A helping paw
WCSH reporter Don Carrigan, left, meets with Jill Cooney of Westport Island at a fundraiser and book-signing at Sarah’s Cafe in Wiscasset on March 15. Near Carrigan is his adopted cat Wally, who now attends appearances as Carrigan’s famous rescue cat Togus did. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Don Carrigan and Wally take in a moment together during the March 15 fundraiser at Sarah’s Cafe in Wiscasset, to benefit the Lincoln County Animal Shelter in Edgecomb. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
WCSH reporter Don Carrigan, left, meets with Jill Cooney of Westport Island at a fundraiser and book-signing at Sarah’s Cafe in Wiscasset on March 15. Near Carrigan is his adopted cat Wally, who now attends appearances as Carrigan’s famous rescue cat Togus did. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Don Carrigan and Wally take in a moment together during the March 15 fundraiser at Sarah’s Cafe in Wiscasset, to benefit the Lincoln County Animal Shelter in Edgecomb. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
A few years ago, Lincoln County Animal Shelter in Edgecomb took in a Maine Coon-mix kitten and found him a home.
On March 15, at Sarah's Cafe in Wiscasset, he returned the favor.
Wally and his owners, Don and Donna Carrigan, were at the Water Street restaurant to raise money for the shelter. Wally was curled up, head raised, as Don Kerrigan sat nearby signing copies of the WCSH reporter's well-known book, “Togus: A Coon Cat Finds A Home,” about another cat the couple adopted.
Togus met with statewide fame through his appearances in Don Carrigan's storm reports from the couple's Walpole kitchen. A year and a half after Togus died in 2012, his Facebook page has nearly 14,000 “likes.”
And Wally, who Togus helped raise, is carrying on his adoptive brother's legacy of encouraging people to support animal shelters.
Saturday's book-signing at Sarah's also featured Tom Block, illustrator of Togus' book. The event drew a steady flow of people. “This is wonderful,” the shelter's manager Betsy Pratt said.
All the sales from coloring books about Togus, along with a chunk of the day's soup sales at the restaurant, were to benefit the shelter.
Westport Island's Jill Cooney left with two signed copies of the book about Togus; she'll be donating them to the schools where her daughters work, Spurwink School in Cornville and Plymouth (Mass.) Elementary School, she said.
Togus' story of getting a home is a true adventure, Cooney said.
His life with the Carrigans was one also, for them and him. Togus brought them joys and a crazy ride no one could have foreseen, Donna Carrigan said.
The Carrigans have just added to their family with another rescued pet. About a week before the Wiscasset appearance, the couple adopted a golden retriever from Pope Memorial Humane Society of Knox County in Thomaston.
Xavier, a 2-year-old, has made fast friends with the couple's female golden retriever Graydi; and with Donna Carrigan.
“He's joined at my hip,” she said.
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