Hundreds of UCLA community members gathered at a memorial for Powell Cat on Thursday afternoon to reflect on the cat’s nearly decadelong campus legacy following their death March 9.
Powell Cat first appeared on campus in 2015, when they could often be spotted greeting students near Powell Library, earning them their name and identity as an unofficial campus mascot. In 2018, they moved to a spot atop a vent outside the left side of Kaufman Hall, where volunteer student and staff caretakers would refill their food and water bowls and visit them daily. They were around 10 years old when they died.
While not much was known of the black tuxedo cat’s history prior to arriving at UCLA, caretakers estimated that they were about two years old when they first appeared and likely born sometime in 2013, said Kathy Brown, an assistant to the university librarian in the Charles E. Young Research Library and the primary staff caretaker of Powell Cat. She said it’s possible that Powell Cat was the kitten of a previous campus cat who was once known as Library Cat prior to being adopted by a UCLA librarian and renamed Midgley.
[Related: UCLA librarian adopts Powell ‘Library Cat’]
Powell Cat was originally fed and taken care of by the Campus Cat Network, a staff-run volunteer organization, until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Brown then became their primary caretaker and took Powell Cat to the veterinarian for checkups and vaccinations, she said. Brown later recruited student volunteers – a group that became known as the Powell Cat Feeder Friends – to take turns feeding Powell Cat beginning in 2021.
During a trip to the veterinarian in 2021, Powell Cat was diagnosed with feline immunodeficiency virus, a common disease in cats that is nontransmissible to humans but may make cats more susceptible to other diseases. Brown said she believes Powell Cat likely passed away from a heart attack after living with the condition.
The memorial for Powell Cat was held at 5 p.m. in front of Powell Library. About 200 students and staff gathered in front of the library’s steps to hear Brown speak about Powell Cat, write messages for Powell Cat on large paper posters and trade stories. The posters will be displayed inside Powell Library on rotation, Brown said. A message board for Powell Cat is now up in Powell Library for students to continue to add their memories of the cat, she added.
Phoebe Chiu, the Undergraduate Students Association Council facilities commissioner, also spoke at the memorial. She said she was thankful for Brown’s efforts to support students and Powell Cat’s memory.
Powell Cat was loved by nearly every group on campus, said Chiu, a fourth-year psychology and economics student. She added that she had fond memories of times a friend would carry around catnip for Powell Cat.
“Just knowing that Powell Cat has been a part of not only the community for the number of years but the number of community members that Powell Cat interacts with, I think it brings me a sense of peace to be part of the larger UCLA community,” she said. “He’s someone that’s just there for us and doesn’t expect anything from us.”
Alumnus Kassandra Angel, who graduated in 2017 and studied anthropology, said she recalled seeing a cat – likely Midgley – around Powell Library as early as 2013. She said that as an upperclassman, she spent many long nights in Powell Library, where Powell Cat would greet her outside at any hour of the day.
She said she would sometimes exit the library to run laps around the building at night to re-energize during study sessions, adding that seeing and petting Powell Cat during those times remains a vivid memory of her university experience. Powell Cat was a friendly attraction to students since he first appeared outside Powell Library, where he would often sit on the left side of the building, Angel said.
“It was really comforting to see him outside when you were struggling or you just needed a little break,” Angel said.
She added that she had discovered the Powell Cat Instagram account recently. She said she was surprised to see how popular Powell Cat had become on social media but felt that it was fitting as a display of UCLA’s strong sense of community.
Angel added that she believed it was special that Powell Cat chose UCLA as his home for so long.
“I think that just really speaks to probably how safe he felt and how taken care of he must have been,” Angel said.
As of Sunday, the Powell Cat official Instagram account now has over 375 posts and nearly 16,000 followers.
Alaina Dexter, an alumnus who studied art and German, began Powell Cat’s official Instagram account in April 2018. They originally ran the account for about a year until they invited Brown to help post in December 2019, said Dexter, who graduated in 2021. Following their graduation, Brown and the Powell Cat Feeder Friends took over the account, which publicly followed Powell Cat’s daily life with multiple posts each week, including photos submitted by students who met Powell Cat on campus.
Hanging out with Powell Cat was a great way to meet different people across UCLA, Dexter said. They joined the Powell Cat Feeder Friends in the summer of 2020 and became more involved in directly taking care of Powell Cat. They added that they would visit and use anything they had to play with them often.
“I’d take out my shoe strings, if I had any hoodie strings, my headphone strings, whatever I had on hand. … I had a little water bowl that I would carry around or take off the lid of my water bottle to make sure there was fresh water,” Dexter said. “Just kind of seeing what Powell Cat wanted for the day, and sometimes we’d lie in the grass.”
The Instagram account had around 800 followers during their first couple years in charge of it, but it grew to thousands during the pandemic as more people joined in the posting, Dexter said.
The Powell Cat Instagram account now offers students access to a Kudoboard online memorial page where people can upload photos and write memories of Powell Cat as well as a link to donate to the Stray Cat Alliance as part of a fundraiser in Powell Cat’s memory.
Rae Juruhara, an English doctoral student and teaching assistant, said Powell Cat helped them feel more comfortable when moving to California for school. Powell Cat felt like a symbol of community life and something the UCLA community could rally around, they added.
Although they did not have the opportunity to meet Powell Cat, they said knowing the cat was on campus at the same time as them was a comfort.
“I know that Powell Cat’s memory will last longer than the short time they had here on earth,” Juruhara said. “So to say that yes, I crossed – possibly crossed – paths, our paws have tapped the same gentle earth in the same way, in the same place, is very good to know.”
Mohammad Aljanoubi, a second-year chemical engineering student, wore a cardboard costume of Powell Cat to the memorial. He said the outfit had originally been his Halloween costume, adding that he felt wearing it to the memorial was a way to show his love for Powell Cat.
“I would just go out of my way every day just to try to see him multiple times a day,” Aljanoubi said. “He meant so much to me, … he helped a lot of us go through hard times.”
Aljanoubi said it was shocking and sad for Powell Cat to now be gone but added he was glad the university could gather to celebrate his life.
A group of students and alumni also held an online Minecraft memorial for Powell Cat on Wednesday at 8 p.m. They built a statue replica of Powell Cat on a UCLA students’ server and invited students and alumni to leave written memories of Powell Cat in Minecraft books in a virtual library within the structure.
Dean Huang, an electrical engineering alumnus who graduated in 2021 and helped build the Minecraft tribute, said the online memorial was a way for students and alumni who could not attend the in-person gathering at Powell Library to also pay their respects and share their grief. The library interior of the Powell Cat statue on the server was also built to resemble the interior of Powell Library.
Inside the virtual library, a Minecraft black tuxedo cat – labeled Powell Cat as a version of the campus cat within the server – sits on a couch on the bottom floor.
The team used reference photos to attempt to properly capture Powell Cat’s fur coloring and signature glare, Huang said. Powell Cat was an uplifting force during his time on campus, he added.
“When you come out of the library all tired and he’s just sitting there looking at you, oh, it’s a very blessed feeling,” Huang said.
The server and Powell Cat library of memories remain open to anyone hoping to visit and read about Powell Cat or contribute their own experiences with him to the collection, he added.
Powell Cat had previously been memorialized on stickers given to students at Powell Library, in pixel form within the UCLA Library Open Axis video game and with merchandise at the UCLA Store.
In December, third-year English transfer student Linsey Montgomery won the 10th annual Associated Students UCLA T-shirt contest by a majority student vote. Her winning design featured a stylized Powell Cat sitting atop a stack of books and swiping a paw up at the word “Powell” and has been available for purchase on T-shirts at the UCLA Store throughout winter quarter.
Montgomery said she chose Powell Cat to represent UCLA in her design because she felt he symbolized the community on campus. She posted her design on the UCLA subreddit and received dozens of comments in support of her entry. Following the announcement of Powell Cat’s death, the shirts all sold out, Montgomery said.
Montgomery said she was happy to be associated with Powell Cat and that the experience helped her bond with the campus in her first year as a transfer student.
“People can hear my name and say, ‘Oh, you were the one who did the Powell Cat T-shirt.’ Even my TA one day, they were like, ‘Hey, Linsey, I know that name,’” she said. “It’s definitely a way that people can connect to me.”
Organizers for UCLA First Thursdays, a monthly series of events that invites students into Westwood for a block party of games and activities, have also reached out to her, planning to honor Powell Cat and display her design at their upcoming event April 6, Montgomery said.
Although she looked for Powell Cat multiple times in front of Kaufman Hall and Powell Library, Montgomery never met them until March 8, just one day before they died. She said it felt magical and lucky to have seen him at the last chance.
“Pets, they don’t really do much. They just kinda sit there. Powell Cat, just the fact that he was there was a comfort. I think that’s enough,” Montgomery added.
On March 9, a petition started calling for UCLA to install a commemorative statue of Powell Cat on campus. It has so far received nearly 3,000 signatures. Kayla Saffold, a second-year sociology student, said she started the petition after reading through many online comments expressing desire for Powell Cat to be memorialized on campus more permanently in recognition of his impact on the community. The petition has also raised a few hundred dollars for the cause, she added.
With the petition, the community could come together to spread the idea and more clearly express demand for a statue, she added.
Until a more permanent statue is installed, Brown said her library colleagues are 3D printing a statue of a cat that will be displayed in the entrance of Powell Library to represent Powell Cat.
Saffold said shared adoration of Powell Cat helped her bond with friends in their first year at UCLA. She and a group of friends dressed up as cats for their first Halloween together at UCLA, and after posting the costumes and tagging Powell Cat, they were thrilled to see the Powell Cat Instagram account leave a comment, she added.
Saffold said she pet Powell Cat once during fall quarter 2021, but because she is allergic to cats, she risked developing adverse symptoms. Although she mostly saw him from afar, Saffold said he was very sweet, adding that she was very upset by his death.
“You can just stop and pet it, and it just kind of made my day, so it’s just something very small, and it stuck with me like a little memory,” Saffold said. “Hearing about Powell Cat, I was devastated.”
In fall 2021, a video series titled “Petting Powell Cat every day until I don’t” began appearing on the UCLA subreddit daily and lasted for more than 80 days, run by third-year electrical engineering student Sudarshan Seshadri. Seshadri said the series originally began as a joke but soon became a more serious endeavor. On Sundays, he said he would post special additions to the series, such as him petting the Bruin Bear statue, petting a Starship food delivery robot or people’s art of Powell Cat.
Seshadri said that as a South campus student, he often went out of his way to see Powell Cat and incorporate him into his day. He also bought cat treats that he would often bring to Powell Cat, he said, adding that petting Powell Cat was a way he met many new people on campus.
“Powell Cat’s the closest I’ve been to having a pet. … It just kind of became part of my schedule. It was like from this class, I turned right, and then I pet Powell Cat, or if I had like a weekly meeting on Saturday, right before that meeting, I would leave 10 minutes earlier so I could turn left this way, pet Powell Cat and then go to my meeting,” he said.
Powell Cat’s distinct personality was another thing to love about him, Seshadri added. He said he loved that Powell Cat could be finicky or grumpy on occasion and would let students know if he didn’t want to be pet. His favorite memories of Powell Cat, however, were when he would sit in his lap, he said.
“I mean, having Powell Cat in your lap is the best feeling,” Seshadri said. “It’s better than someone’s pet cat being friendly too because this is just a random cat who could do anything. He could go into those bushes there, he could go anywhere he wants, and he chooses to come and sit on your lap.”
Brown said although Powell Cat loved students and would often stay awake to receive attention, they would sometimes appear to turn their back away from students and face a wall to signal that they preferred not to be pet at the moment. Powell Cat’s expressive and outgoing personality felt unusual for a cat, she added.
Sophie Shaka, a neuroscience alumnus who graduated in 2022, said she first met Powell Cat while touring UCLA before becoming a student. Upon committing to the university, she was excited to see the cat more often, she said. After her first couple of years at UCLA, she saw the Instagram post about looking for volunteers for the Powell Cat Feeder Friends and jumped at the chance to join in her senior year, she added.
She and her roommate often searched the bushes outside of Kaufman Hall for Powell Cat even before she joined the Powell Cat Feeder Friends, Shaka said. Shaka added that she took great pride in being a caretaker for Powell Cat and enjoyed being part of the community of volunteers, which had a groupchat where they would coordinate feeding schedules in weekly shifts and sometimes share photos of the cat.
She signed the petition for the statue, which, if installed, would likely turn gold from all the petting it would receive, she said.
“I feel like Powell Cat will be greatly missed,” she said. “Every time I’d go over to Kaufman and be looking for Powell Cat, there’d always be like three other students doing the exact same thing, looking for them. I think the campus will feel this loss.”
When asked to describe Powell Cat in three words, Brown had a quick answer.
“Love – well really, love, love, love – but love, personality, home,” she said. “I think Powell Cat brought a lot of home to campus in their own unique way.”
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