Source: Radio New Zealand
Lola, a real deal celebrity in central Wellington. Supplied/Josephine Brien
For years Lola the Cat was the undisputed Queen of Aro Park in Wellington – a mural was even painted with the proclamation. News this week of her death sparked an outpouring of emotion from fans on social media.
Her adventures started back in 2008 when she and another kitten Mickey were bought from Animates.
Josephine Brien, who looked after Lola for several years, says it was her ex’s partner who first got the feline.
She said her partner lived on one side of Aro Park and she on the other.
“The kids would walk through from their dad’s. Lola, I think she just sort of got used to sort of following us around.”
Brien said even back then Lola would visit her house.
Supplied/Josephine Brien
“She knew so many people, and, you know, for a small cat, she brought a lot of love out of everybody.”
Lola wasn’t however always the three-legged cat she was remembered as in later years.
Brien said Lola was attacked by dogs twice, once around 2017 and again around 2019.
“The first one, she did lose her leg [and] that really curtailed her movements,” she said.
“But, you know, she’d still limp on into the park. It’s like she had her public, she had to look after.”
Claire Naughton with Lola. SUPPLIED
Brien said after a second attack Lola mostly vanished from the park, instead sitting in a basket near the house.
“We used to think that we should put a little sign up, like in that Peanuts cartoon, ‘psychiatric help 5 cents or whatever’, because […] people would talk to her for ages.”
She said she’s received lots of messages since Lola’s death in December.
“This boy came around with this beautiful oil painting he’d done of her, which is just so lovely, and […] another beautiful drawing has come through the letterbox as well, lots of cards.”
A local celebrity
RNZ visited Aro Park and shops to see what people’s memories of Lola were.
“I used to date a guy who lived next to her owners so every day I’d go and I’d see the little tripod stumbling around her little kind of soggy pet bed,” Koda said.
“Then she just disappeared.”
Koda said she eventually found out the cat had died.
“I knew that there was a whole lot of like cats of like inner city Wellington that you had to know when you moved to Wellington and she was one of them,” Liz told RNZ.
Liz said when she saw Lola she then told her friend and her daughter about her.
News that Aro Park’s beloved cat Lola had died inspired hundreds of tributes online. SUPPLIED
“Then we came here once to play basketball altogether and we saw Lola.”
“Since then, my daughter and I have come down regularly to play at the park and visit Lola on the way in and the way out and give her some love and pets and admire her little house,” her friend Natalie said.
“I haven’t broken the news [of her death] to my daughter.”
People who had left Aro Valley, Wellington and even New Zealand, also remembered their years with Lola fondly.
Lola Stoodley said the cat helped her a lot during her first year flatting in a cold flat in Aro Valley while dealing with “crazy life events”.
“My mental health wasn’t like amazing, and then I would go for a walk in the park and she would be sitting there on the benches by the basketball court.
“So she helped me through a lot actually that year.”
Stoodley also liked that the cat shared her name.
Sarah Fa’avale lived in Aro Valley during her last year of university.
“Being poor students back then, we would walk down to uni every day and we were always greeted at the park by Lola walking towards us with big meows and she was always happy to have a pet.”
Fa’avale said for her 21st birthday her friends did a scavenger hunt in which one of the clues was also by Lola.
Simon Dartford was going through a breakup when he first moved to Aro Valley and met Lola.
“My first morning I was walking to the office, I walked through Aro Park and I couldn’t believe my luck. This cat just wandered up to have a bit of a chat, and a cuddle, and it really, it was the highlight of my day actually.”
Courtney Hutchinson said seeing Lola in her basket on her morning walk to work was always a highlight.
She said Lola lapped up the attention.
“Cuddling her just felt so welcoming. It was a beautiful way to start my day.”
Alex Paterson said when she first moved to Aro Valley she saw the mural of Lola.
“I immediately wanted to know who the little celebrity was.”
“It wasn’t long before I found her sitting on her usual spot, a little planter box in the corner and she was a super duper friendly little cat.”
Alex said she’d look forward to seeing Lola when she walked down to the city.
“She’d always be there and I’d stop and say hi, maybe give her a cheeky little treat sometimes.”
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
