Curled up on her pink fluffy bed in the lunchroom at the Miramichi SPCA, Max might look like a small, peaceful, adoptable tabby, but when she’s awake, she is the definition of a tiny terror.
With free reign of the entire shelter, she rules the roost, not because she was asked to, but because she would have it no other way.
“Sometimes she comes in and she’s so sweet and she just wants to jump on your lap, and she just wants love and some days I look at her and she just screams in my face and doesn’t want anything to do with me,” said shelter assistant, Drue Bowie.
The cat is described as having a lot of personality. Depending on her mood, the time of day and several other factors, Max can switch from sweet to spicy in just a matter of seconds.
“She has her favourites. Her favourite volunteers, her favourite staff members and everybody else tends to suffer a little bit more, but again, we all think it’s hilarious, so it doesn’t hurt our feelings too much,” said executive director, Jennifer Arseneault.
“If she’s sitting on a table where we need to be, if there’s paperwork that happens to be under her, you have to be cautious on how you move the paperwork. She’s been known to smack quite a few times, she’s tried to bite, so you just use caution when you’re around her.”
Max is the longest resident at the Miramichi SPCA after being dropped off in October 2023 and staff say he start to the shelter wasn’t necessarily a positive one.
“She was brought here in a box. She was taped in the box. Set on our step. We thought it was a container of litter, we get them all the time, it was no different. I put my hand in the hole to pick the box up and poked a poor little cat in the nose,” said Arseneault.
Staff say that cats with attitude are slightly more challenging to adopt since they require such a special home.
In Max’s case, she would need to be a solo pet and be placed in a home that doesn’t have any small children, however, staff are hopeful that her perfect home is out there.
“It’s hard for Max because we know her and we love her and see her really, really good qualities, but when people are just coming in for a quick visit, they don’t necessarily get to see the sides of Max that we get to see,” said Bowie.
“I think Max has a lot of love to give and if she was in an environment that was a little bit less stressful, there was a little less stimulation than there was here, I think she could really thrive and be a really sweet cat.”
Since arriving at the shelter, Max was put in a foster home but was returned after one day due to allergies.
Otherwise, she has had no applications or interest.
At this point, despite her feisty attitude, Max isn’t considered a good candidate as a barn cat due to being too domesticated, instead she is waiting at the shelter for someone who can put up with all her moods and all her rules.
“She’s by no means aggressive,” said Arseneault.
“She just likes what she likes when she likes it and if you respect her and you respect what she wants to sit on and where she wants to be, she’s fine.”
A small cat, with a big attitude, who is known to keep everyone on their toes while also boosting morale and a little bit of fear.
“She can smell fear we assume and she will play off that and have a great time with it. She knows that one of our staff members is kind of a lot more wary of her than the rest of us, she’s not here as often, and Max will follow them around and stock them and literally surprise them like jump around a corner and surprise her just because she knows that it drives her nuts,” said Bowie.
Adding, “That’s the secret of it, that you just have to accept Max and all of her quirks.”
For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
