Adventurous Sandstorm Calls Hillside Gardens ‘Home’

Two years ago, a young, short-haired tabby cat ventured into Hillside Garden, the Ace Hardware store on Blanchard Road.

“He had a tracker on him, so we didn’t think much of it. His family knew where he was,” recalled assistant manager Josh Denault.

But their new, four-legged friend kept coming back.

“We looked at the address, and it was over in Cushing Square,” he said. “After he was with us for a day or two, we called, left a message, and … they did come and pick him up.”

Just two days later, the same cat, Sandstorm, returned.

“[The family] came in and said, ‘If you guys want him and take care of him, you’re welcome to take care of him at the store,’” Denault said.

And the rest was history.

“There are definitely customers that come by actively looking for him, just like the employees do,” Denault said. “And then there are people who are unaware he’s there, and [they’ll find him sleeping] in a lot of weird places. … Sometimes, he will surprise customers when they’re looking at stuff.”

While most days he sleeps at the store, he continues to adventure around Belmont, according to Denault, sometimes as far as Trapelo Road and Concord Avenue. Still, after a day or night of exploring the town, Sandstorm always makes his way back to the shop on Blanchard Road, meowing at the door until someone lets him in.

“He seems to have settled into the area around the store but he does still cover some distance at times,” Denault said.

Last month, Sandstorm’s adventurous spirit took him a bit further than Belmont’s borders.

“I got to the store at about 8:15 in the morning and got a call from Northborough,” said David McAleer, a receiving manager at the store. “The guy said to me, ‘I’m sitting here with your buddy; Sandstorm is here.’”

McAleer assumed the caller meant a street in Belmont and advised the man to let Sandstorm out so that the tabby could find his way back to Blanchard Road. But the caller corrected him. He was in Northborough, Massachusetts – about an hour west of Belmont – at the Ace Hardware store there.

“[Sandstorm] jumped into the back of a 52-foot bed delivery truck,” recalled McAleer.

Joe DiGiovanni, whose brother Gerry owns the store, went to retrieve the cat and bring him back to his home at Hillside Garden.

“I have a tracker on him, but I don’t know how much we’d be able to do,” said Denault. “We lucked out that he made friends with the people.”

While Sandstorm doesn’t typically get along with other animals (likely explaining why he often ventured away from his original home in Cushing Square), he does get along well with people. By happenstance, he has also been useful in keeping the rodents and pests away from the garden section.

“It’s an amazing feat of dumb luck that we ran into him,” Denault said.