When a North Carolina woman found herself with a new litter of kittens recently, she quickly realized that she wasn’t going to be able to take care of them all. Looking after one pet is difficult enough, and adding three new kittens to the mix just wasn’t going to work.
Like a good pet owner, she did the responsible thing and began searching for a new home for them. However, the responses she was getting from her Craigslist ad definitely left something to be desired.
One man even asked her if he could use the kittens as bait for dog fighting.
Discouraged, she took down the Craigslist ad and made a Facebook post about the kittens instead. Luckily, the responses she got there turned out to be much better.
One man, Officer Andy Simmons of the Hillsborough Police Department in North Carolina, stepped in to help.
He found out about the post from his wife’s coworker.
This isn’t the first time he had worked to help an animal in need, however. Simmons had previously been involved in the rescue of a cat from the wheel well of a vehicle a few months prior. After the rescue, he decided to adopt the cat and named him Officer Monty Sprinkles.
Unfortunately, Monty was in poor health from the start and soon passed away. Simmons tried to move on from the loss, but from that point forward it was like a part of him was missing. That is why when he saw the Facebook post, it felt like a sign. Simmons knew what he had to do.
He and his fellow officers worked to find the first two kittens homes, and Simmons adopted the third, naming him Mercy.
After that, the pair were inseparable. Mercy helped Simmons heal from the loss of Monty, and she would follow him everywhere he went.
“She has a dog’s personality and is very curious,” Simmons told The Dodo. “She follows me like a herding dog and wants to investigate every noise she hears.”
Since things were going so well, Simmons even decided to take the cat into work with him.
While the other officers were skeptical about the idea of having a cat there all time, Mercy quickly conquered their hearts.
She became their honorary police cat and was welcomed into the family.
“As days and weeks went on she began to bond with them, usually climbing on their shoulders as they sat, and it became the new norm,” Simmons said. “Officers always ask where she is if she takes a day off or is not in my office.”
Mercy spends most of her day hanging out in the office with Simmons or playing on the cat jungle gym he bought for her. However, when she is bored, he lets her roam around the halls. She’ll go off on little adventures around the police station, finding other officers to greet and play with.
Thinking back to the original Craigslist ad, Mercy’s life could have easily ended up going much differently. Thanks to the kind heart of Officer Simmons, things definitely worked out for her.
Now she will get to live out her life happy and healthy, fighting crime with the rest of her loving police family.
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