Cat of the Month

Monty

February 2012

Monty came to us as a stray. My husband had seen him around the house in August of 2011 and assumed he belonged to one of our neighbors because he looked like someone was taking care of him.

The first time I saw him was in September. He was taking a snooze on our front porch and seemed pretty comfortable. He was very social and very friendly and would come and go at his leisure. Sometimes he would be gone for days at a time and I, too assumed he was working the neighbors while having a home to go to at night. The day he ate three cans of cat food I was certain he was a stray.

We already had two cats. I had lost my Siamese that I had for 17 years and had just found a new kitty at the Human Society and was not looking for a third one. Monty had another plan.

I started looking for a new home for him rather half-heartedly and then realized that he was going to be staying with us. I got him into the garage. He didn’t try to leave and it was love at first sight for my husband who considers himself "not a cat person." Kitty still didn’t have a name at that point.

We noticed that he had a limp and his one paw was twice the size as his other ones so we took him to the Cat Clinic North, got him cleaned up and decided it was time to find him a name. I finally came up with Belmont because we lived in Belmont. That quickly became Monty.

Monty is the gentlest cat I have ever had. In spite of his obviously rough start in life, he just enjoys every day as it comes. He has an instant purr and hands out head butts daily. The other cats are a little annoyed with the new guy in the house but Monty won’t take no for an answer and just keeps trying to get to know them. He is a sweetie.

The other night we were having dinner with friends of ours who are also our neighbors. They came to the house and met the new guy and I told them that Monty had just recently joined us around Thanksgiving time. It turned out that they knew Monty. Not by his new name, but he had been to their home throughout the summer and they had made the decision to take him in when they saw him again because he was such a lovable kitty. That was right around the same time Monty made his mind up to adopt us.

Monty has shown us that it is important to stay positive and that nice counts. He is a dear little cat and I am so glad he picked us to live with.

Marie Kessler