Woman's Day Takes 'Unexpected' Turn After Finding Sick Kitten on Lunch Break
A woman has told Newsweek how her lunch break at home took an unexpected turn when she found a tiny kitty lying next to her driveway.
Stray cats frequent Andrea Julian's small town in Alabama and because of that, she might not have gone to the effort of catching the "tiny fluff ball" she spotted while grabbing the mail. But after she noticed his tiny stature with his eyes and nose covered in dirt, she knew to step in. Otherwise, she fears he might not have made it.
"Stray cats are common in our area so we had a trap already on hand that we kept in our utility room from past feral felines," she told Newsweek via email. "I had the cage set up within about 10 minutes after first setting sight on kitten and within less than 10 minutes later, he was in there eating the canned wet food."
Julian posted the successful trap and rescue mission to her TikTok account @andreajay94 on June 28, sharing in the caption that she "had a little unexpected event happen today during lunch." After catching the kitty, she kept him in her bathroom with food and water while she returned to work.
At the time she was unsure about her next steps, as she mentioned in the caption, however, since posting the video, she decided to keep the kitten.
The following morning she took the kitten to the vet where the team diagnosed him with a urinary tract infection, upper respiratory infection and conjunctivitis. He received an antibiotic injection there, but treatments are still ongoing at home. Julian is giving him an eye ointment and a vitamin gel to boost his immune system.
"[Today] his bathroom breaks are normal and his eye infection appears to be totally gone!" she said.
Julian can't say for certain whether this little kitten who seemed to get "personally delivered" to her house was a stray or not. All she knows is the cat distribution system picked her and her family for a reason.
Working on bringing him back to a healthy status, Julian said the family decided to keep him. They are currently working on slowly introducing him to their two other indoor cats. And in the meantime, she'll happily take name suggestions.
"He has become a big love bug these past few days he's been with us; you wouldn't even notice that kitten who was in the first video," she said.
Viewer Reactions
The precious rescue amassed over 1.7 million views, 139,900 likes and 695 comments on TikTok as of Tuesday.
"You did an amazing job getting that baby. Thank you so much for saving him," wrote a viewer.
Another added: "Thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing this. Another happy customer of the cat distribution system."
A third person commented: "You're amazing that kitty is lucky to find you."
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