The rescue kitten with the unbreakable spirit

2 mins to read

When Fancy’s picture was posted on Facebook by a member of Lost and Found Pets community in Perth, WA, Katie became a rescue Mum for the 6th time (or 15th if you count her foster pets).

Pet HealthHealth and vitality

“I was surfing Facebook one afternoon, and a picture of a fluffy tabby kitten with what looked like a cleft palate popped up on a Facebook group for lost and missing pets in Perth. Essentially someone had found her, and they were hoping to reunite the kitten with its owner. I tagged the president of my favorite local animal rescue, Perth Rescue Angels, and they ended up taking her in when no one came forward to claim her.

I’ve adopted multiple special needs pets before, and have three other cats with various conditions, so I put my hand up to foster her until they could find her a forever home. But in hindsight, I think I knew from the first moment I saw her that, provided my other pets were happy and she liked being with us, I wanted to adopt her. Within a week of her joining our home, I had named her Fancy for her unique little face.

Shortly after she’d been rescued, we [Katie and the Perth Rescue Angels] took her in for a vet check, where we expected to be told she had a cleft palate – a congenital health defect. But it turned out the cause of her unique appearance was far more sinister. The vet said she was around six months old when she was rescued, and sometime before that someone had deliberately hurt her – probably kicking her directly in the face with force. They believed several of Fancy’s teeth had been broken, along with her legs and possibly her tail, and she had scar tissue on both of her ears.

Despite the horrible start she’d had to life, Fancy has always been a loving, sweet and trusting cat – she gets along well with my other pets; dogs, cats, and a bunny, and of course with me!

That said, the abuse has caused some physical issues

She occasionally has breathing issues – she’s known to surprise sneeze in my face every now and then and tends to breathe through her mouth instead of her nose. She also salivates on the dry food she shares with my other cats, nosediving into the biscuit bowl and drooling over them before choosing a few.

But she’s packed with energy and loves to play chasey with my other pets and loves to cuddle and play with her many toys. And she’s got a weird habit for a cat – she loves water and loves a spray with the hose or hopping into the shower.

Fancy and all my other rescues may be considered special needs, but while this means they do need extra care in some ways, they’ve bought a lot of joy to my life. Each of them teaches me to appreciate every opportunity and every day I have. And Fancy, who has endured unthinkable cruelty in her short life, well, to watch how she is so strong and loving and hasn’t given up on trusting others – that is something to behold, and she’s so precious.

You can follow the antics of Fancy and her feline friends at The Sweetest Meow

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