When I was a little girl, in Van Nuys, CA, the lady who owned this cat lived in my neighborhood and kept it in her garage. She kept it in the dark in her garage and it was trying to claw it's way out. All us neighborhood kids thought it was a monster and got the parents to call the police eventually and they came and I think took it away. I was about 6 or 7 so it would have been about 1971 or 1972.
I'm sure you're right, I just remember Dinah Shore doing the Chevy commercials. Marilyn Mason is a name that comes to mind but that might have been something else. Thanks for responding