Tragically, not all kittens who have a ‘home’ are looked after and taken care of. One of those kittens is Pippin, who was born in the middle of a deserted farmhouse in Canada a couple of years ago. He grew up with a woman who hoarded cats, neglected them and couldn’t possibly care for all of them.
Even though Pippin’s owner was previously charged with animal neglect charges, she apparently didn’t learn from her crimes.
Apparently, the situation at the farmhouse was absolutely disastrous with dozens of cats living in inhumane conditions. To make things worse, plenty of the cats were pregnant and the place was almost flooded with feline four-footers. With no food or attention, these kittens were in desperate need of help.
Luckily, the Humane Society International Canada heard about the situation at the farmhouse and decided to investigate. The entire compound was ‘raided’, so to speak, and dozens of cats were rescued.
When the rescue operation was over, they realized they saved no less than 91 kittens.
That’s an absolutely astonishing number of cats to live under the same roof, and it just kept growing exponentially over the years because many of the cats have gotten pregnant.
Tragically, their living situation was so horrible that plenty of the cats were hanging on a loose thread. Not only were they incredible underfed and almost starved to death, but most of them also had severe medical issues as well as dangerously filthy fur. Pippin was among the cats who were in a critical condition.
“Pippin was among those considered too weak to pull through,” new owner Liam McConnell said to The Dodo.
“His condition was terrible. He was severely underweight, weak, filthy and his fur was matted. HSI Canada had to be very gentle with him because of his fragility,” he added.
However, even though things didn’t look good for Pippin and vets deemed him too weak to survive, the rescuers were not planning on giving up.
Luckily, the cat was immediately overwhelmed with love and attention from one of the foster moms, Sayara Thurston.
It was an incredibly tough fight and a long, long way to recovery – but Pippin pulled through! Thanks to some tender loving care around the clock and plenty of medical check-ups, Pippin slowly but surely started to regain his strength.
After a couple of weeks, he was completely out of the woods and could finally experience what it felt like to be a happy, energetic cat.
The story about the cat hoarder quickly spread, and it didn’t take long before Pippin found himself a loving forever home.
Liam and his spouse Ani immediately fell in love with the adorable kitten. They heard about his remarkable journey thanks to a friend and immediately knew that he would a great addition to the family.
“We were considering adding another cat to our family — we already have a gorgeous older cat named Gabi — and when we saw Pippin’s picture we fell in love with him,” the man recalls. “We started the adoption process that very day. When we heard his story, and heard that HSI Canada was putting out an urgent adoption call for these … cats, we knew we had to help.”
Their noble request to adopt Pippin hasn’t gone unnoticed and it didn’t take long before the adoption was approved. This cat has had a horrible life so far, but a new chapter could finally begin. As you can imagine, however, taking Pippin home did take a couple of days of adapting.
“Between the farmhouse, the emergency shelter, the foster home, and finally our home, [the] first few weeks of his life were tumultuous,” the couple recalls. “When we opened the cat carrier, he emerged after a few moments and went straight under the couch. He hid there for the rest of the day.”
After a while, Pippin quickly started to feel more comfortable.
The couch was his favorite place to stay for the first few days, but after realizing how awesome his new owners were, he would explore the rest of the house more often and give Liam and Ani some sweet feline affection. He also started interacting with the other cat in the family, and the two quickly became best buds. The man even slept on the couch for the first few days to make sure that Pippin was okay.
“By around midnight, Pip had become comfortable enough to waltz around our house like he owned the place,” Liam told. “He even played with me that night! We were thrilled he was adjusting so quickly.”
It’s been over three years since Pippin was rescued, and the contrast couldn’t be any stronger.
A kitten that was first deemed too weak to survive, is now living life to the fullest.
“It breaks my heart to think of what those poor cats went through, and as I look at Pippin sleeping on the couch across the room, I’m so filled with admiration for his strength,” Liam proudly said. “He came into this world under the worst circumstances and he deserves nothing but comfort and happiness for the rest of his life.”
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