Meet Nona, a not-so-well-known 15 year member of the Cape Cod Beer family.
Nona, which is short for Noname’, was found as a feral kitten when she fell thru the drop ceiling in the kitchen at the old Hyport, at the west end of Main Street, where Cape Cod Beer first started. It was likely 2005, after the restaurant had closed and before we moved to our Phinney’s lane location in January of 2006. Todd caught glimpse of her in the dark shutdown kitchen one night – at first he thought she was a raccoon! He left her some oyster crackers (the only edible thing left in the abandoned kitchen) and the next morning they were gone! Poor Hungry Kitty!
After several days of playing cat and mouse (pun intended) he trapped her in the kitchen bathroom and called a friend who worked for a vet (Thanks Melissa!) and they “captured” her and took her to be seen by the vet. When Todd got there they asked him the cats name, to which he responded that it didn’t have one, so they wrote on the form No Name…. which is where Noname’ came from! The vet gave her a physical (after determining it was a her), gave her her shots and said to Todd, “You can take her home now Mr. Marcus”.. which is how she unexpectedly came to be our “pet”.
Given that she arrived a feral kitten, we had no idea how that would work with our 20 pound Maine Coon “Buddy” but they eventually learned to love each other. Nona, in the early years, and even to this day, will hiss at you if you move too fast. The boys grew up telling their friends that hissing was the only language she knew. Nona and Buddy were both outdoor cats, mostly because we had two young boys and a sliding glass door (you try to keep cats inside in that scenario!)
While Buddy was more of a dog-like cat (he hung around the yard and like to go on walks with us down the street) Nona was known for going off on long jags or benders..(for lack of a better term) where she would be missing for days and sometimes weeks. Trying to keep a feral cat inside was a fools mission, so we grew to expect her to go missing and then suddenly return. Often we would expect the worst had happened and then have her come home unexpectedly and much to our surprise.
This last winter we were sure she was gone. It had been months since we had seen her. We were all very sad but took comfort that she had lived a full life, and given that she is now approximately 15 years old this would not have been a shock. But after like 3 months missing she once again appeared, like nothing had happened.
At one point we put a collar on her with Todd’s phone number in big letters hoping that she had a second family that was caring for her during these jags… but alas no one ever called. We’ve never told Nona’s story to the Cape Cod Beer world. We’re not exactly sure why this is the case. Unlike Buster Brown she has lived in relative anonymity for the past 15 years. We know that every time she returns to us is a gift, and that she is clearly her happiest when she is out exploring the wilds of Centerville, but we wanted to at least share her story and some photos with you all, before it was too late.
There is not much physically left from the old Hyport days.. the building has been torn down, the brew house long gone, and much of the old equipment sold off or scrapped.. but Nona, the 15 year old (est.) feral cat that keeps coming back for one last meal, one last snooze on the back of the couch, one last scratch under the chin, is one last piece of that period of time. We’ll cherish her for as long as she wants to hang with us, because in the end she’ll call the shots, just as she has since the day we found her!
The first photo is what we call here “glamour shot”, the Bruins couch shot and the black and white photo were taken shortly after her big return this winter. The grass photo was actually taken yesterday, when she returned again after 2-3 weeks “missing”
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