A blind, special needs kitten was left ‘very confused’ after being abandoned at the shelter just months after being adopted.
The gray and white kitten, then named Elena by staff at the Greenville Humane Society in South Carolina, was adopted in January at just three months old.
But in late July, staff members found the kitten in a box at the shelter, with no explanation, the Greenville Humane Society said. posted on Facebook on Monday.
They were heartbroken when they recognized the cat.
“We don’t know why she was brought back to us. Why she was abandoned,” the shelter wrote. “She was very confused. She didn’t know where she was.”
A gray and white kitten was returned to the Greenville Humane Society in South Carolina just months after being adopted.
The shelter said staff met Elena when she was just three months old.
She was the runt of the litter and vets determined she was completely blind.
“It can be scary enough to be in a big shelter when you’re so small, but their lack of vision only makes it that much scarier for a young kitten,” she said. shelter wrote at the time.
“Her unfamiliarity with her current environment, coupled with her blindness, has made her miserable – she’s always in fight or flight mode. She hisses when she hears a noise. She doesn’t want to be petted. She’s very, very scared.”
But shortly after posting about the kitten, the Greenville Humane Society announced that he had been adopted.
“We were so happy for her,” the shelter wrote in its Monday post.
The kitten was the smallest of her litter and vets determined that she was completely blind.
The Greenville Humane Society said it was heartbroken when the kitten was returned to them in late July without an explanation.
After returning to the shelter, veterinarians discovered the kitten suffers from hydrocephalus, a rare birth defect that causes a buildup of fluid in the brain.
It can cause cats to appear constantly wobbly and unable to control their gait. according to the National Kitten Coalition.
“She couldn’t catch a break and it broke our hearts to see her so confused and wondering what was next,” the shelter wrote.
But he has grown stronger, learned to navigate the shelter and bonded with other felines.
As a result, the Greenville Humane Society said it “renamed her Mabel, because she is no longer the scared, blind baby we used to know.”
She said she is now looking for a forever home for Mabel. “One that will commit to caring for her for life. Not just temporarily, but forever.”
The shelter has since changed the kitten’s name to Mabel, noting that she is no longer the “blind, scared baby we knew.”
The shelter said Mabel will need daily medication for hydrocephalus, which she will need for the rest of her life.
The medication costs $25 a month, but the humane society insists Mabel is “totally worth it.”
“She has so much love to give and deserves to find a family that will give her the same love back.”
Facebook user Julia Price later commented on the post that she had met Mabel at the shelter and that the kitten “stole my heart.”
“She seemed a little nervous with all the activity (there were a lot of people!), but cautiously backed away and accepted the pets of everyone who came in and out.” Price wrotesharing a photo of Mabel asleep in his arms.
“Finally, she decided I was trustworthy and curled up on my lap for a nearly hour-long nap. I only left because it was closing time!”
Price added that she could not adopt Mabel “because my current foster situation is not suitable for her.”
Thankfully, another family has adopted the sweet kitty, the shelter wrote in an update, and they assured the public that they will never let the people who adopted her in the first place get another pet from them.
