As of March 5, 2020, a beautiful two-year-old tabby named Monique had been at the U.K.’s Battersea Animal Shelter for 121 days. Most cats spend just 23 days at the facility before they are adopted.
Part of the reason Monique has been so hard to re-home is that she has Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV).
FIV poses no threat to humans or other animal species but it does mean her immune system is compromised and she could easily develop other health issues during her life.
While FIV-positive cats can and do live with other felines, many shelters look for homes where they can be an only cat. The virus is transmitted between cats via deep bites that take place during aggressive fights.
While 2%-5% of cats carry the virus, many of them live perfectly normal and healthy lives and can live just as long as other cats.
Still, people are hesitant to adopt them.
The staff at the shelter love Monique and say she has become accustomed to being a shelter cat in all the months she’s been at Battersea.
“Monique is a really sweet and affectionate young cat,” Nikki Cummins, a communications officer with Battersea, told The Dodo. “When she first arrived at Battersea, she was a little shy and took time to come out of her shell but once she got to know the people around her, her personality shone through and she’s always happy to see us.”
But Monique deserves a forever home and her caretakers came up with a creative way to draw attention to her plight.
In February — and on Valentine’s Day no less — they decided to throw her a birthday party.
And while we don’t know who was invited, we do know that no one showed up or offered to take her home that day.
“We get a lot of visitors to our cattery, many of which are considering adopting a cat and are there to find out more about how to do that and see some of our cats. Staff hoped the decorations would draw everyone to the birthday girl and entice them to ask about what kind of home she was looking for and in an ideal world, offer to take her home, Cummins said.”
Heartbreaking!
Of course, the staff was happy to come and give her some love during her “party.”
“We were disappointed that Monique’s birthday didn’t attract any potential new owners but our staff and volunteers were of course more than happy to pop in to give the birthday girl a bit of a fuss — she got a LOT of cheek rubs that day,” Cummins reported.
When her story went viral on sites such as The Dodo and Bored Panda as well as in the U.K. media, people were overcome with emotion for the beautiful cat with the sad story.
Still, weeks went by with no adoption.
Luckily, Cummins said that “Monique is blissfully unaware of her newfound fame and is seemingly content.”
Of course, she has no idea what a birthday or birthday party is, so the whole affair was just another day at the shelter for her — but with some extra cheek rubs.
Monique has a few other quirks that likely kept her from being adopted quickly, and the shelter has asked that any potential adoptees meet quite a litany of criteria.
For example, they want her to be an only cat, and since she’s active, they also want her to have an outdoor space that can be enclosed so she cannot infect other cats. It’s a tall order. (And it’s also better for FIV+ cats to stay indoors.)
The shelter also said they expect Monique to take some time to open up to a new family and that she can only live with kids as long as they know to give her space and allow her to come out of her shell in her own time.
While the shelter didn’t do much follow-up on her story, commenters were pleased to share screencaps in March of her adoption notice.
We know nothing else about the situation, but it does appear that she was recently re-homed about a month after her failed birthday party.
Thank goodness for a happy ending!
Our hearts couldn’t handle the news that this sweet girl was still in a shelter.
Be sure to scroll down below to see one of the many news stories about the beautiful tabby.
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