20 March, 2019

Exit stage left for Rufio the theatre cat

Rufio, the Rose Centre’s beloved theatre cat, will no longer “strut and fret his hour upon the stage”, after moving out of Belmont.

The tabby cat has frequented the centre for many years and even made an appearance in a play a few years ago.

“Rufio decided that the couch in the scene was a very nice place for him to have a little snooze,” says Rose Centre chairperson Raewyn Nevin, who was performing in the play.

“Between acts, Rufio slipped in. So, when we started again, he was sitting there. We just ignored him.”

Rufio didn’t like it when an actor sat on his couch and exited stage right.
The audience was in hysterics, which was good, as the play, Off the Hook, was a comedy, put on by Phoenix Theatre, Nevin says.

“Most of them would probably have known Rufio, because he’d been going there for so many years.”

Rufio originally moved into then manager Richard Parmee’s office, but also enjoyed sitting on the theatre’s chairs near the heat pump in winter.

His owner, Lynden Shanahan, said Rufio originally arrived through the cat door and settled in.

No amount of advertising in the area uncovered his owners, so the lost cat stayed on with Shanahan and was named Rufio after the leader of the Lost Boys in Peter Pan.

When the family moved across the Belmont Primary School fields from the Rose Centre, Rufio discovered the theatre, where there were plenty of people, offering pats and snacks.

“He’d come home to eat, then he’d ‘go to work’ at the Rose Centre,” Shanahan says.

Shanahan has now shifted to Takapuna and Thespian Rufio has moved to Pt Chevalier with family members, where he has happily settled in and bonded with toddler Louis.

This article originally appeared in the March 22 edition of the Devonport Flagstaff. Download PDF.