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Pet Saved by Trust Officer

Georgia Lee Dvorak, who died on December 24th, 2011, was 76 years old at the time of her passing, and was survived by no relatives, just her 11-year-old cat. Her will, written 20 years prior, instructed for her cat to be put to sleep upon her passing; however the trust officer in charge at the time, Josephine Di Cesare of the Fifth Third Bank, felt uncomfortable putting Dvorak’s 11-year-old cat to sleep.

This led to a petition backed by Fifth Third Bank, and eventually led to the decision to let the cat survive. According to a Cook County probate court, the provisions of Dvorak’s will from 1988 with the grounds that cat euthanization is against Illinois state policy, and a shelter for Dvorak’s cat, Boots, was found.

As established by a trust associate at the Fifth Third bank, the cat was being cared for by Dvorak’s neighbors, both before and after her passing, but was unable to take the pet in permanently due to the husband and wife having severe cat allergies. As a result, a shelter was found for the cat to be placed in until another owner could be found.
Katherine Goggin, the trust associate at Fifth Third Bank, explained she called several different animal shelters that specialized in the disuse of euthanasia, but was rejected many times due to the cat’s old age, which made it harder to get the animal shelters in the Chicago area to take it in. Eventually, an organization called “Cats are Purrsons Too” agreed to save the cat from sure euthanization, but although there was now a shelter for Boots, the petition needed to be granted by the court to validate the actions.

Fifth Third Banks’s lawyer, who is also a cat lover, argued Dvorak, the cats previous owner, was committed to the humane treatment of animals, and that her $1.4 million estate went to twelve related animal charities, making the idea of euthanizing the benefactors 11 year old cat a dismissible one.

Did you know?
Probate procedures are state governed procedures and have been the focus of reform debate for over 40 years. This led to the Uniform Probate Code which was first introduced in 1969 and was adopted in its original form by 16 states including Alaska, Florida, and Michigan.