Biography: Chunk

Chunk is a cat that came from humble beginnings. He now lives a life free of worry over where he will live or where his next meal will come from, but it was not always that way. Before he was even born, he was homeless and his very life was in peril. He had to overcome many obstacles in his first year of life to end up in his permanent home with me.

The story of Chunk’s life actually begins with a former Petkey employee by the name of Vania. Vania adopted a cat from the local Humane Society. The cat that Vania adopted was said to be a spayed female. When she brought the cat home, she quickly realized that there had been a mistake and the cat was actually not spayed at all. She made a veterinary appointment to take care of the spaying as soon as she was able. When Vania took the cat in to be spayed, the veterinarian gave her surprising news. Not only was the cat not spayed, but she was actually pregnant with a litter of kittens!

The veterinarian suggested that Vania have her cat’s kittens aborted. Vania decided against that, and instead took it upon herself to help this formerly stray cat raise her litter of kittens. The litter ended up being four kittens, two females, and two males. One of the kittens, the biggest kitten in the litter, was our Chunk!

When the kittens were old enough, Vania brought them all in to our Petkey office to wean them from their mother. Shortly after they were old enough to be weaned, the two female kittens and the other male kitten were found suitable permanent homes. Unfortunately, there was not a home to be found for Chunk. Several current Petkey employees, Nick and Rachel, tried to take him home, only to discover that their families had allergies to cats. Chunk ended up spending his days in the office and going home with Petkey’s Blair at night.

Chunk looking very professional at work (he is wearing a kitty tie).

During working hours, Chunk spent a lot of time curled up in a desk drawer taking a nap. When he wasn’t sleeping, he was usually getting into some kind of mischief in the office, whether it was knocking over items on desks, or getting into our storage closet through the rafters and howling to be let out. Unfortunately, Chunk had to eventually be “let go” as an honorary employee at Petkey after knocking over several computer monitors!

When Chunk was about nine months old, Blair found that she was just unable to keep Chunk at home full time. It was then that I adopted him. I already had one cat at home, a one year old spayed female tortishell named Zelda. Zelda is a very lazy cat that would rather lie down in the sun than play with a mischievous cat like Chunk, but they have become (mostly) good friends. Although Chunk does not get into trouble at the office any longer, he does get into many things around the house. He is able to open desk draws, kitchen cabinets, even the pantry door, and has done so on many occasions, either to try to find a nice place to take a nap or to get into our supply of catnip!

So Chunk may have gotten off to a rocky start in life, but thanks to the many people who devoted their time, energy, and office supplies to helping him survive his kittenhood, he now has a very loving permanent home with me, and even though his sister may wish at times we wouldn’t have brought her little brother home, we would not change a thing!