Bruno the Cat Finds New Owners After Previous Family Returned Pet for Being 'Too Affectionate'

Bruno the cat adopted
Bruno the cat adopted

Montville Animal Shelter

A cat named Bruno returned to a New Jersey shelter a week after his adoption after his family found the pet "too affectionate."

According to a Facebook Jan. 25 post from the Montville Animal Shelter, Bruno was recently adopted by a mother and her daughter, both first-time cat owners, which likely played a part in why they relinquished the animal one week after bringing him home.

"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 wrote on social media.

According to USA Today, the mother worked from home, and Bruno kept distracting his owner from her job with his adorable and distracting attention-seeking behavior. The cat also kept the young girl awake by sleeping on her bed and seeking cuddles throughout the night.

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The post from Montville Animal Shelter added that the 2-year-old feline was also deemed "too playful" by his former family because of his rambunctious evening "zoomies."

Lindsay Persico of the Montville Animal Shelter told USA Today that she noticed Bruno got a bit depressed once he was returned to the shelter, so she posted the cat's tale on Facebook. The post got more than 1,000 shares and hundreds of comments.

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Soon after the Jan. 25 post went up, Montville Animal Shelter received about 50 applications to adopt Bruno, which is unusually high for the facility, Persico said.

Bruno now has a new owner who knows to expect an extraordinarily affectionate cat — and his story prompted a surge in cat adoptions at the New Jersey shelter.

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"People were coming to our door to meet Bruno, and we got almost all the cats in the store adopted in the meantime," Persico told the newspaper.