Adopted stray part of national pet competition
By JEFF STITT
jstitt@yourmvi.com
There’s a cat from Belle Vernon vying for the title of “America’s Favorite Pet,” and the woman who rescued him is asking her Mon Valley neighbors to help him claim the national title.
Beth Fretz said Liliam, whom she estimates to be around 8 months old, has stolen her heart and become her best friend.
And if he is dubbed “America’s Favorite Pet” and takes home the $5,000 prize, Fretz intends to donate the money to local no-kill animal shelters.
Liliam, who is called Lil for short, has easily become “the king of the castle” at Fretz’s home.
She is an animal lover and grew up having cats and dogs as pets, but prior to Liliam coming along in mid-September, she didn’t recently have any pets living with her.
Fretz didn’t have any plans to get a pet. She considered adopting a dog, but never went through with the idea.
Fretz’s family thinks that adopting the cat was fate.
Fretz’s sister, Cheryl Lewis, was walking into work one morning last year at the family business, Fretz Mini Warehouse on Route 906 near the Monessen/Rostraver Township border, when she heard a cat meow, so she began to look around.
That’s when she found a small black-and-white kitten hiding under a retaining wall in front of the business. Fretz, who was working remotely for her full-time job, quickly took an interest in trying to help rescue the little guy.
Once they did, the sisters knew they couldn’t leave the kitten, who they estimated to be about 8 or 9 weeks old, to fend for himself. So they brought the cat inside, cleaned him up, treated abrasions near his eye and on his ear, gave him food and water and made an appointment with a veterinarian.
“He clearly wasn’t a feral cat because he let us take him in,” Fretz said.
To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Wednesday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.
