Like many of us, Nathan Alan Willoughby's life began in a dumpster.
The employees of Mamma Lolla's Pizzeria made a lot of mistakes. Those mistakes were thrown away, providing the majority of meals for stray cats of the neighborhood. Nathan Alan Willoughby was one of these cats.
Born in a nearby park, a little girl found him when he was a tiny kitten and took him home. She named him "Fluff." He enjoyed their apartment until the girl developed allergies after a couple of months. Abandoned in the parking lot of Mamma Lolla's, he'd been sustaining on scraps of pepperoni and sausage for weeks. For a growing cat, he ate heartily.
Still, he missed people. They were so interesting. He would take up a post near the entrance of the pizzeria and look hopefully at the people going in and out. Certainly one of them would want to take home a cat as handsome as himself. He was mostly black with white boots and mittens, with a white belly and chest. To be technical, he was the classic definition of a tuxedo cat.
As the weather turned colder, two young men stopped to talk to him before picking up their pizza. "Hey little man, you need someone to pick up your order? Alan, come here and look at this cat," the one yelled to his friend.
"Come on, Nathan, no more cats," said Alan.
"We can't leave him here. It's supposed to snow tonight."
The men went in the pizza shop where the cat heard, "Of course you can take that cat. In fact, please take it. It's a pest."
The man named Alan picked him up as he left the pizzeria. The man named Nathan said, "We better hurry, the cat shelter closes soon."
The three of them walked down the street a few blocks. "I can't believe how calm he is," Alan said.
"Yeah, he's making bread with his paws," Nathan noticed as they entered the elegant Victorian home.
"Where did you find this cat?" the shelter worker asked.
"Mamma Lolla's - the one on Willoughby Street," Nathan answered.
"Look at those paws. He's going to be a big guy," the shelter worker said.
And that's how a cat who lived in a dumpster found himself with the long and illustrious name "Nathan Alan Willoughby."
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