The vet gives him fluids and an anti-nausea drug. Sabrina takes Tibbs home, not really sure what to do. Debbie and Sabrina are animal people, so they try to nurse him back to health, try to get him to eat something. But he noses away everything they offer, wet and dry food.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
A few days go by, and Tibbs is eating a bit. He's lounging in sunny spots on the floor, becoming a little social with them. How would you describe his personality?
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
When Debbie and Sabrina first found Tibbs on June 7th, they say they called the Manchester Animal Shelter. But the shelter wasn't taking in any cats. They were full. Sabrina posted a found cat listing on Petco's Love Lost website. It's like a missed connection page for lost animals, photos and all. I've seen the posting. Tibbs looks like hell, scrawny and half-shaved.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
The posting doesn't get any bites. Debbie and Sabrina also put up a sign in a business they own.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Friday afternoon, June 28th, Debbie leaves work, walks the maybe 30 feet behind her building to the house next door, Rose's house. Debbie knocks on the door. And the knock on the door that Friday catches Rose off guard. She's still grieving what she thought was the death of Tibbs, who had disappeared from her life. It had been three weeks since she'd last seen him.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
And now, suddenly, someone's at the door telling her he's still alive.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Rose points to the building Debbie owns. She says she's seen her across the yard. But they don't formally meet till that Friday on Rose's porch. Rose remembers that she thanked Debbie, thanked her for taking care of Tibbs, for taking him to the vet. Debbie's memory of this conversation, though, quite different.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
The miscommunication of all miscommunications here. Rose's fear was that Tibbs had gone to die on his own terms. But what Debbie hears is that Rose had abandoned a 19-year-old cat on a busy city street. And then, according to Rose...
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
OK. Rose is left with the impression that Debbie was going to come back like that afternoon with the cat. Rose and Debbie trade some texts. Debbie actually sends photos of Tibbs. Rose writes back, But Friday afternoon stretches into Friday evening. Debbie's headlights don't swing back into the driveway. And Rose starts to get anxious. What's taking so long? Where's Debbie? Where's Tibbs?
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
A few more hours go by. Rose texts again, asking if Debbie had an estimate of what time she's coming. Debbie asks if she can call Rose later, but she doesn't call. Finally, 9.56 p.m., Rose calls Debbie, and Debbie picks up.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Sergeant Tibbs is still alive. Not dead, not lost, but alive and with a neighbor. A neighbor who seems helpful at first, but now what? She won't give Tibbs back? Rose is losing it. What can she do? She decides to take to social media. She writes, "'This lady is stealing my cat. I'm going insane.'" Rose clicks the post button, a click that would have serious consequences almost immediately.
Bear Brook
Introducing: The Final Days of Sgt. Tibbs
Because over the next few days, things would spiral out of control. Online, comments start flooding in. Hashtag justice for Tibbs is born. The internet has decided to weigh in. Was Sergeant Tibbs rescued or stolen? That's next time on part two of the final days of Sergeant Tibbs. The Final Days of Sergeant Tibbs is a production of the Document Team at New Hampshire Public Radio.