Supplied
Every police officer knows the unwritten rule – you don’t just go and sit on a chair where your Colonel is sleeping.
Detectives at the Mossel Bay police station have experienced this first hand with officers often left standing on the job.
Colonel Tiger, a stray cat, was adopted by the Detective Office in 2016 after they provided him with food and water.
Being streetwise, he earned his rank as Colonel for his no-nonsense approach on what he wants and when he wants it.
It has been six years since Colonel Tiger's arrival and detectives admit that they still do not dare ask for cuddles.
There is mutual respect in the office but detectives tend to whisper if the Colonel sleeps.
"Sometimes he walks in here with an attitude and ignores us when we talk to him. Then he eats his special food, as he only likes a certain type of food, and walks out with his tail in the air, without acknowledging any of us,” Anne- Marie van Huizen, administration officer at the office complained to Algoa FM News.
In 2020 when the country was in hard lockdown, the Colonel disappeared for three weeks and returned to the office as if nothing had happened.
Colonel Tiger likes to mix business with pleasure and recently got a girlfriend. Her name is Moeksie and she sometimes comes to visit him at the office.
On top of that, no detective can ever rest because Colonel Tiger expects his "subordinates" to feed him on weekends as well.
"We do what the Colonel expects from us, after all, he is the boss," says Anne-Marie.
