Carl's Cat

Carl Larsen works as a data analyst helping to support the City of Norfolk's Open Data team -- the employees who work to provide public data sets in this space. In November 2019, Carl began to work on a new dataset -- information on all the animals at the Norfolk Animal Care and Adoption Center. 

NACC is an open-admission shelter that provides safe haven for animals from the City of Norfolk. It offers adoptions for all kinds of animals - dogs, rabbits, pigs, lizards - and yes, even cats.

When Carl reviewed the data from NACC, he decided to investigate his own feline friend!

Carl filtered the dataset by Gryffindor's original name from the shelter, as well as the outcome date (when he and his wife adopted the cat) sex and breed.

Then, Carl reviewed all rows in the dataset associated with his cat's animal ID number.

SURPRISE! The Larsens are Gryffindor's FIFTH family! 

Their cat was once a stray, brought to NACC by animal control officers!

And the Larsens were able to narrow down Gryffindor's true age based on the records he found.  

Watch this short video to see how to apply filters to the dataset. (Your headphones are fine, there's no sound.)

If you want to look up a pet you adopted from NACC, click here to jump over to the dataset! 

Now the Larsens know: Gryffindor really IS so happy to live with them! And maybe his history explains why he seems a little needy from time to time.

Want to read more about NACC? Check out our data story on all the work NACC does for animals in our city.

Need a pet? Check out all the adoptable animals at our shelter! #AdoptNACC 757-441-5505, 5585 Sabre Road.