Meow Money Meow Problems

Planet Money

NPR

Business, News

4.6 • 29.8K Ratings

🗓️ 25 February 2023

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More than 20 years ago, something unusual happened in the small town of Dixfield, Maine. A lady named Barbara Thorpe had left almost all of her money—$200,000—to benefit the cats of her hometown. When Barbara died in 2002, those cats suddenly got very, very rich. And that is when all the trouble began.

Barbara's gift set off a sprawling legal battle that drew in a crew of crusading cat ladies, and eventually, the town of Dixfield itself. It made national news. But after all these years, no one seemed to know where that money had ended up. Did the Dixfield cat fortune just...vanish?

In this episode, host Jeff Guo travels to Maine to track down the money. To figure out how Barbara's plans went awry. And to understand something about this strange form of economic immortality called a charitable trust.

This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Dave Blanchard. It was engineered by Josh Newell. Sally Helm edited the show and Sierra Juarez checked the facts. Jess Jiang is Planet Money's acting Executive Producer.

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Planet Money from NPR.
0:06.5	About 20 years ago, something extraordinary happened in a small town in Maine called Dixfield.
0:13.6	It all started with a local woman named Barbara Thorpe.
0:16.8	Barbara passed away in 2002, but I found someone who knew her really well.
0:21.5	Bev Glover.
0:22.5	Bev used to drive Barbara to the doctor's office and the donut store.
0:26.9	They were close.
0:27.9	I remember one mother's day.
0:29.9	I went to the store.
0:30.9	I was before I went to church.
0:32.2	I went to the store and got a plant and took it to her.
0:34.9	And I said, you are like another mother to me.
0:37.9	And I remember that it made her cry because she never had any kids.
0:41.7	And she said she'd never gotten a mother's day gift.
0:44.7	Barbara didn't have any kids.
0:46.5	What she did have was cats.
0:49.4	She had two Siamese cats, the boys.
0:52.0	The boys.
0:53.0	The boys.
0:54.0	I've lost the boys.
0:55.0	Can you come help me find them?
0:56.5	The boys were named Waldo and Henry.
	...

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