Cemetary Workers Dig Stray; Find Him Heavenly Home

A great day to be alive

My friend, Leslie Masson, told me a one-hankie story I just have to share. An abandoned kitty I'll call Stephen King (the name just seems to fit) wandered into the Mount Carmel (NY) Cemetery recently, starving and on his last paw.With a little help from the angels, he stumbled upon two men who work there, Joe Grappone and Bobby Lotz.

Boing! Love at first sight. The men picked the cat up, brought him to the maintenance garage, and fed him. Stephen King thought he had died and gone to heaven.

With Joe Grappone

Every morning after that, Stephen King returned, ate, jumped in Grappone's truck to nap, then either rode around with him in the back seat, or shadowed Lotz as he did his work. This was fine for the daytimes. But a hungry hawk was known to frequent the area, and Grappone and Lotz feared for the cat's safety. They tried leaving him in the cemetery's office when the sun went down. But the kitty wasn't happy, and his loud protestations began to disturb tenants who lived nearby. Both Grappone and Lotz had cats, so they couldn't take the kitty themselves. Still, they knew they had to do something.

Waiting out the rain in the truck

Phone calls were made by Grappone's wife to friends who knew friends and voila! Stephen King found a home with a veterinary technician Susan Stroligo, who had just moved and was looking for a kitty to love. Stroligo named the cat Morty (short for mortuary). And so this grave (sorry) situation came to a happy ending.

Morty goes home with Susan Stroligo