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Mac the cat ‘was the face of the humane society’

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For seven years the first face most people saw when visiting the Sarnia and District Humane Society was Mac’s.

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On the front counter every day, “he seriously was the face of the humane society,” said operations manager Nicole King.

The 20-pound brown tabby that first came to the humane society as a stray died on Feb. 13.

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Gentle, never a biter, a therapy animal at nursing homes and one of the animals used to help college students with stress in the lead-up to exams, the cat thought to be 12 years old was a favourite with people, King said.

“A pretty awesome cat,” she said.

“People would come in just to see him and pet him for 20 minutes and then take off for the day,” as he lay on top of papers on the counter, she said, calling him a great de-stressor.

Mac was the cat the shelter turned to when testing if any dogs were good with cats, King said.

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“He had no reaction and he kind of just went with it, so he was great for that,” she said.

It’s been difficult telling people about his death, King said, noting many over the years asked to take him home with them when they’d see him mingling with other cats at the shelter.

“We’d go around the corner and be like, ‘Yeah, you can’t have that one,’” she said.

“A lot of people tried to adopt him but he was ours.”

Mac arrived at the shelter shortly after the death of its last door-greeter cat, King said.

“We kind of opened up the cage door and he kind of became the shelter cat, along with his “brother” Sherman,” a black-and-white cat still at the shelter, she said.

“We got them at the same time.”

No replacement has been selected for Mac, she said, noting they’ve had “some buddies” with Sherman to comfort him.

Memorial donations for Mac are going to medical costs at the shelter, including vaccines, spays and neuters for adoptions, she said.

“A lot of people have been asking about what we can do and what they can do.”

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