{"id":2346924,"date":"2026-03-26T21:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2346924"},"modified":"2026-03-26T21:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T21:20:11","slug":"union-city-police-cats-comfort-residents-after-deadly-tornado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/union-city-police-cats-comfort-residents-after-deadly-tornado\/","title":{"rendered":"Union City Police cats comfort residents after deadly tornado"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Aya Miller
mlive.com<\/p>\n

BRANCH COUNTY, Mich. \u2014 People clearing damage from the Union City tornado<\/a><\/span> in the days after the twister were greeted with an unlikely surprise.<\/p>\n

A brown kitten named Officer Ezra.<\/p>\n

| WEBINAR: <\/b>How agencies operationalize real-time policing<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Ezra rode in a police car and perched on the shoulder of Chris Mathis, the Union City police chief and village manager. Ezra went everywhere Mathis went, greeting line workers and residents alike.<\/p>\n

The March 6 EF3 tornado, the strongest and among the deadliest to hit Michigan in 46 years<\/a><\/span>, destroyed many of the village\u2019s utilities and electric lines, causing between $40,000 and $50,000 in damage, Mathis said.<\/p>\n

Since joining the department, Ezra has become a \u201clocal celebrity,\u201d Mathis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople would see him and pet him and hold him,\u201d Mathis said. He thinks Ezra\u2019s presence \u201chelps a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Union City Police Department adopted Ezra and his brother, Ellis, in December 2025. Union City Village residents visit the kittens at the police department, which shares an office with the Union City Village Office at 101 S. Broadway St.<\/p>\n

The kittens aren\u2019t trained therapy or emotional support animals, Mathis said. And the department wasn\u2019t looking to adopt pets.<\/p>\n

Instead, the kittens came into the department by way of the cat distribution system. The kittens tumbled out of a vehicle outside the department one morning in December.<\/p>\n

Someone heard the kittens meowing outside the village office and two staff members caught them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initially were just going to take care of them and find a home for them,\u201d Mathis said. \u201cBut they\u2019re just so cute and they just kind of wormed their way into our hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The kittens live in the office full time. The building is large and they have free roam between various rooms where their litter boxes, food and water are located. The kittens are not allowed in the building\u2019s public entrance in case anyone is allergic to cats, but staff members will bring them out if a visitor asks for them.<\/p>\n

Officers will also use the kittens if they need to speak with a child who has gone through a traumatic event. The kittens help \u201cbuild rapport\u201d and can \u201csoften\u201d the interaction to make children more comfortable, Mathis said.<\/p>\n

The kittens spend their day sleeping, walking around the office and playing. They still both have a lot of energy, Mathis said, and are very friendly.<\/p>\n

Ezra loves to be cradled like a baby, Mathis said, and will climb Mathis\u2019 Kevlar vest to ride on his shoulder.<\/p>\n

Ezra will also lay on Mathis\u2019s desk while Mathis films Union City true crime stories to post on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think (viewers) are more interested in the cat than they are me,\u201d Mathis said.<\/p>\n

Their presence has been especially helpful to staff coming back to the office after long days dealing with tornado recovery.<\/p>\n

Mathis said they have no plans to give the kittens up for adoption.<\/p>\n

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\n Most reductions will impact community-based programs as the agency seeks up to $4 million in savings, Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi says\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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\n North Andover Police Officer Patrick Noonan testified that Kelsey Fitzsimmons grabbed a gun, raised it and pulled the trigger, forcing him to shoot her\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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\n The judge cited reasonable doubt after conflicting testimony about whether Kelsey Fitzsimmons pointed a firearm at responding North Andover Officer Pat Noonan\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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\n Gordon Graham recounts how a chance encounter launched his career and fueled decades of work in risk management and organizational improvement on CHP\u2019s podcast\n <\/p>\n

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March 26, 2026 10:05 AM<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00b7\u00a0<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

Want more Kalamazoo -area news? Bookmark MLive\u2019s local Kalamazoo news page<\/a><\/span>.
\u00a92026 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com<\/a><\/span>. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

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\n \u201cThe Pink Badge program has become a meaningful way for public safety professionals to support a cause that affects so many families,\u201d said Lee Galperin, President of Smith & Warren.\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.police1.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Aya Millermlive.com BRANCH COUNTY, Mich. \u2014 People clearing damage from the Union City tornado in the days after the twister were greeted with an unlikely surprise. A brown kitten named Officer Ezra. | WEBINAR: How agencies operationalize real-time policing Ezra rode in a police car and perched on the shoulder of Chris Mathis, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2346925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2346924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Union-City-Police-cats-comfort-residents-after-deadly-tornado.com2Fbrightspot2Fee2F7d2F812b2d5f47518.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2346924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2346926,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346924\/revisions\/2346926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2346925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2346924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2346924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2346924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}