A young stray who’d been on a constant diet of fast food since kittenhood refused cat food at first after his rescue, but has finally given in to a healthier diet. Frankie is no longer a parking lot scrounge, and is waiting in foster care for his forever home.
Frankie has been familiar sight and presence to residents of Frankton, NZ, a suburb of the city of Hamilton, for over a year, from the time he was a kitten. The handsome tuxedo cat survived as a stray by hanging around a McDonald’s restaurant living off of burgers, chicken nuggets and fries after being abandoned by a family who moved from a nearby block of apartment flats.
Waikato SPCA, shared the text of Frankie’s adoption listing at Facebook on April 9:
“Who’s been to the Frankton McDonald’s and seen a black and white cat waiting patiently outside for a patty to be thrown his way?? Well here he is! Frankie the Frankton cat has been rescued by one of our amazing volunteers who is fostering him until he finds his furrever home! Frankie has been health checked, vaccinated, desexed and microchipped.”
In response, several fans of the page wrote that they knew Frankie, were glad to know he’d finally been taken into care, and that they’d tried unsuccessfully to catch him when they fed him in the restaurant parking lot. Frankie occasionally allowed children or grownups to pet him, though.
Waikato SPCA field officer and regular McDonald’s customer Jessica Watson rescued Frankie and took him into her care not long ago, about the same time restaurant employees became concerned when they noticed that the cat was no longer looking his best.
Jessica Watson is quoted in an article on Frankie, saying:
“Everyone knew to keep an eye out for him. You would go through the drive-through and ask for a burger for you and an extra patty for Frankie.
“He would watch you and trot after the car, wait until you stopped the car and then you would toss him the meat. It was his little routine.”
Watson said she grew worried when she saw Frankie’s face was swollen, his eyelids weren’t closing properly and his coat was matted.
But after a couple of weeks of inside living and good nutrition he is now clear-eyed and shiny-coated.
“He wasn’t overweight,” said Watson, “but McDonald’s wouldn’t meet the nutritional requirements for a cat.
“They need very high levels of protein and I wouldn’t think takeaways would provide that.”
It took a while to wean the Maccas-addicted Frankie off his junk food of choice.
“When I first took him home he refused to eat anything because it wasn’t McDonald’s,” said Watson.
“I seriously considered going back there to get him a burger.
“I would put pet food down and he would give me a look like, ‘What is that?’ “
Frankie gave in after a few days and his diet now consists of cat food and water. He looks good again now that he is off the street – or parking lot – and in good care.
Interest in adopting Frankie has been so great that the SPCA is asking interested parties to visit their offices in person to fill out an expression of interest form.
poor guy…I’m glad they were keeping him fed, though, and even more glad someone took him in