Blind Kitten Finally Regains Her Sight After Being Rescued

 Animal rescue can be emotionally devastating for those involved. Rescuers work in an unpredictable world, never knowing what kinds of cats, dogs, and other creatures will need them — like Newt the kitten. When she was brought into a shelter in Las Vegas, she was completely blind. Luckily for her, a brave volunteer stepped up to help turn things around.

When Newt was brought into the shelter, her eyelids were crusted together. Her left eye was infected. She was only three weeks old, small, and frail. The vet wasn’t sure she could come back from such a fragile state.

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Newt still had plenty of drive; she gulped down her food when she ate. The shelter knew she needed specialized care and reached out to Nikki Martinez, a fosterer volunteer with Hearts Alive Village Las Vegas.

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“I could tell immediately that she had an incredible will to live,” Nikki said in an interview. “I didn’t know what her future would hold, but I was going to give her a fighting chance.”

Newt only weighed 136 grams when she arrived at Nikki’s house. She was still blind in both eyes too. Nikki immediately began treating her eyes with ointment and giving the kitten plenty of food.

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Newt started getting stronger. She gained weight and began to look much healthier. The vet staff were surprised and impressed by her ability to recover from such a rocky beginning. Nikki’s care was working.

“I had baby Newt next to the side of my bed so I could check on her throughout the night,” Nikki said. “It was after midnight and I heard the sound of her toys. I looked over and found her playing in her playpen.”

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Newt reached two entire pounds after Nikki put in a few weeks’ worth of care. She also had another major accomplishment: regaining the vision in her right eye. Her left eye is permanently blind, but healthy. 

“Although she is small for her age, what she lacks in size she makes up for in personality! She has tons of energy and is growing and thriving,” Nikki said. At this point in Newt’s foster journey, it was time to start thinking about homes for her.

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Nikki wanted the best for little Newt. “My only requirement for her was that she went to a spectacular home,” she said. There were many people invested in Newt’s story on social media, so she had plenty of amazing candidates to select from.

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One person who watched Newt’s amazing recovery was Valerie Ridge from Southern California. She’s also adopted two other cats from Nikki and Heart’s Alive. Valerie offered to “kitty sit” Newt for a week.

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Nikki needed a well-deserved rest after putting so much into Newt’s care and was happy to take her up on her offer. Valerie wasn’t interested in adopting Newt, though. She had three cats in total and didn’t need any more.

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Fisher, Sailor, and Wednesday, Valerie’s three resident cats, were interested in Newt immediately. “They not only accepted her, but adored her,” Valerie said. And Newt was equally happy to get to know them.

Arlington Animal Hospital

She decided she couldn’t bear to split up the new foursome and adopted Newt. The rescued kitten is still the smallest of the bunch, but that doesn’t stop her from making her presence known to the other cats in the house.

Valerie Ridge

“She tackles the other cats, hangs on them, wrestles with them, and cuddles them all day long,” Valerie said. “She came in and owned the place!” It was amazing how quickly Newt settled in.

Valerie Ridge

Newt was what this family needed. They’d recently put down their 16-year-old cat, Princess, which was hard on her daughter, Hannah. Newt made a point of bonding with her.

“Newt has totally healed her heart! Her favorite place to lay is Hannah’s bed,” Valerie gushed. After so much time in foster care with Nikki, Newt found the perfect home. “I’ve never seen four cats just get along so well within three days,” she said.

Valerie Ridge

Nikki is ecstatic for Newt and her new life. “It was bittersweet, but I couldn’t be happier with where she landed,” Nikki said. “Over the last few months, she stayed by my side daily as she healed and has been a source of comfort and joy to me.”

Valerie Ridge

Nikki says she loves all of her fosters, but sometimes gets extra close to a few of them. Newt was certainly one of those. With as much time and effort as she put into her care, the two became quite inseparable.

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“My job is to help them heal, help them gain confidence and let them fly. I miss her terribly but look at how confident and happy she is. That’s my ‘paycheck’ for the work I did. There will be more like her who need me,” Nikki said.

If you’re interested in learning more about fostering, contact your local animal shelter. Fostering is a great way to help save animal’s lives, while getting to enjoy spending your time with them for a few weeks or months. And cats who’ve endured the most perilous situations often have the most sparkling personalities.

It’s sad to think of a ball of fluff (tiny enough to fit in a teacup) left to fend for itself on the streets of San Jose, California. When sisters Thoa, Thi, and Tram Bui witnessed this exact reality in early 2016, they just had to step in.

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They immediately took the 3-week-old kitten home, where Thoa had experience rescuing helpless creatures. The sisters told ABC News that by the time they rescued the stray kitten, she was “malnourished, lethargic and dying.”

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Thoa named the kitten Rosie and quickly developed an attachment to the frightened feline. But forming such a deep connection to a malnourished baby animal could end in tears, as not all abandoned babies can make a healthy comeback.

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Thoa was emotionally prepared for any outcome, but she was determined to give it her all, hoping to gift Rosie with a happy life full of love and catnip. The sisters tried feeding Rosie the second they brought her home, though she refused any and all food.

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“She almost did not make it through the first night, even with round the clock care. Our cute kitten was lethargic and limp,” Thoa wrote on Instagram. She racked her brain to think of a way to persuade Rosie to consume food, as time was running out.

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All of a sudden, Thoa was hit with a light bulb idea, one that involved a peculiar helper. It was time to call for backup! She decided to have her gentle Siberian Husky, Lilo, meet Rosie.

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Maybe Rosie simply needed a furry friend to help her adjust and feel more comfortable in a house full of… humans. Rose instantly cuddled right up to the canine gentle giant, staying by her side for hours.

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“We took a chance and put her with Lilo, and Lilo really saved her life,” Thoa said. Lilo’s inner maternal instinct shined when Rosie’s life depended on it. “She cuddled her and comforted her until she was better and ready to finally drink from a bottle,” she continued.

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At one point Rosie even tried to “suckle” on Lilo, thinking she was her biological mama. If only nature worked that way! Thoa relayed this particular moment marked the start of their heartwarming “mother-daughter” relationship.

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“Lilo has never had puppies of her own, and never will. But motherhood may just be her calling,” Thoa explained to ABC News, adding, “I think she knew that Rosie needed her.” The instant bond they formed was set in stone; Lilo clearly adopted Rosie.

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But when it was time to introduce Rosie to Lilo’s Siberian husky pack members, Infinity and Miko (Miko belonging to the Bui sisters’ cousins down the street), the Bui girls weren’t sure how it would go. Would the animals click?

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Amazingly, Rosie and the other two huskies hit it off well, with the four animals soon becoming the best of friends. Rosie looked up to her canine family. “They sleep together, they walk together, we all go for hikes together,” Thoa gushed.

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It wasn’t long before little Rosie wanted to copy everything the Siberian huskies did, even if they didn’t resemble the traits of a “typical” cat. But Rosie wasn’t a “typical” cat. The Bui sisters could tell Rosie felt left out when they’d go out for walks with the huskies.

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Considering Rosie was raised with dogs, it only made sense that she would act like a dog. When Thoa’s sisters suggested they take Rosie outside with the dogs, she hilariously said, “You’re crazy, we’re going to look ridiculous.” But they did it anyway, discovering that Rosie is “fearless.”

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“Basically, whatever we do with the dogs, we bring Rosie along,” she said. But that doesn’t only include going for low-energy walks around the neighborhood… “We go on a lot of road trips, and we recently took Rosie kayaking and paddle-boating with us,” Thoa disclosed.

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Considering the girls already had two huskies, they initially didn’t intend to keep Rosie, instead hoping to find her a forever home after they nursed her back to health. But it was too late for that, as the bond between Lilo and Rosie was just too strong to break.

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“She thinks she’s more a dog than anything,” Thoa observed in between laughs. Hysterically, since Rosie has adopted a slew of husky traits, she doesn’t use a litter box! The fearless cat prefers to relieve herself outside like the rest of her canine family.

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It’s been more than five years since the Bui sisters rescued the green-eyed cat, and she’s grown to be such a beloved pet… and foster mom. Since Thoa still often brings in strays, Rosie has helped nurse some of them back to health!

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“It looks like Lilo’s teachings have rubbed off on [Rosie]! She started mothering the kittens, and although she has never had a litter of her own, or any milk to give, she is as motherly as they come. We are so proud of her!!” the sisters relayed on their YouTube channel.

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The Bui sisters’ instagram account @lilothehusky, which features Lilo’s bond with Rosie, garnered a whopping 493,000 followers by 2020, and it’s obvious as to why. This cat-dog relationship is as sweet as they come, but some interspecies friendships are a bit stranger, especially when they involve a wild predator.

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Falconer Jordi Amenós Basora of Spain loved nothing more than to work with barn owls. He trained them to entertain the public with dazzling flights and to return to him after a hunt. With one owl in particular, though, he witnessed something he couldn’t believe.

That particular bird was Gebra, a beautiful barn owl who’d been reared by human hands since she was a tiny owlet. Despite her lifelong interactions with humans, Gebra wasn’t usually social if she didn’t need to be.

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When Jordi brought Gebra into a nearby wooded area, she’d stretch her wings and practice smooth takeoffs and landings—the type of stuff that really pleased a crowd. One day in 2010, however, her afternoon routines changed forever.

NatGeo

Someone else started following Jordi and Gebra on their hikes: Jordi’s black cat, Fum (pronounced “Foom”), whose name meant “smoke” in Catalan. This made the falconer uneasy—there were just too many talons and claws in close proximity to each other.

On one hike, shortly after Fum appeared, Jordi witnessed a scene that he figured would end in a eulogy. The black cat stood on a small patch of dirt while Gebra barreled down on him with all the speed of a hungry predator. Surely, Fum was doomed.

But instead of getting plucked from the ground and turned into the owl’s lunch, Fum playfully jumped up and tried catching Gebra mid-flight! This was no life-or-death situation—this was a game, and one that Jordi should have seen coming. Why?

Well, Fum and Gebra had known each other for a while, having first met in 2010 when they were each just babies. As such, Gebra cared for her feline friend and would never have hurt him!

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“In the beginning, I was not amused at all by the game,” Jordi told Nat Geo Wild through a translator, “because I saw that it could turn for the worst. After a few days, I realized that the game was quite harmless and innocent.”

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Harmless and innocent? Sure, but that didn’t stop this cat and owl from impressing audiences all over the world with ridiculous displays of friendship. Have you ever seen a cat high-five an owl, for instance?

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At times, it actually appeared as though Fum was more like an owl than a cat. Frequently, Fum would join Gebra in a tree so their playtime didn’t have to end. Obviously, their relationship knew no bounds!

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Like any partners in crime, these two critters would find themselves involved in all sorts of shenanigans. Most importantly, they soon became close to inseparable. Truly, they weren’t ordinary friends.

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In fact, the more Jordi took Fum and Gebra out into the woods, the more he realized just how special their friendship was. He’d never seen anything like it, and neither had a lot of the people he’d told about it, which gave him an idea…

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Thinking that others would love to hear about this surprising friendship, Jordi started to bring his camera on a few hikes. After capturing pictures of the animals’ enduring friendship, he posted some clips online…

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It didn’t take long for the posts to find an audience. Jordi’s friend, Ferran Marti, confirmed it: “Jordi put the video up on YouTube and I remember one day you [Jordi] put it up on your Facebook profile and there were like a thousand visits or something.”

“I remember it that way, too,” Jordi agreed. “First it had 1,000 visits or something like that, and then I went to sleep. And the next day, there were 300,000 visits and I thought, ‘What happened?'”

What happened? The Internet couldn’t get enough of the two adorable pals, that’s what happened! Soon, people across the planet had become smitten with this unlikely cat and owl friendship.

Fum and Gebra

In no time at all, Fum and Gebra had become internet sensations. They were well on their way to superstardom when something unexpected happened that changed absolutely everything…

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In May of 2013, veterinarians diagnosed Fum with feline urologic syndrome (FUS), a disease that attacks a cat’s kidneys. At just three years old, he was already fighting for his life.

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Not long after his diagnosis, veterinarians determined they couldn’t save poor Fum from the disease. Sadly, he passed away. Clearly upset, Jordi posted an update—a message of hope—to anyone who followed Fum and Gebra’s relationship.

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In a Facebook note, he wrote: Fum and Gebra’s “message is our richest legacy. They have been able to show us, humans, that love and friendship are the most valuable treasures we can [have].”

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Never was Jordi’s sentiment more obvious than in 2015, when children’s author Gia V. Martinez wrote a colorful story about the cat and the owl called A Quest for Friendship.

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In 2017—four years after Fum’s passing—the cat and owl were still inspiring people everywhere. In one instance, students drew their takes on Gebra and Fum, including this one (“amistat” means “friendship”).

Fum & Gebra / Facebook

When you see their special friendship for yourself, you might be inspired by this adorable cat and his owl pal. But Fum certainly wasn’t the only cat to make an unusual best friend.

Caring for an animal is a huge responsibility. Sadly, some people don’t always have the resources to support their pets. In those cases, finding a new home is imperative for survival. Animal lover Emma Massingale understands this completely.

Emma learned that a six-year-old cat named Louis needed help. His owner was no longer able to care for him, and she decided to reach out to see if anyone could take the feline off her hands…

Emma, who hails from North Devon, England, jumped at the opportunity. After hearing the woman’s desperate plea, she knew that she had to welcome the poor cat into her home. He had no other option…

“His owner then went through a separation and she couldn’t keep Louis so I, of course, said I would have him,” Emma explained to reporters about the situation. Soon enough, he went to live on her farm with her other animals.

Working as a professional horse trainer, Emma spent the majority of her time out in the stables, and Louis loved to tag along every time. It wasn’t long before the cat had made himself at home.

Emma Massingale

Emma was quick to note how Louis seemed to warm up to the large animals almost instantly. “He started off just following me to the stable and walking along the walls or fences nudging the horses with his head,” she recalled.

But Louis’ affection for the horses didn’t end there; in fact, it only grew. “Then he started to jump on their backs and sit there or jump on and then off the other side to get somewhere,” she said. He was becoming more comfortable with them by the day…

“It all started when I was riding Comet and I would just tap my leg and Louis would jump on,” Emma said. “Now all I have to do is tap Comet’s back and Louis is straight there. He doesn’t need any more encouragement than that.”

Just as much as Louis liked being around all the horses, they too enjoyed his company. But it was Comet who forged the tightest bond with the feline, and before long, the pair was spending practically every waking moment together!

Emma would often spot Louis climbing onto Comet’s back, and then the two would set off into the nearby woods for a stroll. This little cat was becoming quite the regular feline equestrian!

There was one small caveat to Louis and Comet’s rides: the cat didn’t much enjoy the rainy English weather. “He is a bit of a fair-weather rider,” Emma joked of Louis’s riding preferences.

Still, Louis was always completely comfortable when riding with Comet. The two animals would stroll through the scenic woods, taking in all the curious sights and sounds. They must’ve been a pretty remarkable sight themselves!

“Comet and Louis seem to be a good combo,” Emma said of the duo’s adventures in the woods together. “If he wants the horse to stop he bites the pony’s mane. It’s crazy but funny to watch.”

Of course, like most cats, Louis tended to become distracted by other things. “If Louis gets bored he just jumps off but he seems to love it as he stays up there for ages,” Emma continued.

Emma would come along for horseback rides alongside the cat, too. “Sometimes we ride together in the arena, and other times out and about. And sometimes Louis and his brother Remi will ride together,” she said.

Emma mentioned that often when the pair encountered new people, the strangers wouldn’t even notice Louis perched on Comet’s back at first. But once they did, their hearts would positively melt!

The only thing they ever had to really worry about is curious dogs running after them. Otherwise, they were pretty much in the clear! “I have to watch out for dogs but Louis seems to like to ride, so [he] doesn’t jump down when we are out,” Emma said.

While Louis most certainly wasn’t your average cat, he did enjoy a good cuddle. “I often find them nuzzling up together. I think horses like cats because they’re so playful, but Comet really likes Louis.” Louis’s affection didn’t stop with Comet, though…

As much as he enjoyed cuddling up with Comet, Louis also liked to spend time getting cozy with Emma and the other animals on her farm. When he would arrive home from their journeys each day, he could often be found lounging around inside where it was dry.

Louis and Comet’s companionship might’ve been unconventional, but it was proof that friends can be found anywhere—and that every animal needs a good support system to be happy.