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We regret to inform our fellow cat loving friends that Miss Mona, our rough and tumble biker cat passed away June 5th, 2009 from unknown causes. She passed away outside where she loved to sit on the rental bikes and loved to watch people ride on by, graciously bending her head down for the occasional customer to scratch her between the ears.
Mo was beloved by employees and customers nationwide and even had her own e-mail address here at Doc's. She received hundreds of e-mails over the four years she was with us from kids and adults alike. She was adored by cat lovers and even managed to make a few converts along the way, that was just the way she was.
If you know her story she lived a pretty good life, even though she went before her time. If you don't know her story read below.
She will be missed.
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On one fine summer day, Patty and Wendy were headed for lunch. Out the corner of Patty’s eye, she saw an animal dart under the dumpster.
In most cases, curiosity is said to kill the cat, in this case, curiosity saved the cat and a bunch of other cats as well. Hunched several feet under the dumpster was a set of eyes staring back at Doc’s Harley-Davidson’s dealer principal who was now hunched on her hands and feet investigating.
“It’s a cat”, Patty yelled to Wendy, “a dumpster cat… and it looks hungry.”
 Now everybody knows that unless you want a cat for life, you never feed it. You don’t give it milk and explain to it that this is a one time deal. Up to this point, the animal obviously had been successfully fending for itself and probably would have been fine. But it was discovered by two cat owners with 7 cats between them and this all added up to one mangy feline’s lucky day.
They snagged this dirty ball of fur and brought her inside. They gave her to Gina, the Office Manager and asked her to take “the cat” to the vet, have her checked out, feed her and send her on her way, good deed done.
Well, we forgot to send her on her way. Everybody wanted to pet the cat (except Dave, he’s allergic). While we played with the cat (and Dave sneezed) we discovered she was nursing. “The cat” hadn’t been a cat for long, it could have only been 6 months old. We decided we couldn’t keep her from her litter so we turned her loose.
Into the parking lot the crew went, cat in tow. Rich, the marketing manager set her on the ground and pointed, she looked back at Rich and took a couple steps. Rich took a couple steps towards her, “the cat” took a couple steps and looked back. And the process repeated until Rich was hacking through vines in the woods, following “the cat” into her world.
At the end of this urban wilderness adventure was a litter of 6 kittens. Rich took a step towards them and almost stepped on the runt, sitting by itself under some branches. It was pathetic and much smaller than the rest.  It was all black, just like his cat Nala, who only days before had to be put down due to illness. It didn’t look like this one was going to make it.
Given the circumstances, Rich scooped up “the kitten” and set to the vet. The vet said this one was only a few weeks old and probably wasn’t able to muscle into the mother like the others to feed, it was only a matter of time before nature pruned the flock and this little one wouldn’t make it. Rich took it home in a Harley-Davidson shoe box. At the time, “the kitten” weighed only 4 ounces.
Rich reported back to the crew at Doc’s that “the cat” was indeed a mother and a litter was in the woods. Everybody agonized about what to do, feed them, feed the mother, rescue them, leave them alone. This went on for about a day, until “the cat” decided for everyone.
The following day, “the cat” brought the kittens from the woods to Doc’s front door, one at a time. Grabbing them by the scruff of the neck, she left the woods, crossed the street and deposited a kitten at the front door. She repeated the process over and over until we had the entire family perched hanging out by the flag out front. Everyone in the back office (except Dave, he’s allergic) had animals, mostly cats, and we decided to bring the family in while we decided what to do.
Now maybe because there was some secret agenda amongst the office personnel to keep pets at the office (except Dave, he’s allergic) or maybe because we were busy running a motorcycle dealership, the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months. There were cats everywhere. Customers visited with their kids to see the biker kittens, now beating the crap out of each other and annoying their mother, standard kid stuff.
 Now in hindsight, when we named “the cat” we should have figured it would find a permanent home at Doc’s. “The cat” affectionately became Miss Mona, named after Sammy Hagar’s bass player in the Waboritas who has visited the dealership on a number of occasions. The kittens were adopted one by one, to a customer, a friend, an employee, even a member of our late night cleaning crew.
As the kittens disappeared, it became clear one cat was getting quite comfortable in their new digs. Cat toys began to litter the offices and customers became accustomed to seeing Miss Mona watch them shop. It was at this point that Dave the finance manager began to ask when Mona would be adopted out too.
Miss Mona is now a permanent member of the Doc’s Harley-Davidson team. She enjoys knocking things off shelves (trophies, plaques, pictures) and running around the dealership on her own terms.
She sleeps in various boxes and bags, on Wendy and Gina’s printer, on the copy machine (but only when you want to make a copy) and Jim Wagner’s chair out on the floor. Her favorite place to dream is the outgoing mail box and becomes visibly annoyed when you try to move her to put mail there.  She has been declawed, though only after she tore a hole in Wendy’s arm when we discovered she’s not much for other cats. She shredded Patty’s shirt when we discovered that starting a Harley while you’re holding her is ill advised.
And the runt? Her name is Harley Ann. Named not so much because she was found at Doc’s, though that’s certainly part of it, but because she purrs so unbelievably loud, kind of like, well, a Harley (retrofitted with Thunder Headers). Want to see a picture of her when she was little? Click here.
 As a matter of fact, Mona is such a valuable part of our family here at Doc’s, she has her own e-mail address and receives e-mail from kids and adults all the time. We even received an e-mail from a customer that came in to buy a shirt, saw Mona perched on a Sportster and in an effort to pet the cat, ended up unexpectedly buying the Sportster.
Make no mistake, despite fierce independence and an attitude to match, Mona loves the attention. She enjoys the company of all us, our loyal customers, select radio talk show hosts and just about anybody who will scratch her between the ears. Mona has had her head scratched by Evel Knievel, John Force and Brandon Bernstein to name only a few. From St. Louis sports stars to every little kid willing to chase behind her, Miss Mona loves the celebrity treatment.
So if you have a chance to stop by, make sure you have a chance to meet Miss Mona (unless you’re like Dave, he’s allergic). She’ll purr a bit and then demand to do her own thing, a behavior that truly qualifies her as a biker cat.
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