Two kittens with a strong bond have melted hearts across the internet as one protected the other while it recovered from surgery.

Françoise "Frankie" Giblin, 43, dedicated her time to fostering and volunteering with animal rescues, and recently went viral when she showed off two bonded brothers on her TikTok account @frankie_fosters.

"I picked them up about 5 weeks ago from Best Friends Animal Society in Los Angeles," she told Newsweek. "Wellie was very scared and shaking in the back of his kennel. Wally, despite a ruptured eye, was full of energy and very social."

Giblin, who has volunteered with the rescue since 2018, explained the kittens were covered in flea dirt and had likely spent time outdoors before being rescued. And while the team tried their best to treat Wally's ruptured eye, "for his long term health and safety it was decided that the best course of action was to do an enucleation (removal)."

And Wellie was by his side through it all, as a viral video shared on November 30 proves.

Boasting almost 300,000 likes, it shows Wally and Wellie curled up together, the tiny black kitten having had his eye surgically removed and wearing a tiny cone to stop him touching the scar.

His tabby brother sits almost on top of him protectively, staring up at the camera, before lying beside him and reaching an arm across the recovering black kitten.

And despite it all, a loud, rumbling purring can be heard throughout.

"He had the surgery Tuesday and is recovering really well," Giblin told Newsweek.

"His brother was always by his side during recovery. Like he knew [Wally] needed him while he healed."

Giblin called Wellie the "best brother" in the caption to the video, and TikTok users agreed, with one commenter writing: "Awww he's applying the healing frequency."

"Aww, he is purr-healing him. Cats know the right frequency for healing," another agreed.

Many pleaded for the kittens to stay together, with one writing: "Those babies are so bonded pls keep them together forever," and as another put it: "Don't ever split them up!"

It's good news for both the brothers and TikTok users who fell in love with them, as Giblin told Newsweek: "I am very happy to report that as of yesterday morning, Wally and Wellie were adopted together!"

Giblin, who is preparing to launch beauty business Wilène, explained she usually volunteers to foster neonatal kittens as they are "most at risk," and takes them in until they are old enough to be spayed or neutered and then adopted.

"I use the time I have with them in foster to post videos in [the] hopes of showing their personalities and finding an adopter myself, so that way they can transfer right from foster home to forever home and avoid having to wait in a kennel to be adopted."

An estimated 3.2 million cats enter shelters across the U.S. each year, according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), and around 2.1 million cats are adopted each year.

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