Is a cat ever ‘too emotional?’ Well, one family returned a foster cat for that reason. Strangely, the story has a very happy ending.
A white tabby named Bruno has become one of the most desirable cats at the Montville Animal Sanctuary in New Jersey. After a viral post on social media, people came to adopt Bruno. This cat is an unexpected star. As a result, the story helped find homes for most of the shelter cats.
No one could believe it when they found out he was returned to the shelter because his mother found him “too emotional” to get work done at home.
This is not the first time Bruno has returned to the shelter after a child in the first adoptive family developed allergies. But a few months later, a mother and child adopted Bruno. That’s when they realized Bruno’s tendency to be a cuddly velcro cat was a bit outrageous.
Lindsay Persico of the shelter told local news what happened: “Persico explained that the mother worked from home and the cat would repeatedly headbutt her, making it difficult to get the job done. The cat also insisted on sleeping in the little girl’s bed, making the latter stay up late to play with the former. So, a week later, Bruno was brought back to the shelter.”
Bruno became the most wanted cat. Persico said that when he returned to the shelter, Bruno became depressed. She decided to share his story on Facebook, because who would believe someone would give him back for being so friendly? The post reached hundreds of thousands of views and Bruno went from being rejected to being the most wanted cat! About 50 families applied to adopt Bruno, but as it turned out, another family chose him before the post went viral.
With all the attention Bruno received, the shelter noticed a spike in interest. She said: “People came to our door to see Bruno and we got almost all the cats in the store at that time. “We only have two black cats left in the adoption room. So that’s also a good response,” Persico said.
There was so much interest in Bruno, the ‘too affectionate’ cat, that NorthJersey.com posted an update on Bruno.
The couple Denville, Catherine and Andrew intended to adopt Bruno before he became an internet shooting star. The day before the Facebook post, they spotted him online on the shelter’s Petfinder and thought he might be the one for them. By the next day, they saw the post go viral and knew they had to act fast. So they adopted Bruno.
“That was before the post blew up,” Andrew says of their app. “A few hours later [Catherine] sent me a screenshot of the post with thousands of shares, like, ‘What if we don’t catch him? What if he becomes too popular?’”
“It was the perfect timing,” Catherine said. “We can’t plan if we try.”
When Andrew shared the news with his friends that they had adopted Bruno, his colleagues and friends knew which cat they were talking about from all the viral posts on social media. But, they don’t want the cat because of its popularity. They simply wanted him to be part of their family. Too affectionate is too perfect. It was love at first sight as soon as Bruno met the couple. “He was very open when you first met him,” says Catherine. “When we first picked him up, he got into my neck… I think he was excited to leave the shelter and be kept.”
When Bruno got home, he was a little nervous. But it wasn’t long before his “too emotional” side came out. He wakes them up with his signature headbutts. But this time, his human found it adorable. And even better, Catherine loves the kitten so much that she has been working from home as it adjusts to its new life. Congratulations to Bruno, his forever family and Montville Animal Shelter New Jersey!