A pet cat is reportedly dragging out Miss America 1977 Dorothy Benham's divorce from a Bloomington lawyer.
Benham had been trying to keep her divorce from attorney Paul Shoemaker quiet because Miss Minnesota 1976 is embarrassed a third marriage has ended this way.
But the Tigger the cat situation has got Benham's tongue wagging.
"My youngest living at home are 16 and 17," Benham told me Monday, "and they have known him [Shoemaker] since they were 3 and 4. Now he's trying to keep their cat. I'd be divorced already, and now he's thrown this in the mix.
"My children are absolutely beside themselves. I bought this cat because another cat of ours was run over. My youngest son, who was like 9, said, Mommy, I've never had a pet of my own. So we went to the Humane Society and were there for about two hours and Richard picked out the cat that he wanted. I paid for it. It was a gift from me to my son.
"So my estranged husband is fighting us over the cat. Even last night [Sunday] my daughter, Maddie, was pleading with him, Why are you trying to take our cat? I have already removed our other animal; I have a dog, too, but he [Shoemaker] hates the dog [Precious]."
Benham currently has the cat.
Tuesday I left Shoemaker a voice mail and wrote him an e-mail asking if he would be so kind as to call and tell me what role the cat is playing in his divorce from Benham.
