Fabled ?Cat Man? largely a mystery

Good Samaritans are people who voluntarily offer help or offer sympathy in times of trouble. This definition is courtesy of Webster?s.

In my opinion, the definition of a truly good Samaritan is someone who voluntarily offers help or sympathy in times of trouble and expects nothing in return and wants nothing in return. When something is offered, these people will generally turn down an offer of gratuity for the deed performed because accepting something would somehow tarnish the good deed.

Truly good Samaritans are sometimes hard to find and when they do come around, to me that?s newsworthy information. That?s why when I hear about one but can?t seem to find him it just piques my curiosity. I would like to witness a good deed or two and tell people about it.

Lately I?ve been hearing a lot about ?Cat Man? from people in Warren County. According to my sources, (don?t you just love it when a reporter uses those words), there is a guy walking around town who calls himself by the alias ?Cat Man? and never gives another name.

While walking around town, he does good deeds for people. In some instances, he will leave a sign. Fittingly, the sign says ?Cat Man has done his part, now you do yours.?

From what I hear, these signs are generally left after he picks up trash or something that doesn?t result in too much attention-getting from the property owner. When he?s done, he leaves the sign for the owner to find later.

He also does other things like helping people out financially, helping people in distress and being supportive to people in need.

With all these wonderful things, why hasn?t he been featured in the paper? According to one source, he doesn?t want recognition. To me this is a sign of a truly good Samaritan.

No one seems to know his real name. Someone who talked to him and then spoke to me said the guy is on some mission to do good things. From what I gather, it?s a guest-like endeavor.

For right now, its kind of like a game of ?Where?s Waldo.? Numerous people have seen him doing the good deeds, found his signs and have talked to him personally. An even larger number of people have seen him walking around town and in local stores.

I?ve seen someone who I think is him but I would rather not speculate. I also don?t want to walk up to a stranger and ask, ?Are you Cat Man.? Good grief, what if I?m wrong and the guy thinks I?m a fruitcake or something?

With the elusiveness of this guy and the speculation of whether he really does exist, I can see why he hasn?t been in the paper. For the life of me, if he is out there and doing such wonderful things, I wonder why people haven?t written a Letter to the Editor to let others know of his good deeds.

I know there are others in this community who do good deeds every day. There are people who collect clothing, canned food and toys just to name a few. We even have organizations and churches that do good deeds on a regular basis.

I guess the reason this intrigues me so is that he doesn?t want to be recognized. In my opinion, being recognized for a good deed doesn?t diminish the deed any ? or does it? If he feels that it does, then I would rather not know who he is but I would like to hear about the good deeds.

Maybe Southern Standard readers can help me out a little by writing a Letter to the Editor if they have any good deeds they want to share regarding any Cat Man activities. At least we can hear what he does. Why does he do the things that he does, and when did he start doing good deeds?

Lisa Hobbs is a reporter for the Standard. She can be reached at 473-2191 or by e-mail at [email protected].