“If you don’t read his cues properly, then you’re getting smacked” 😂
By Ashley Ortiz
Published on Jan 6, 2023 at 11:24 PM
When it comes to getting his point across, one shelter cat called Max knows just what to do.
“He’ll reach his arm right out through the cage and smack if he needs to,” Tracy Marcotullio, shelter manager at Oromocto and Area SPCA, told The Dodo.
Max has only been at the shelter for a few weeks, but he’s already made a name for himself amongst staff members. As a senior cat looking for a forever home, Max soaks up the attention he gets from his caregivers, but he has limits — and he’s not afraid to let anyone know when they’ve been crossed.
“He’s sort of a cranky old man,” Marcotullio said. “If you don’t read his cues properly, then you’re getting smacked.”
In response to Max’s smacks, the shelter decided to make a sign for his cage to keep track of his no-smacking streaks.
Every time Max goes a full day without smacking anyone, shelter staff add a day to the sign on his cage.
His longest streak so far has been four days with no smacks, but he is currently back down to zero days.Oromocto and Area SPCA
Although Max likes to use his paws to communicate with his visitors, shelter staff know that the senior cat means well.
“It’s not that he’s a bad cat,” Marcotullio said. “He just gets overstimulated, and when he’s had enough, he’s had enough.”
To the staff, it’s all about knowing what Max likes and dislikes. When it’s time to clean his cage, Max’s caregivers know that he gets overwhelmed easily, so they let him run around the shelter with the other cats during the cleaning process. They also make sure to have his favorite snacks at the ready whenever they need to get back in his good graces.
“He’s a treat monster,” Marcotullio said. “The way to his heart is with canned food or Temptations treats.”
Even still, no one is exempt from a Max smack. No matter how many days he goes without smacking someone, Max’s no-smacks streaks always go back down to zero eventually. And anyone who is lucky enough to break his streak gets to keep a commemorative pin of the experience.
Marcotullio and her staff are having fun getting to know Max’s quirks and sharing his spicy tendencies with their social media followers, but they’re hoping that he’ll get to leave the shelter soon.
“As much as we’re having fun with it, we really want him to go to a forever home,” Marcotullio said. “He deserves to get out of here and find his people.”
Since posting about Max and his smacking habits, the shelter has received an influx of calls not only inquiring about the sassy senior cat, but about his other friends at the shelter, too.
“He’s helped to bring attention to other cats in the shelter, too,” Marcotullio said. “He’s helping his buddies get adopted. It’s a win-win.”
As of now, Max is still at the shelter waiting for a family to scoop him up and love him forever. In the meantime, he’ll keep dishing out smacks to his favorite people as he sees fit.
To help cats like Max get the care they need, make a donation to Oromocto and Area SPCA, or check out their list of available adoptees.
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Hiker Decides To Help When He Sees A Little Lost Animal Staring At Him
“[T]hat’s when I saw, just off in the distance, a little figure …”
Earlier this week, Jason Hawkins set out on what he thought was going to be a simple hike to an Oregon hot spring. But when he was at the trailhead, two people approached him to ask if he was missing his dog.
Hawkins was not missing any pets and had no idea what dog they were referring to. But as he began the hike, he observed his surroundings more closely than usual, alert to any signs of a lost animal.
Sure enough, about a quarter of a mile into the hike, Hawkins noticed a little dog staring at him from behind a small boulder.
“[T]hat’s when I saw, just off in the distance, a little figure,” Hawkins told The Dodo. “It kind of clicked that that might be the dog they were asking about.”
Hawkins tried to approach the dog, but he was so terrified and disoriented that every time Hawkins came up to him, he ran away.
“[H]e ran off deeper into the woods for a while when I was trying to follow him, and that kind of just freaked me out a little bit,” Hawkins said. “The deeper he got, the more worried I became.”
Eventually, the pup got tired and lay down in a grassy clearing. Hawkins was finally able to get close to him. He saw that the dog had a collar on, which confirmed that he was someone’s lost pet.
Hawkins was determined to reunite the pup with his family, who was probably worried sick about him. But he wasn’t sure how he was going to get the dog back to the trailhead. Hawkins didn’t have any food with him, and the dog was too scared to follow him without encouragement.
After thinking on it for a while, Hawkins came up with a genius solution. He decided to clip his camera’s tripod to the dog’s collar and use it as a makeshift leash. Surprisingly, the dog didn’t mind at all. In fact, the tripod “leash” even seemed to set him at ease.
“As soon as I stood up and he could kind of feel the pull on his collar, he was like … ‘I know what’s happening, we’re good now,’” Hawkins said.
Hawkins led the dog back to the trailhead and attempted to call the number on his collar, but the service in the area was spotty and none of his calls were going through. He managed to text the dog’s owner, and shortly after, she drove up to the trailhead and collapsed in relief upon seeing her dog.
“[S]he could barely talk to me,” Hawkins said. “She was just fighting back tears the whole time.”
Hours earlier, the woman had been driving around with her dog when he’d somehow escaped her car and ran into the woods. She’d been searching all day for him, and thanks to Hawkins, they were finally reunited.
Hawkins feels lucky that he was able to play a role in helping someone find their missing dog. As an animal lover himself, he knows how stressful it is to not know if your pet is OK.
“Being able to ease the mind and see the joy that was on her face afterwards felt really good,” Hawkins said.
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