Meet Nico.
He is quite the handsome little black and white devil (literally—at times I lovingly refer to him as a demon in a cat suit!) with a crumpled right ear. I thought it was damaged in a cat fight in his early days, but turns out it’s a birth defect (a number of the rescued cats had the same crumpled right ear). When I met him in the shelter he was shaved to the skin except for a puff at the end of his tail and “boots” on his legs (Dr. Seuss couldn’t have imagined anything cuter)! He’s about three years old now but has eternal kitten energy. Many a window curtain has been ripped or completely pulled from the wall when he thought they were there for his climbing pleasure. He doesn’t mind being cradled like a baby. He also likes to sit as though he’s a human. He’s also quite vocal and never stops talking (seriously!), but his purr is barely audible.

He lives with Paloma. I adopted Nico and Paloma from the Chittenden County Humane Society a few years. They were rescued as part of a colony of about 30 cats discovered in one home in Alburgh. They were all completely neglected, malnourished, riddled with fleas and ear mites, and some were rather sick with respiratory issues, mange, ringworm, etc. They were dispersed among local shelters. You’d never know now how bumpy their little lives began.

- Jennifer Diaz, Executive Assistant to the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs