ST. PAUL-After killing college professor William Klug, gunman Mainak Sarkar left a suspicious note at the scene of the murder-suicide he orchestrated on the UCLA campus.

In it, he asked authorities to "check on my cat" back in Minnesota.

On Wednesday night, that's exactly what St. Paul police did.

Robert Humphrey, a spokesman with St. Paul's Department of Safety and Inspections, said the adult domestic tabby is alive and well at the city's animal control shelter on Jessamine Avenue West, near Como Park.

A microchip determined the cat's official name to be Jiffy. He'd been adopted from a humane society by Sarkar and his estranged wife, Ashley Hasti, Humphrey said. Hasti was found shot dead in her Brooklyn Park home early Thursday after authorities found her name on a "kill list" at Sarkar's apartment.

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Hasti has relatives in the Twin Cities.

"If someone from the family claims it, and they certainly could, we would give them the cat," Humphrey said. Otherwise, "it was adopted from one of our partners in the rescue community, and it would likely go back to them."

Inquiries about the cat have come from as far away as news stations in Los Angeles, Humphrey said. He noted that St. Paul Animal Control handles hundreds of cats and dogs every year, including some taken from homes where a suicide or violent crime unfolded. Animal Control has been asked to assist St. Paul Police 13 times this year.

While the city shelter is not strictly a "no-kill" facility, he said Animal Control takes pains to match every animal it can with a humane society or another rescue partner, who then coordinate adoptions in the community.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press is a news partner with Forum News Service