23 days is the average time a cat spends in Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Monique has been in the Cat Home for 121 days. The beautiful, 2-year old cat is incredibly social and playful, but has FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus). Monique’s condition can be easily managed, but the reality is that she can’t live with most other cats. Her condition has caused people to be hesitant about adopting her, so she’s still in the shelter, 121 days and counting, waiting to be adopted.
“Monique is a really sweet and affectionate young cat. 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”, says Nikki Cummins, a communications officer at the shelter.
Everyone at the shelter loves Monique and her personality and they would really like to see her in a happy home. They even came up with an idea to help her get adopted.
“Monique’s birthday falls on Valentine’s Day so it seemed like an ideal time to celebrate one of our cats. What better time for people to consider bringing extra love into their life than Valentine’s 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,” explains Cummins.
On the day of the party, everything was ready. All the decorations were in place and the birthday girl was in the center. Unfortunately, no one showed up to Monique’s birthday party. While everyone was pretty disappointed, Monique remained in high spirits.
Although the party didn’t work out, everyone from the shelter believes that Monique will eventually get her happy home. In the meantime, she’s have to enjoy the love of the staff.
“Monique is blissfully unaware of her newfound fame and is seemingly content. Although she would love to be in a home of her own, she slowly settled into life at the cattery and is enjoys spending quality time with our staff and volunteers as well as sitting on her perch to keep an eye on everything going on around her,” says Cummins.
