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Woman praises Target for taking responsibility after a pet toy killed her cat

"They don’t know if no one speaks up.”

via Shein and Mike Mozart/Flickr

A cat toy and Target location.

A recent tragedy shared by Mazie Kayee on TikTok shows that good can come out of a terrible situation when people take responsibility and practice forgiveness. It all began when Kayee gave her cat, Blue, a new toy for Easter—a Fish Trio Wand cat toy that cost her under $5. The toy features a stick, resembling a fishing rod, that has fake fish dangling from it for the cat to paw at.

On the morning of Thursday, June 26, 2025, the can began throwing up and continued to vomit into the evening. The vomit was brown and had a wretched odor. After taking the cat to the vet, Kayee learned that the tassels attached to the fish had become stuck in the cat’s digestive tract. “Here was a bunch [of tassles] in his stomach and then some little strings had made their way down further, and actually somehow wrapped his intestines from the inside,” she said in a video posted to TikTok. The entanglement led to Blue developing sepsis.

Blue’s tragic final days

The vet planned to perform surgery on Blue to remove the blockage, but unfortunately, the cat died before they were able to start. “I feel like I failed as a fur parent,” she said. “This is something I didn’t read reviews on because it was a $4 toy.”

@mazie.kayee

Replying to @andie🦇 TikTok removed the last one already so part 2. #catsoftiktok #cats #cattoys #target #bootsandbarkley #sedgwick #insurance #catloss

Target takes responsibility

After the tragic death of Blue, Kayee contacted Target’s corporate office to notify them that her cat died because of their pet toy. The administrator directed her to contact Target’s insurance company as well. The great news—in the heart of a terrible situation—was that Target was entirely open to taking responsibility by fixing the problem so more cats aren't hurt by the toy.

“Target said they’re going to redesign the toy. They're going to completely redesign it,” she shared in a follow-up video. “After hearing my story and then reading the reviews, they just said ‘no more.’ Like, it's being resent to the design team. And I'm going to hear from their insurance company about some other things."

@mazie.kayee

UPDATE!! #catsoftiktok #cat #cats #target #cattoys #bootsandbarkley #catloss #fyp #trending

Further, Target’s insurance company said that it will compensate Kayee for her loss. “The insurance company has sent a letter to the manufacturer stating that they are legally obligated to give us compensation,” she told The Daily Dot. “The lady I talked to through Target said she greatly appreciated me reaching out because they don’t know if no one speaks up.”

The story of Kayee and Target is an excellent example of the good that can happen in the wake of tragedy. Target could have ignored the issue or simply refused to talk to Kayee about her cat’s death, but instead, they took her complaint seriously. Not only will they remove the dangerous item from their shelves, but they will also compensate Kayee for her loss. Kayee also demonstrated a wonderful sense of humility by practicing forgiveness and praising Target and its insurance company for their responsible actions. Kayee should also be commended for reporting her loss to Target, so no more cats are hurt by the toy.

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With roads empty, Allstate and American Family Insurance returning $800 million in premiums to customers

via Matt Pearce / Twitter

The coronavirus has obviously been a huge disaster for the economy and public health. However, there have been some positives that have come from the pandemic.

Traffic accidents and deaths are way down because no one is on the road.

A study by UC Davis found that since California's stay-at-home order on March 20, vehicle collisions are down by half.

"The reduction works out to about 15,000 fewer collisions per month and 6,000 fewer injury accidents per month," said Fraser Shilling, co-director of the Road Ecology Center at UC Davis.

The study also says the stay-at-home order resulted in a 60% drop in traffic volume.

A similar study out of the state of Washington, one of the first regions in the U.S. to feel the impact of the virus, yielded similar results. Washington State Patrol traffic data says that motor vehicle accidents in the last two weeks of March declined by 67% over the same period in 2019.

via Pixabay

Because of the drastic change in drivers' behavior, two auto insurance companies, Allstate and American Family Insurance announced they will be returning a total of $800 billion to their customers.

Allstate says it will refund about 15% of premiums paid by customers in April and May. That amount comes to about $600 million.

American Family Insurance says it will return about $50 per car that a household has insured with the company which adds up to about $200 million.

"Given an unprecedented decline in driving, customers will receive a Shelter-in-Place Payback," Allstate CEO Tom Wilson said in a statement. "This is fair because less driving means fewer accidents."

Reports that Allstate has sent to insurance regulators show that it pays out a little more than a billion in claims every month. If Allstate returned all of the money it has saved in payouts due to the pandemic, the figure would be significantly higher than its $600 million pledge.

via Pictures of Money / Flickr

Dan Karr, a the CEO of ValChoice, an insurance company watchdog group, says the gesture is nice, but insurance companies should be more generous during these trying times.

"I think it's great what Allstate did. But where's the rest of savings?" Karr told CNN Business.

"Is it enough? Probably not," J. Robert Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, said according to CNN. "The actions by American Family and Allstate are the right thing to do to help policyholders beleaguered by Covid-19 restrictions and job loss. We urge other insurers to take similar actions quickly."

Allstate and American Family Insurance may be profiting off the coronavirus, but that's part of the risk-reward when being in the insurance game. They don't have to give a dime back to anyone, so they're actions are a lot more than we've come to accept from insurance companies.

Hopefully, others will follow suit and give more families a break at one of the most economically challenging times in American history.

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Is that viral Obamacare Facebook status accurate? Will it help save the law?

The fight to save the Affordable Care Act has migrated to a new battleground: Facebook.

Since early September, a viral Facebook status has been making the rounds, claiming that the Trump administration is attempting to sabotage the law by making enrolling in a health plan on Healthcare.gov confusing and difficult.

The wording varies from post to post, but the message is largely the same. It urges users to "copy and paste" and to employ a linguistic trick meant to boost the post's prominence on the social network:

CONGRATULATIONS! The White House is trying to stop you from enrolling in Obamacare. Fortunately, your friends (like me) are posting this and using the word "CONGRATULATIONS" so that Facebook's algorithm shows this to more people. Enrollment for 2018 Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) starts November 1 and ends December 15. Snopes verified that the enrollment period was shortened and GOP has cut by 90% the funding to advertise these deadlines. Administration is also taking the website down for "maintenance" for 12 hrs at a time on weekends for most of the enrollment period when working people might most likely need to use it - doing what they can to sabotage ACA. (Please leave a comment saying, "Congratulations!" to influence FB's algorithm to increase the visibility of this posting.) THEN, PLEASE COPY AND PASTE ON YOUR OWN TIMELINE.

"[It] sucks when I'm told I don't deserve affordable health care and when it's implied it's my fault I have a pacemaker or need pain meds," says Jackie Todd, a filmmaker who posted the status to her page in September. She believes her chronic heart condition would make her uninsurable, should the Affordable Care Act be repealed.

The "congratulations!" Facebook status offers users the twin satisfactions of doing one's civic duty and hacking Facebook's mysterious "algorithm." And the accusations of sabotage jibe with recent reports that claim the Trump administration is rolling back its support for the law.

At the same time, it's hard not to be skeptical of a random post that appears in your feed.

Should you believe it? Should you share it?

That depends on a few things. And I looked into those things.

Is the information about the ACA in the post accurate? Broadly, yes. Let's break it down:

"Enrollment for 2018 Affordable Care Act (ACA/Obamacare) starts November 1 and ends December 15."

True, according to Healthcare.gov. That's six weeks shorter than the 2016 open enrollment period, which ran from Nov. 1 to Jan. 31.

"Snopes verified that the enrollment period was shortened and GOP has cut by 90% the funding to advertise these deadlines."

Also true, with a caveat. On Aug. 31, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it would allocate $10 million for its ACA promotional budget, down from $100 million in 2016. The agency claimed that despite doubling advertising funding from 2015 to 2016, "first-time enrollment [declined] by 42 percent," justifying the deep cuts.  

As for the caveat? Snopes did verify the information — though the claim that the "GOP" is responsible is not exactly right, as the adjustment was made by the Trump administration, not any particular political party.

"Administration is also taking the website down for 'maintenance' for 12 hrs at a time on weekends for most of the enrollment period when working people might most likely need to use it."

Again, true. In late September, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would be taking Healthcare.gov offline on five Sundays during the open enrollment period, from 12 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Is the "congratulations" tactic an effective way to "hack" Facebook's mysterious algorithm?

Unfortunately, probably not. At least no more so than simply posting the information to Facebook without the "congratulations" attached.

The claim that including "congratulations" in a status boosts a post's ranking on Facebook comes from from a 2014 Wired article, which reported that Mark Zuckerberg proposed the idea himself, after noticing that a post about a colleague's birthday appeared higher on his own feed than a post about the birth of his own niece.

That's not the case today. A Facebook spokesperson said that including highlighted words like "congratulations" (which trigger delightful special effects when clicked) do nothing to improve a post's ranking on the news feed. He noted that posts that feature the word do "tend to get more engagement from people on the platform," which does increase their reach.

So should you post it yourself?

"Anything and everything is helpful in spreading the word," says Lori Lodes, co-founder of Get America Covered. A former director of communications at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Lodes was responsible for outreach efforts during Healthcare.gov's second and third open enrollment periods. Get America Covered was founded to fill the gaps left by the administration's cutbacks, in part by putting together resources to help individuals encourage those in their social networks to enroll.

In the meantime, Lodes supports sounding the alarm on Facebook.

"The most important thing people can do right now is to get the word out — whether that is talking to friends, sharing on social media or hanging up signs in their neighborhoods," she says.

The next few months will help determine whether the Affordable Care Act thrives or merely survives.

Can anyone really help replace the well-funded, coordinated effort of a large federal bureaucracy?

Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images.

That part remains to be seen. But it's up to you, regardless.

Congratulations!

Please copy and share?

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A furious Jimmy Kimmel slams the new GOP health bill in a monologue everyone should watch.

Sen. Bill Cassidy has failed the "Jimmy Kimmel Test."

Spectacularly so.

In a blistering monologue delivered Tuesday night, late-night host Kimmel accused the Louisiana Republican of coming on his show and lying "right to my face" about health care.

At issue: the latest Republican attempt to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act, with a bill co-sponsored by Cassidy. This bill comes just a few months after Cassidy appeared on Kimmel's show in the wake of Kimmel's newborn son's open-heart surgery and his heart-wrenching monologue about the importance of health insurance.

"A few months ago, after my son had open-heart surgery, which was something I spoke about on the air, a politician, a senator named Bill Cassidy from Louisiana, was on my show, and he wasn't very honest. It seemed like he was being honest. He got a lot of credit and attention for coming off like a rare, reasonable voice in the Republican Party when it came to health care for coming up with something he called — and I didn't name it this, he named it this — the 'Jimmy Kimmel Test,' which was, in a nutshell, no family should be denied medical care, emergency or otherwise, because they can't afford it."

Kimmel argued that instead of passing Cassidy's Jimmy Kimmel Test, the new bill cruelly rips away many of the protections Cassidy promised to uphold.

"Now, I don’t know what happened to Bill Cassidy. But when he was on this publicity tour, he listed his demands for a health care bill very clearly. These were his words. He said he wants coverage for all, no discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, lower premiums for middle-class families, and no lifetime caps. And guess what? The new bill does none of those things.

Coverage for all? No. In fact, it will kick about 30 million Americans off insurance. Pre-existing conditions? Nope. If the bill passes, individual states can let insurance companies charge you more if you have a pre-existing condition. You’ll find that little loophole later in the document after it says they can’t. They can, and they will.

But will it lower premiums? Well, in fact, for lots of people, the bill will result in higher premiums. And as far as no lifetime caps go, the states can decide on that, too, which means there will be lifetime caps in many states. So not only did Bill Cassidy fail the Jimmy Kimmel Test, he failed the Bill Cassidy Test. He failed his own test. And you don’t see that happen very much."



The proposed law, as drawn up by Cassidy and three other GOP senators, would indeed drastically weaken many of the Affordable Care Act's consumer guarantees, much as Kimmel described it.

According to an NPR analysis of the bill, states could indeed waive the Affordable Care Act's essential benefits requirement and allow insurers to charge customers with pre-existing conditions more or reject them outright.

Additionally, states could permit insurers to reinstitute lifetime coverage caps, limiting the amount they pay out over a customer's lifetime.

Cassidy responded to Kimmel shortly after the segment aired, disputing the host's characterization of the bill and encouraging his colleagues to vote for it.  

Senators and bill co-sponsors Dean Heller (left) and Cassidy. Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images.

"We have a September 30th deadline on our promise. Let’s finish the job," he said in a statement provided to Vox. "We must because there is a mother and father whose child will have insurance because of Graham Cassidy Heller Johnson. There is someone whose pre-existing condition will be addressed because of GCHJ."

It is difficult to imagine that will be enough for Kimmel, who concluded by pleading with his audience at home to "call [their] congressperson."

"You have to do this. You can't just click 'like' on this video," he said.

The future of health care in America could hang in the balance.

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