‘It was his place’: Downtown Home & Garden mourns loss of beloved shop cat Wallace

ANN ARBOR, MI – Ann Arbor’s Downtown Home & Garden is feeling the loss of one important, furry employee.

The shop’s beloved orange tabby cat, Wallace, died at the estimated age of 18 on Thursday, Jan. 2.

Wallace took over the duties of being Downtown Home & Garden’s shop cat in March 2015, after its previous orange cat, Lewis, died in December 2014.

“He just walked around like the boss. It was (Wallace’s) place,” said Owner Kelly Vore. “He had just such a nice swagger about him and was always a gentleman.”

Wallace’s predecessor spent over 15 years running the store and the community immediately felt his absence.

As Vore was taking over the shop, she decided she needed another feline for the business.

“Our cats here are just so beloved by people all over the planet,” she said. “It’s such an important part of people’s experience with us.”

Wallace was behind bars at the Humane Society of Huron Valley until Vore stumbled across him. She said she was “crazy about him,” from the moment she saw the 18-pound-cat, who went by Rocco at the time.

She didn’t go to the shelter feeling like she had to replace Lewis with another orange cat. “It just happened to be my beautiful guy,” she said.

Wallace spent two years in the shelter and was adopted and returned a number of times before Vore found him.

Vore said Wallace was a true outdoor cat who genuinely loved his life. He spent nearly a decade greeting customers and making sure no mice, birds or chipmunks would break into the barn.

Sometimes Wallace would even manage to have what Vore calls a “trifecta day,” where he would hunt all three in one day. He came “ready to work,” when she adopted him, she said.

“I was so glad that, in the end, he got to have a big life,” she said. “I just thought that was so cool for him because he deserved it … He held out for his kingdom, and when he found it, he was happy.”

She said she bought him all kinds of fancy beds and cat posts, but he would often choose a pile of paper instead. “He always wanted things that didn’t cost anything,” she said.

His favorite delicacy was chicken tenders from Fleetwood Diner, Vore said. He even raised a sniff for his last serving of the chicken, without its breading, on his last day.

Talkative, the orange cat made it clear when it was dinner time or when he needed something from the staff. His charm was “impossible to resist,” and he was always willing to go along with shenanigans, she said.

“But, as with all orange cats at the end of the day, they are just tiny, needy baby boys that just want to be smooched on and babied,” she said.

Wallace was struggling with thyroid issues for a little over a year and had a hard time keeping on weight. Vore said he weighed around 8 pounds at the end of his life.

Since announcing his death, Vore said she has been flooded with support. She said she will miss Wallace, but he was surrounded by people who loved him.

“He didn’t just belong to me,” she said. “He had the hearts of everybody around here.”

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