News

A purrfect match

Westword
July 8, 2004

Chauncey Billups has the city's heart right now, but fame is fleeting. Fortunately, the next celeb worthy of some Mile High hero worship is already waiting on the bench: Morris the Cat.

The newest finicky 9Lives feline hails from Aurora and has the sort of lowly beginning that most stars would hide under fake names and dark sunglasses. Marcy Brown, director of Rocky Mountain Alley Cat Alliance, was at the Vista Haven trailer park last year, catching feral cats at the management's request, when she spotted Jack the Cat digging food out of a dumpster. "I set my trap and he went right in, and I realized as soon as he was in the trap that he was tame," Brown says. "I asked the neighbors if he was anyone's cat and posted fliers, and finally a woman told me that Jack's former owners took off and left him behind."

The moon-faced orange tabby's mug was soon posted on the RMACA's website, and he was sent to foster care with volunteer Laura Smith. In August, RMACA got a call from Morris's trainer, Rose Ordile. She'd seen Jack on the website and thought he might be the perfect understudy for Morris IV, who assumed the title in 2000. Since the first Morris was discovered in a Chicago animal shelter in 1968, all of the Morrises have been rescues, and Ordile regularly trolls the web in search of her next star.

But Brown wasn't letting her foundling go to just anybody -- even if Ordile did have the Del Monte brand backing her. "We really wanted to make sure about the whole situation," she says. "We didn't know Rose, and we didn't know 9Lives' procedures. So she went through the procedure just like anyone off the street."

Jack's rise to stardom wasn't guaranteed, either. Even though the cat's personality convinced Ordile early on that he was her man, she still had to submit numerous photos to Del Monte to prove that Jack was the proper heir to the Morris throne. In March the company finally gave the go-ahead, so Ordile adopted the vagabond and took him back to Hollywood.

Morris IV is still going strong, so for now, Jack's enjoying a leisurely life of cushions and cream. "These cats ride in limos," Brown says. "If they need to be transported to another state, they have a seat on the plane; they don't go in cargo. Here's this poor cat, abandoned, eating out of a dumpster, and now he's riding in limos."

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