AS SEEN IN THE AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY!
RINGO Film
After moving to a new neighborhood, Derek discovers a feral cat with a plastic ring stuck on its neck. He tries to rescue the skittish cat from this life-threatening circumstance and becomes attached in the process.
INTERVIEW WITH THE WRITER
Why did you make the movie?
“I just didn’t want to lose the story. I didn’t really recognize it while I was in the middle of it, but Ringo has one heck of a story. There’s a part of it we don’t know- how he got the ring stuck on his neck in the first place. I can make a good assumption based on the obvious- he stuck his head in the drain that it was covering. Drinking water? Chasing a lizard or a mouse? However it happened, his life changed significantly on that day because he clearly had problems.”
What kind of problems?
"Besides being uncomfortable and constricting- which I don’t think cats like very much- It was causing some health problems. It was heavy and a mechanical hindrance, but mainly it restricted his head and neck to the point where he couldn’t groom or clean himself. He had already developed a severely matted coat and an unsanitary condition on his backside. We learned later that it was tight enough to scar his neck. Being an outdoor feral cat is hard enough, but these things were surely going to lead to infection and a shortened life."
Why did you record the rescue attempts?
“Out of necessity, really- once I was going to have a cage trap setup in my yard, I needed to make sure I didn’t trap a neighbor’s cat or any other unintended victim. The cameras have a feature to notify me when there is activity so I could see what was going on and respond quickly. Later, the cameras were critical to study Ringo’s behavior so I could keep making adjustments. I thought the footage was interesting so I started sharing some of it with my online community.”
That video diary ultimately became the basis for the documentary, right?
“Absolutely. The online response and sympathy for Ringo’s situation was incredible. People offered suggestions and other moral support through the whole process, so I wanted to keep them updated. Because it took much longer than I anticipated to catch him, posting the same “cat avoids trap” video eventually became boring and I started to spice them up and do other silly things. About a year-and-a-half later, when I decided to write down the story I went back through the posts and relived each day to remember what happened. I realized that I had all this footage from the cameras that captured everything, so video was going to be the best way to preserve and share Ringo’s story.”