A cuddly cat whose affection was too much for one family has finally found his perfect match.
Bruno, a buff-colored tabby in New Jersey, went viral late last month after the Montville Animal Shelter posted on Facebook about the cat’s adoption and subsequent return.
“Sad news Bruno came back after only a week!” the shelter wrote. “The family never had a cat before and said he was too affectionate, always wanted to sit on their laps, follow them around, and head-butt them for kisses and pets.”
The shelter also wrote that Bruno was “too playful” for the family and “got zoomies in the evening,” referring to the bursts of energy that can make cats run around in a frenzy.
But Bruno’s big personality made him the perfect pet for another couple in the state. The couple, identified by their first names Catherine and Andrew, told NorthJersey.com in a story published on Friday that they first saw Bruno online before the animal shelter’s Facebook post went viral.
“A few hours later, [Catherine] sends me a screenshot of the post with like a thousand shares, freaking out like ‘What if we don’t get him? What if he got too famous,’” Andrew told the website.
There was so much interest in Bruno that the shelter had to pause applications for him. But Catherine and Andrew were the ones who ultimately took him home. He’s settling in well, and his new family finds it “adorable” when he wakes them up by headbutting them.
“When we first picked him up, he basically crawled into my neck ... I think he was very excited to leave the shelter and be held again,” Catherine said.
But while only one family could be Bruno’s lucky new adopters, his story also helped other cats at the shelter find homes, staff member Lindsay Persico told NorthJersey.com in a previous article. So many people hoped to meet Bruno, she said, that “almost all” of the shelter’s cats got adopted.