We have been asked how we acquired our greeter and housecat Milo. Here is his story.
In June of 2013 several staff members noticed an orange kitty occasionally hanging around the back parking lot. Numerous attempts to interact with the cat were unsuccessful. One late evening he was spotted again. Tracy grabbed a bag of cat food and with a determination in her step decided she was going to catch this orange kitty. You see, Tracy has a special place in her heart for “ginger” kitties!!
The stray orange kitty spotted her coming and ran off. Tracy was not going to let that stop her. She walked over to the picnic table near him and poured some food out. As soon as he heard the food, this starving, thin boy came a running. He jumped on the table and inhaled the food. He started purring and letting Tracy pet him.
Tracy brought him into the clinic, scanned him for a microchip and found nothing. The following day he received a complete exam, blood test, worm screen, etc… He had several types of worms, a hernia that needed to be repaired and to be neutered. He was very sweet once we completed all of his treatments. While he was recovering from surgery we started telling people about him in an attempt to adopt him out.
We estimated Milo’s age to be around 3 years of age when we found him. Unfortunately, adult cats are extremely difficult to rehome! Milo was moved to Miss Kitty’s Hotel, in our boarding facility. He became quite comfortable and was allowed roaming privileges in the waiting area before hours. As time went on, Milo began spending time during our business hours in the waiting area greeting clients and their pets. Needless to say, we all became extremely attached to this, warm, loving “ginger” kitty.
During one of our vaccination clinics a client asked to adopt Milo. After the clinic, we were cleaning up and were looking to put Milo in his cage and couldn’t locate him. We were told that he had gone home with a client for possible adoption. We were all devastated. Monday came along and it was a very lonely, sad day as there was no Milo to greet us and our clients. Several days later the family that had taken Milo home called and said that it was not working out with their other cat and would like to bring him back to our clinic. We were so ecstatic!!! Once he was returned we determined that he would never leave again and that we were his permanent home!
Milo has been greeting and loving our clients and patients for the past 4 years. He seems to have a sixth sense in knowing which client needs him for comfort during a hard time. Milo finds a willing lap with many and even the “none” cat clients tolerate his attention.
Milo is one of the most unique cats we have ever known. He loves all pets, cats, dogs, rabbits. Never growls at anyone or anything. He loves to steal food from the other cats in Miss Kitty’s Hotel which is why he is a diet failure! We have many clients who will come in just to say Hi to Milo.
Milo is definitely a gift to us and to our practice!