See also:
Charlie the Champion
and
Charlie’s travels
and, from last year,
Tomato’s Pulitzer Award

The Real Mrs. P
And the first Tomato Award for Investigative Journalism
September, 2001

By Tomato the Cat – Best Friends Investigative Reporter

For years, people kept telling me that there was no “Mrs. Pulitzer” and that I was wasting my time expecting her to send me a letter telling me that I had won one of her coveted prizes for journalism. Then, this time last year, as you will remember, Mr. Seymour Topping, the administrator of the Pulitzer Prizes, wrote to notify me of my Pulitzer award in a special new category: the Purr Prize.

The Pulitzer Committee is always scrupulous about avoiding any appearances of favoritism or conflict of interest in its awards. So Mr. Topping, the former foreign editor and then managing editor of the New York Times, hastened to add that the fact that “the Toppings have six cats, no less, and two dogs, all from an animal shelter” had nothing whatever to do with their decision to award this prize.

The idea that Mrs. P. would have chosen me for one of her awards for any reason other than journalistic excellence never crossed my mind, but my investigative assistant, Tammy the Greyhound, urged me to launch a full investigation of my Pulitzer Prize.

“Believe me, Boss,” she argued. “There’s more to this than meets the eye. This could be your biggest story yet. Mrs. P. is clearly one of us – alive and well and in a family of cats, dogs, and journalists. We have to make contact with her at once!”

As it turned out, it was Mrs. P. who would contact us.

Audrey Topping and Charlie Cockatoo
Her real name is not, in fact, Mrs. P., but Mrs. Audrey Topping, and for 25 years she had an investigative journalist, Charlie Cockatoo, in her own family.

Audrey rescued Charlie the Cockatoo by buying him “from an evil opium dealer” on Cat Street in Hong Kong in 1963.

Her husband, whom she calls “Top,” had just been reassigned from the New York Times Moscow Bureau to head up the Southeast Asian Bureau. Audrey was the editor of Mandarin Magazine and also wrote for the New York Times and several magazines.

She writes about Charlie in Best Friends magazine. She’s written a whole book about him, too – Charlie’s World – describing their times together. (Sorry to say, it's out of print.)

Charlie was a wild cockatoo, probably captured in Australia and then shipped to Hong Kong, where he was caged, his foot was chained, and his wings were clipped.

Once he was rescued, he began to display his huge talent. He couldn’t fly, but he learned to glide, spoke three languages, charmed his way through several countries, and had an ego beyond all bounds.

The Tomato Award for Investigative Journalism
Charlie met some of the greatest names in journalism and politics, and Audrey recounts that before long, word spread throughout Southeast Asia that he was actually her husband Top’s secret news source for his articles in The New York Times.

“Truly an investigative reporter after your own heart, Boss,” remarked Tammy the Greyhound.

“He deserves a Pulitzer Award himself,” I replied. “But since Audrey Topping is the real Mrs. P., it would look like a serious conflict of interest if she gave him one.”

Tammy and I thought about this all day and concluded that I should establish The Tomato Award for Investigative Journalism, with Charlie Cockatoo as the first recipient of the award, albeit posthumously.

“I believe,” said Tammy, “that protocol dictates that you call Mrs. P. and ask her if she would be so kind as to accept the award on Charlie’s behalf.”

            
My Interview with Mrs. P
Audrey Topping graciously accepted the award on Charlie’s behalf, so I took the opportunity to interview her at the same time.

Tomato the Cat: What were Charlie’s most accomplished acts of investigative journalism?

Audrey Topping: The famous people who came over loved talking to Charlie, but it was our girls who really confided in him. They would tell him about the problems they had at school or with us.

T.C.: What tips would Charlie have for animals wanting to get into investigative journalism?

A.T.: He was a good listener. He would say you have to be a good listener. And he was very aggressive. His best advice would be, “If these humans can’t understand what you’re saying, use your body language!” Charlie would move his head back and forth, flap his wings, and when he got angry he’d stamp his feet. And, of course, he’d scream! He spoke many languages, and was definitely telepathic. He was a very good mimic. He tried very hard to understand, and to make everybody understand him.

T.C.: You’ve rescued animals all over the world. Do you know how many?

A.T.: I’m petting one right now. We found this big dog that was part wolf outside of the Bronx Zoo. She was brought to the shelter and then I brought Wolf [the puppy] home and fed her with a bottle. Her eyes weren’t even open. I suspect that a wolf escaped from a zoo and mated with a dog.

Then there was the time when a Japanese cowboy found a baby buffalo in Colorado, about a day old. We have a house there. We named her Amelia and fed her with a bottle. She followed us all over the place. She’s now five years old, weighs two tons, and is the largest buffalo in her herd! When we go out there, which is about twice a year, I call her and she leaves the herd and comes running to me and nuzzles up to my jacket. I always dress the same so she’ll recognize me. Amelia was my most unusual rescue! She goes to the cowboy’s house, too, and watches television through the window!

I don’t know how many animals I’ve rescued, but when I married my husband, my mother said to him, “I have to warn you, Top, that Audrey picks up strays.” To which Top responded, “Well I’m one of them!”

So, we’ve had a lot of animals. It’s contagious: we have five daughters, and two of them are cat rescuers. One of them has 26 cats; she’s a journalist with Newsday. The other is an attorney. Cats just seem to find us!

T.C.: What was the biggest lesson that you learned from Charlie?

A.T.: That we’re all one. A lot of people try to convey that all human beings are of one spirit, but I would include all the animals and insects and the whole universe. That’s what Charlie taught us. He gave us the connection to nature in the fullest sense.

T.C.: Would Charlie have a comment on receiving the Tomato Award?

A.T.: He would say, “It’s about time. What took you so long?”

See also: Charlie the Champion and Charlie’s Travels