After a woman with three kittens decided she could not care for them — her next step was to make sure they went to loving homes and posted an ad to Facebook, placing them up for adoption. And the first response was from a man who wanted to use the kittens as bait for dogfighting. The woman was shocked and quickly took the posting down.
But the silver lining was how the right folks found out about the exchange and helped at just the right time.
The Hillsborough Police Department’s Officer Andy Simmons in North Carolina had recently been involved in a rescue of a kitten a few months back from the wheel well of a vehicle and decided to adopt him.
Simmons named the kitten Officer Monty Sprinkles but sadly, Monty passed away as he was in poor health from the start. Simmons had Monty’s ashes in his office and wanted to move on but felt like a part of him was missing after that.
Then, as fate would have it, Simmons discovered how three kittens in a Facebook post from his wife’s co-worker had been put up for adoption. Simmons along with his fellow officers decided to help the kittens find their forever homes.
And with everything that happened to Simmons up to this point, he believed this was a sign and adopted the third kitten himself. He called her Mercy.
And the pair did not realize how much they needed each other. While Mercy helped Simmons work through the loss of Monty, Mercy loved being around Simmons every chance she got — following her dad around everywhere he went around the house.
“She has a dog’s personality and is very curious,” Officer Simmons shared with The Dodo. “She follows me like a herding dog and wants to investigate every noise she hears.”
Since Mercy was so attached to Officer Simmons from the very beginning, he decided to try taking her to work with him — and just like that, little Mercy became the newest officer at the Hillsborough Police Department.
And as Mercy was very attached to Simmons from the get go, he thought taking her to work with him would be the next best step.
And he was right! Mercy became one of the newest addition at the department despite other officers skepticism about having a cat around.
But it was not long before Mercy made them all fall in love with her.
“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,” Officer Simmons shared. “Officers always ask where she is if she takes a day off or is not in my office.”
Mercy loves hanging out in her dad’s office and playing on the jungle gym he installed for her. And once she gets bored of that — she can roam the whole station, wandering the halls, searching for her next playmate.
And while Mercy’s life could have been drastically different, it seems Simmons was meant to have her as his own. The pair changed each other’s lives and their bond is heartwarming.
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