Venice boardwalk’s piano man is missing his cat
On a Venice boardwalk stocked with memorably Bohemian characters, the piano man and his cat, Baby Girl, managed to stand out.
For years the cat sat (or napped) on Nathan Pino’s piano during his performances of Bach or Beethoven — like a furry bar-lounge muse. With its copious, champagne-colored fur, the cat became co-star to Pino, a boardwalk staple dubbed the piano man by countless YouTube viewers and visitors.
Now Baby Girl is gone.
Baby Girl, who appears to be a Norwegian Forest cat, disappeared Saturday afternoon as the 61-year-old Pino was playing his usual classical program on his baby grand piano for tourists across from the Sidewalk Cafe.
To make matters worse, the cat has a thyroid condition that makes her lose weight if she is not given Tapazole pills twice a day. The longer she’s gone, Pino said, the greater the likelihood the 6.5-pound feline will waste away.
“I feel like I’m missing a part of my body,” Pino said Thursday. “I feel like when my parents died.”
Pino found Baby Girl on the boardwalk nine years ago. In the place she used to sit, Pino’s piano now holds a handmade banner touting a $500 reward for the return of his companion. The cage he normally uses to carry her to the beach sits in the nearby grass, waiting for her return, along with a can of Fancy Feast, her favorite brand of food.
Scott Jones, 53, Pino’s friend and a fellow musician, said the cat’s disappearance has left the piano man distracted.
“He’ll be playing and boom, he’ll stop, make a sign and run down [the boardwalk] and put it up, leaving a crowd of people at the piano,” Jones said. “He can’t concentrate.”
Did Baby Girl wander away and become lost or was she stolen? No one really knows.
Pino said he believes she was taken — probably sometime between 3:30 p.m and 4:15 p.m Saturday.
Pino said the cat has drawn attention from tourists from around the world, including Germany and Japan. But what they see as a cat or an attraction, he said, is family.
“You didn’t just take a cat,” he said, staring at a palm tree a few yards away. “You took a part of somebody’s life.”
Twitter: @TrevellAnderson
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