This story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Submit your own rescue story here. Your story just might be the next to be featured on our blog!

After the last two matriarchs of our homegrown cat dynasty passed away within a year of each other, both at the grand age of 19, we found ourselves catless. We had planned on having a break, but we kept an eye on our local cat rescue via the web and social networking.

It wasn't long before the newly arrived Henry's details were published. He was everything we didn't want in a cat - long haired, un-neutered, tabby, tom - and it was love at first sight. His cheeky personality shone through in his photo, and I just knew he needed us.

We dashed to the shelter and met up with a great hissy, scruffy lump of a cat, and after all the home checks and a trip to the vets, we brought him home.

For the next two days during a heatwave, he hid and refused to come out for anything, driving us to despair, until the offer of a king prawn broke the ice and he decided we might be okay.

We've shared our lives for a year and a half now, and he rules the household. He's funny, gentle, easygoing and charms everyone he meets. He won't lap-sit, but he likes to be close and thankfully enjoys being brushed and combed (he really is very, very hairy!).

His hobbies and interests include sleeping (lots), staring at the hedge in the garden and arguing with the neighbours. For such a large and apparently lazy cat, he is agile and surprises us by appearing up trees, or on top of our 6-foot and very rickety garden fence.

We live close to Hampton Court Palace, London, England, so fittingly he has kept his cattery name, but he is affectionately known as 'His Royal Hairiness King Henry the 9th' and surveys his domain from his perch on the back of the sofa.

Story submitted by an anonymous user from London, United Kingdom.

This story was originally shared on The Animal Rescue Site. Share your very own rescue story here!