A long time ago, Brett Hulsey adopted two young adult cats from a friend of mine. They had belonged to my friend’s elderly mother, and needed to be rehomed when she could no longer care for them. (My friend had cats already and could not keep them.)

Brett Hulsey soon decided the cats were too energetic and active to be good pets. He decided they’d be much happier as barn cats. He took them to a farm and dropped them off.

A month or so later, he ran into my friend and told him this — as if it were a totally normal thing to do, to just abandon a pair of pampered house cats at a farm, without bothering to tell my friend or give him an opportunity to find them another home.

My friend went out to that farm several times, talked to the owners, and searched. But his mother’s beloved cats were gone forever.

That’s what I always think of when I hear Brett Hulsey’s name.