they founded Backpacks for the Street<\/a>, a nonprofit that distributed backpacks filled with food, toiletries and other essentials while helping connect homeless New Yorkers with housing, jobs and other services.<\/p>\nConner died unexpectedly after suffering cardiac arrest, according to a Facebook post Newman shared on June 28 \u2014 the couple\u2019s 22nd anniversary. <\/p>\n
\u201cJayson was the love of my life. He was my person,\u201d Newman wrote. \u201cHe accepted me for who I am\u2014flaws and all\u2014and loved me unconditionally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newman, who also had health issues, died just days later. It wasn\u2019t clear why, but police do not suspect any criminality and the city Medical Examiner is investigating the cause. <\/p>\n
Friends remembered the pair as tireless advocates whose kindness touched countless New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
Newman, 58, and Conner, 49, both passed away within days of each other. Facebook\/Jeffrey Newman<\/p>\n
Mahoney tracked down Thai\u2019s cat sitter, who confirmed the elderly feline had been left behind after the apartment was sealed by police.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe called the NYPD and they said the apartment couldn\u2019t be opened without a court order,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cI\u2019d been through this before, so I knew it could be done if you were persistent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahoney went to the 32nd Precinct, where she waited more than an hour before finally convincing a sergeant to hear her out.<\/p>\n
Mahoney tracked down Thai\u2019s cat sitter, who confirmed the elderly feline had been left behind after the apartment was sealed by police. Obtained by the Post<\/p>\n
\u201cShe listened to the story, grabbed a new seal and said, \u2018Let\u2019s go,’\u201d Mahoney recalled.<\/p>\n
By then, Thai had likely been without food for about a week.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t know if we were going to find a dead cat, a sick cat or what,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cBut when they opened the door, she came running into the room crying. It was like she was saying, \u2018You\u2019re here.’\u201d<\/p>\n
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The officers were stunned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey weren\u2019t expecting to find her alive,\u201d Mahoney said.<\/p>\n
Now safe in foster care, Thai has avoided any urgent medical problems despite her ordeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s remarkably strong,\u201d Mahoney said. \u201cShe\u2019s a very, very sweet little cat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mahoney said Thai likely won\u2019t be looking for a home for long. One of the departed couple\u2019s friends is expected to adopt her.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turns out this old cat still had one life left. An elderly cat was rescued after spending nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290833,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19800,1457,6123,57,9,56,63,65,64,58],"class_list":["post-290832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-animal-rescue","tag-animals","tag-cats","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290832","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290832"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290832\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290832"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}