By Mark Rondeau, Vermont Country Magazine.
ARLINGTON — I have adopted only two pets in my life: both cats and both from Second Chance Animal Center. Rocco is the second. I picked up Rocco on Dec. 10.
As a reporter and editor for the Bennington Banner, I first became aware of Second Chance years ago.
In those days, I was owner of Chloe, an indoor cat originally adopted by my mother. When my mother passed, Chloe became mine. One pet was all that I could handle, and this cat was enough. Chloe was affectionate toward me, but she was a “scaredy cat” and didn’t like most people. In fact, on her chart at the animal hospital: “Aggressive Cat” was written at the top.
At any rate, a health problem caught up with her at age 13. After she was gone, I went several months without a cat.
When it seemed like time to get a new cat, I thought of Second Chance. This was 2014, and the shelter was still in a building farther south on Route 7A than its current location.
Memory can be a faulty thing, but I recall there being two rooms filled with cats. It was an older building that had obviously been repurposed from another past use. It was so close to the road that you almost had to back onto Route 7A to get out of the parking lot in front.
At any rate, it was plenty adequate to bring man and cat together. On my first visit in the spring of 2014, I did not find any cat compelling nor did any feline find me so. The second time I visited, I sat on a chair inside the door in the first cat room and was going to look through the binder with descriptions of the cats present.
Just then, a little brown and black striped tabby with a white bib jumped onto my lap. I petted and petted him, expecting him to jump down at any moment. He did not. After about 10 minutes of this cat on my lap, I started getting the attention of people going by in the hall: “Hey, hey, look at this. This guy keeps staying on my lap and letting me pet him.” I was completely won over.
His name was Milo. He was somewhere around 6 to 8 years old. This was his second time at the shelter. His first owner grew too old to take care of him. His second owner had a child who was allergic to him. I filled out the paperwork, including contact information for the animal hospital that took care of Chloe. The cat coordinator told me Milo was affectionate, vocal, athletic, and loved head rubs. He was all of that and more.
Milo loved to sit on my lap and sleep on my bed up against me. He was at times cheeky. He liked to try to bite me as I drew my hand away, sweep my alarm clock repeatedly off the nightstand, and launch himself off the bed onto the high bureau. I have a series of photos of him on the bureau picking up my keys, holding them off the edge, and dropping them onto the floor.
When I worked second shift at the Banner, he waited for me by the door every night as I came home, and I could hear him meowing on the other side of the door. He wanted food, of course, but he also wanted to get onto my lap.
In late summer 2022, Milo started eating less. Steroids and another medicine took care of it and he went back to his old vigorous self. The symptoms returned, however, in early 2023. His diagnosis was unclear but seemed to be pancreatitis. It eventually turned out that he had liver cancer and was nearing the end. I was there at his last moments.
This was in mid-September 2023. After a period of grief, I was thinking of adopting a cat, but wasn’t doing anything about it. Then, on Friday, Dec. 1, a Facebook friend shared a post from Second Chance about a cat named Thatcher, which I saw.
The photo: a cute striped and spotted male tabby seeming to ooze with the mischievous attitude I so loved from Milo.
The text began: “Meet Thatcher! Thatcher was brought to SCAC after his previous owners moved and left him behind. If you are looking for a high-energy love bug, this wild man is for you!”
The post jolted me into action.
I called the cat coordinator immediately, and went to Second Chance — at its new location — the following morning and met Thatcher. He didn’t jump onto my lap but did let me pet him and rubbed up against my ankles. Enough!
I immediately filled out an application and got word within a few days that I was approved to adopt him. His new name is Rocco, mostly because he looks like a “Rocco” to me. The name has some history in my family, and Saint Rocco ministered to plague victims.
As I write, Rocco and I have had about seven hours at home together. He spent the first two hours or so in constant motion, checking everything out multiple times, meowing most of the time.
He is very affectionate, and his head-butt game is strong. He has already stood on my keyboard once as I tried to write this, and just spent an extended period on my lap, looking over at any attempt to type with suspicion.
Keeping Rocco as an indoor cat may be a challenge as I had to practically wrestle with him to keep him from bolting out the door when I went out briefly. He also keeps very much under foot as I walk along, so it’s going to take extra caution not to trip over him.
So, as with my two previous cats, there will be challenges but the rewards will far outweigh any inconveniences, expenses and heartache. That’s already clear.
In the post about Thatcher — now Rocco — Second Chance began the last sentence of the text accompanying the photo: “If you are interested in giving this handsome boy a forever home …” Providing a forever home is a charge that comes with adoption and one I take very, very much to heart.
Mark Rondeau with Milo, his longtime companion and the first cat he adopted from Second Chance Animal Center in Arlington. Mark, is a long-time newspaper reporter, photographer and editor. He is interested in the outdoors, local history and baseball.
