Forgiving Flock Passes Plate for Ailing Tomcat

First Timothy,an orange church cat,has raised more hell than hosannas.

His church attendance record is spotless. First Timothy never misses a Sunday sermon or midweek prayer meeting at Woodland Hills Presbyterian Church.

But for 15 years, First Timothy, a furry orange church cat, has raised more hell than hosannas. He has interrupted preachers, upstaged choirs and made brides blush.

This week, First Timothy proved he also has raised the consciousness of church members. They have taken up a special collection to pay for treatment of an infection that threatens his life.

Church members first rushed him to the veterinarian, then raised $350 to pay the bill. On Monday, one church member took First Timothy home to personally nurse him back to health.

All that for a cat who does not always inspire loving memories.

“My first introduction to him came one Sunday when he came up and rubbed against my husband’s ankle,” said Dorothy Moyer, an 11-year church member. “And then he took a bite out of his ankle.”

Rally to Cat’s Aid

The Moyers, nonetheless, were among the first in the 350-member congregation to rally to First Timothy’s aid.

“He has bitten a lot of people,” acknowledged Mary Carr, a 13-year church member who is now pumping the cat with medicine at her Woodland Hills home. “He’d come up for no reason at all and bite. The word in the church was if he licked you, he was just cleaning a place to bite you.

“But he’s mellowed now. He’s a pussycat.”

First Timothy has lived at the church since a neighborhood child left him there as a kitten. According to longtime church members, he was promptly adopted by churchgoers and by Johnnie Nygaard, the widow of a former minister. He was given his biblical name a short time later by the Rev. Gary Smith.

After that, Smith frequently worked the cat into his sermons and lessons, sometimes pointing to the animal to remind the congregation that the church welcomes strays of all kinds.

Church members built First Timothy a house behind the church and a raised food platform next to the sanctuary to keep his food out of the reach of neighborhood dogs.

On Sundays, First Timothy took to taking purposeful strolls around the church during services. Many people have joined the congregation after receiving a personalized Sunday morning “invitation”--a friendly nuzzle or an unexpected climb in the lap--from the cat, Smith said .

Collection for Dental Surgery

Seven years ago, churchgoers took up a collection to pay for dental surgery for First Timothy. After Nygaard, now 84, moved into a retirement home, seven members set up a daily feeding schedule for the cat. When a directory of church members was published, First Timothy’s photo was included. A church recipe book printed by members included First Timothy’s favorite orange carrot cake.

But Muriel Wallace, the church’s secretary and a member since its 1960 founding, disagrees with those who say the cat has mellowed over the years.

“His disposition hasn’t gotten any sweeter with age,” Wallace said. The church choir, she said, recently awakened the cat as he dozed on the pulpit steps. An irritated First Timothy directed a disdainful eye at them, hiked up his tail and stalked off.

“I don’t know what that says about the choir. But it says a lot about Timothy,” Wallace said.

A year ago, First Timothy dragged a dead gopher up to a bride during an outdoor wedding reception. He once chased a stray black cat in front of a bride being escorted down the aisle, Smith said.

“I said, did everybody see that gray cat,” Smith recalled Monday.

Last fall, Smith moved to a Garden Grove church and was replaced by an interim pastor, the Rev. Bob Howland.

Since then, Howland has made it clear that he is more impressed by the congregation’s devotion to the cat than by First Timothy’s devotion to hygiene.

‘Not Cleaning Up Any More’

“I told the board I’ve cleaned up two piles of cat puke, and I’m not cleaning up any more,” Howland said. “But I petted him last month when I was in the library. You can put that in your story to balance the perceived antipathy of how Rev. Howland feels about that bleeping cat.”

Others also say they can take First Timothy or leave him. Primarily the latter.

“He’s not a friendly cat,” said Ruth Hauenstein, a 10-year church member. “You pet the guy, you’re as liable as not to get bitten or scratched. But still, I’ll miss him when he’s gone.”

The cat’s vet, Richard LaRue, said that day could come soon. The cat has pneumonia and pleuritis, an inflammation of the chest cavity, LaRue said.

Even the cat’s backers say it is unlikely there will be a Second Timothy, despite the arrangement of the New Testament.

“It takes a special cat to be a church cat and keep a low profile. I don’t think we could find another like him,” Carr said.