Russell was looking pretty chuffed this week as he sat surrounded by the spoils of Whittlesea council’s Whittlesea Loves Pets competition.
The one-year-old Tibetan-cross moggie won a $400 pet shop voucher after hundreds of adoring fans “liked” and commented on a photo that his owners, Snezana and Clifford Zammit, uploaded to the council’s Facebook page.
It received more than 585 likes, a feat Ms Zammit puts down to Russell’s tiger-like stripes.
But life hasn’t always been this rosy for young Russell, who was abandoned by his initial owners.
Ms Zammit said that when Russell’s family moved out they left the kitten to fend for himself.
She and her husband took him into their Wollert home, had him treated for flees and a nasty abscess, and named him ‘Russell’ after a character from television show House Rules.
“They left and didn’t come looking for him and I couldn’t have asked for a better cat,” Ms Zammit said.
