GRANBY, Colo. — UPDATE: The Granby Police Department (GPD) said Tuesday afternoon that Morris the cat has been found safe.
GPD said the people who picked him up assumed he was a stray and took him in. Police picked him up in Denver Tuesday and he's being returned to his owners at Country Ace Hardware in Granby.
ORIGINAL STORY:
A hardware store stocks what you need and what you never knew you needed.
“We used to say we carry everything but underwear, but we carry underwear now," said Amy Kaplanis, owner of Country Ace Hardware in Granby.
Even staff at Kaplanis' store find something unexpected in the aisles. For the past couple of years, it's been a cat named Morris.
“Morris is one of our beloved employees here," said Jason Weddingfeld, manager of operations. “He’s kind of an importer, exporter of neighbors -- small, furry ones."
Morris took care of the mice and made a hardware store home.
“He would literally roll over on his back for belly scratches while a customer was trying to check out," Kaplanis said. “We have neighbors and kids and tourists coming in looking specifically for Morris.”
The cat who slept on bags of birdseed and under the warm lights of the paint department became part of the Ace family.
“Morris is a big part of us and, you know, without him here, it’s just not the same," floor supervisor Eric Villalon said.
Aug. 16, Morris took his usual morning walk.
“Every morning, nine o’clock on the dot," Kaplanis said. "He would go out the store, kind of look around in the parking lot, turn around and come back in.”
No one saw what security cameras captured until it was too late. Two people in a blue SUV grabbed Morris from the parking lot of a restaurant next door and drove off.
“We have the video of them actually putting him in the car, so we know he’s with them," Kaplanis said. "It may have been a mistake. They may have thought that he was a stray. That’s fine. We just want Morris back."
The store that has everything you'd need is now missing what can't be replaced.
"I want him back so much," said Sheila Bray, a floor associate at Ace. “It would mean everything to me."
Bray used to take care of Morris during her shifts.
“Morris is my chore every day, and I also got to pet him a lot," she said. “He is the family here. He was the glue."
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