When a woman found herself in a situation where she couldn’t care for three kittens, she wanted to make sure they were adopted, so she put out a call on Facebook.

A man who wanted to use the kittens as bait in dogfights was the first to respond to her. The woman removed the post straight away, but not before the appropriate individuals learned about the situation and offered their assistance.

Officer Andy Simmons of the Hillsborough Police Department in North Carolina chose to adopt the cat after helping to rescue it a few months earlier from a car’s wheel well. He gave him the name Officer Monty Sprinkles, but sadly, Monty was never in good condition and ultimately lost his fight.

Simmons attempted to move on after scattering Monty’s ashes in his office, but he always felt like a piece of himself was missing.

Officer Simmons and his fellow cops took control of the issue and assisted in finding two of the three kittens loving forever homes after Officer Simmons learned about the three kittens in the Facebook post through his wife’s coworker.

Mercy helped Officer Simmons heal after the loss of Monty, and the pair enjoyed being around each other every chance they could from the very beginning. Mercy bonded to her new dad almost immediately, and started following him everywhere he went all over the house.

“She has a dog’s personality and is very curious,” Officer Simmons told The Dodo. “She follows me like a herding dog and wants to investigate every noise she hears.”

Since Mercy was so attached to Officer Simmons from the very beginning, he decided to try taking her to work with him — and just like that, little Mercy became the newest officer at the Hillsborough Police Department.

Some of the department’s other officers first expressed some skepticism over the presence of a police cat.