+
Joy

People fell in love with Marty the cat after his owner wrote a heartbreaking goodbye letter

“I know this is a small tragedy in the grand scheme of the world, but one that I feel acutely knowing that I expected many more years with my friend."

Marty the cat
Photo by Juanita Swart on Unsplash

RIP Marty

Tons of people found themselves clicking on the trending hashtag #RIPMarty, expecting to hear tragic news about a celebrity of some sort.

Instead, they learned about Marty the cat, whose owner shared the most heartbreakingly beautiful goodbye letter following his passing. That letter quickly went viral online, leaving folks completely invested Marty's story, not to mention utterly devastated.

Will Menaker, who shared the letter on Twitter, began by sharing how he and Marty first met. Or more accurately, how Marty introduced himself by emerging from under a car and unapologetically following Menaker up to the steps of his apartment seeking pets. Eventually, as the weather began to get colder, Menaker experimented with bringing Marty inside.

“From that moment on I was in love. I wouldn’t say I ‘had’ a cat, but from then on I shared a house with a tuxedo cat I would name Marty,” Menaker wrote.


Other than being TNR’d (trapped, neutered, released), Marty’s past was a mystery. What Menaker did know of his feline companion was that he had “striking green eyes,” was “always friendly but aloof” and was “outgoing but possessed a Sphinx-like dignity that nothing could assail.”

Those are already lovely words, but you might want to grab tissues for this next part.

“Yesterday, we had to say goodbye. After months of trying to treat a cancer that he had been suffering from, enough was enough. He stopped eating and drinking entirely and by then had wasted away to weighing almost nothing…I decided to make the only decision we could on his behalf. He went to sleep in our house and in my arms.”

Tapping into every pet parent’s grief, Menaker wrote, “I know this is a small tragedy in the grand scheme of the world, but one that I feel acutely knowing that I expected many more years with my friend. We are heartbroken but grateful for the years that we did have him in our lives.”

Despite the obvious anguish, Menaker’s letter ends on a hopeful note.

“I firmly believe cats are connected in some way to the other side. They have been around human civilization for roughly 9,000 years and are the only animal species that has domesticated human beings and not vice versa…Whatever happens after our deaths, I think cats are somehow involved, and I hope that when it comes time, Marty will guide me on my own journey to the Western Lands.

“Goodbye Marty, I’ll miss you terribly.”

Menaker’s moving words had people in tears over a cat they didn’t even know.

Many commiserated with pictures of their own belated fur babies.

Others still applauded Menaker for showing Marty such compassion and love.

Goodbye, Marty. We might not know you, but we are touched by your story. Enjoy that great scratching post in the sky.

True

We’ve all been hearing urgent warnings from scientists, government, and corporate leaders on the need to limit the planet's global temperature warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid the most devastating impacts of climate change.

Several studies, including research from the National Academy of Sciences indicate if we continue on the path we are on, we will likely hit that pivotal moment of global warming in the early 2030s. It’s clear that more needs to be done —and faster—to avoid the worst impacts of climate change and secure a thriving and sustainable economy for everyone.

Broader research is also showing people care more than ever about what companies are doing to address this challenge. In a 2022 global survey from IBM, 51% of respondents said environmental sustainability is more important to them now than it was the year before. And a 2022 Yale survey found that 51% of U.S. business students would even take lower pay to work for a company with better environmental practices — a signal of the topic's importance.

T-Mobile is an example of a company that has led the wireless industry in these efforts starting with its pledge in 2018 to source 100% of its total electricity usage with renewable energy and being the first in U.S. wireless to set science-based carbon reduction goals and then reach them in 2021. This year, T-Mobile stepped up even more by becoming the first U.S. wireless provider to announce a net-zero target for its entire carbon footprint.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Tense video shows a woman filming herself after sensing a man following her. She was right.

“See this gentleman behind me? Yeah, this is what this video’s about.”

@lacie_kraatz/TikTok

Lacie films as the mysterious man visibly gets closer.

It’s no secret that even the most seemingly safe of public places can instantly turn dangerous for a woman. Is it fair? No. But is it common? Absolutely, to the point where more and more women are documenting moments of being stalked or harassed as a grim reminder to be aware of one’s surroundings.

Lacie (@lacie_kraatz) is one of those women. On April 11th, she was out on a run when she noticed a man in front of her displaying suspicious behavior. Things got especially dicey when the man somehow got behind her. That’s when she pulled out her phone and started filming—partially to prove that it wasn’t just her imagination, and also out of fear for her safety.

“Hello. I’m just making this video so that women are a little more aware of them,” she begins in the video. “See this gentleman behind me? Yeah, this is what this video’s about.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Britain's Got Talent/Youtube

What a sweet surprise.

Look, we all know that moms often pull off amazing feats to help make their kids’ dreams come true. But this story is about a mom going above and beyond in a completely unexpected way. The shock value behind her gesture alone is one for the history books, and the fact that it also involves a Whitney Houston song…well that’s just icing on the cake.

Claire Connolly walked onto the stage for “Britain’s Got Talent” as most auditioners do—nervous, excited and maybe on the verge of a heart attack.

However, unlike any other “BGT” hopeful, Connolly had no real intention of auditioning.

As soon as the 33-year-old mom from Liverpool stepped under the spotlight, she announced that it was actually her daughter Tia who would be singing that day.

No one had known this was Connolly’s plan—not even Tia.

Keep ReadingShow less

An Italian preschooler's Italian rant has people in stitches.

All people have a need to communicate, but the way we do that varies greatly from place to place. Every culture has its own communication peculiarities that make our human family delightfully diverse.

Not only do humans speak thousands of languages around the world, but we also engage in culturally specific speaking styles, speech patterns and body language, some of which are immediately identifiable.

Case in point: the Italian "finger purse."

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

$725 million Facebook settlement means you could be entitled to some free cash

Anyone who used Facebook between May 24, 2007, and December 22, 2022 is eligible, and it only requires filling out a simple form.

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

Facebook has to pay users for a data privacy violation.

Let me tell you a brief but true story about Facebook settlements:

A couple of years ago, my husband and I saw an article about a Facebook lawsuit settlement in Illinois. We'd lived in the state and used Facebook during the dates the settlement covered, so we took two minutes to fill out a simple form.

Then we forgot about it.

Last year, we each got a $397 check from Facebook in the mail.

The End.

(Told you it would be brief.)

When people see headlines about lawsuit settlements, they often assume either that they aren't eligible or that receiving part of the settlement will involve a whole bunch of red tape. It's often just as simple as it sounds, though, and people who assume otherwise leave money on the table.

Keep ReadingShow less

Phil Collins and George Harrison

Beatle George Harrison was pigeon-holed as the "Quiet Beatle," but the youngest member of the Fab Four had an acerbic, dry sense of humor that was as sharp as the rest of his bandmates.

He gave great performances in the musical comedy classics, "A Hard Days Night" and "Help!" while holding his own during The Beatles' notoriously anarchic press conferences. After he left the band in 1970, in addition to his musical career, he would produce the 1979 Monty Python classic, "The Life of Brian."

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

After causing an unexpected stir, Drew Barrymore explains why she 'doesn't need sex'

'At nearly 48 I have very different feelings about intimacy than I did growing up.'

Drew Barrymore attends the 26th Annual Webby Awards on May 16, 2022 in New York City.

In late September, talk show host Drew Barrymore made an off-hand comment about sex that caused an unexpected stir. During a “Drew’s News” segment with Ross Mathews, the two discussed Andrew Garfield’s admission he abstained from sex for six months while filming Martin Scorsese’s 2016 film “Silence.”

“I get abstaining from sex, I mean I did that my entire 20s, right?” Mathews joked, to which Barrymore responded, “What’s wrong with me that six months doesn’t seem like a very long time? I was like, ‘Yeah so?'”

“We buried the lede there, that’s the headline. Drew can go six months, no big deal,” Mathews added. “Years,” Barrymore confirmed.

Keep ReadingShow less