Max, Max, Max where do we even begin with Max.
Max came into us back in February 2025 after his owner sadly passed away. He wasn't with us for long before he was adopted out. Unfortunately it then wasn't long before he came back again, it turned out that once Max had settled he wanted to go back out as he'd always had his freedom from a kitten. We thought he'd be happy indoors as he was in the rescue however he made it clear in his new home he wasn't, it ended up causing him so much started to pull out chunks of his own furr and that's when the adopter said about him coming back.
Max then came back and within a week he learnt how to open my front door. Blocks were put in place to prevent this from happening and within days Max turned from this loving, very sweet, happy boy into this monster who would growl and grumble, scream this house down and again start to essentially self harm from the stress of feeling trapped. It was horrible and so heartbreaking to see, in the end we felt we had no choice but to bite the bullet and allow him so freedom until we could find him his furrever home.
Next minute we knew, Max had become somewhat of a local celebrity, he'd hang around the bus stop & marketplace sitting with people, keeping them company, then went as far as to steal their food out their bags. We ended up having to put a post up on our local noticeboard and the bus stop letting people know that he wasn't a starving stray he was just a greedy boy who loved food and the post blew up with many people commenting about enjoying seeing him and spending time with him so we decided to make him a treat box & place it on the market place were people could give him treats to enjoy instead of feeling the need to give their own food.
This then also blew up and many people loved it and the idea of it, multiple people had also made mentions of making him his own facebook page where people can follow about him & a group where people could share their photos and memories with him, this was something we weren't sure about doing due to the fact we didn't want to do all this for him to then be rehomed. At this point word had gotten to Max's original owners daughter where she expressed her happiness at feeling like Max had found his place and how much it meant to her seeing so many people love Max as much as her dad did, we asked her if she would be happy he stayed with us and she was absolutely made up with the offer.
Max now lives at the rescue, we all love him so very much. Believe me when I say I've never met a cat like Max, he truly is a very special and unique little boy who is an complete pleasure to look after. He's now known all throughout Weardale as 'Mad Max the Stanhope marketplace cat', he brightens so many peoples days as they pass, he has his own facebook page and group, he's found a loving home again & finally has his freedom back which was so very clearly important to him <3