A rare female orange cat raised three kittens on the streets, gave everything she had to get them safe, and watched every one of them find a home before anyone stopped to notice her.
VioletCredit: Welcome To The Zoo
Violet was found living as a stray with her three tiny orange kittens before being rescued and brought to a local county shelter in Tampa, Florida. She was around two years old and had clearly been doing this alone for a while. When Welcome to the Zoo, a foster-based rescue, stepped up to take the family in, the weight of everything Violet had carried outside came into focus immediately.
“You can feel every bone in her tiny seven-pound body,” her foster shared with LoveMeow. Her kittens, only four to five weeks old and about a pound each, were just as hungry, constantly working to fill their little bellies. Violet nursed and groomed and kept watch over all three of them without complaint, while her foster family kept the food bowls full around the clock.
Only about one in five orange cats is female. Violet is one of them, which makes her rare in a way that goes beyond her warm marmalade coat and vivid green eyes.
Credit: Welcome To The Zoo
Rarer still, one of her three kittens turned out to be a little orange girl herself, something that could only happen because her father carried the ginger gene as well. Two boys and a mini version of mama completed the set. Four orange cats in one foster room, all of them working their way back toward something better.
With every meal, the kittens grew rounder and bolder, and Violet slowly began to fill out too. She had done her job beautifully and then some.
Credit: Welcome To The Zoo
One by one, all three of her kittens were adopted into loving homes. The little orange girl found her family. The two boys found theirs. Violet watched them go with the same steady calm she had brought to everything else.
She did not skip a beat.
Credit: Welcome To The Zoo
Whatever the streets had asked of her, none of it followed her inside. There was no wariness, no lingering guardedness, no sign that this young cat had ever known anything other than warmth and ease. She moved through her foster home as though she had always belonged there, curious about everything, anxious about nothing.
“We honestly thought she would have been scooped up by now,” her foster shared. Mama cats are often the last ones chosen. Their kittens steal the spotlight, even when Mom is the warmest one in the room. Violet is exactly that.
Credit: Welcome To The Zoo
She wants to be part of everything her humans are doing, especially if food is involved. She loves treats, soaks up attention, and has never met a stranger. Kids, dogs, cats, kittens: Violet takes them all in stride.
When her foster family brought in another foster kitten named Sherman, Violet welcomed him without hesitation. “She took to him so quickly,” her foster shared. “I will find them playing hide and seek, or she will lay there and let him dive bomb her from under the bed.” Even with her own babies grown and gone, her mama heart still has room to spare.
Violet with ShermanCredit: Welcome To The Zoo
Two years old. Almost the entirety of that life spent nursing, protecting, and giving everything she had to someone else first.
Now that her kittens are settled and her body has filled back out, the cat underneath all that devotion finally has room to be herself. She picks her spots with authority, supervises the household with great interest, and accepts chin scratches as her due.
Credit: Welcome To The Zoo
Some cats are beautiful. Some cats are friendly. Some cats slide onto the couch next to you and make you feel like you were the one who got chosen. Violet does all three.
Violet came in off the streets thin and tired, with three kittens depending on her and nothing to spare. She leaves that chapter full, settled, and entirely herself.
Credit: Welcome To The Zoo
Share this story with your friends. View more on Violet and Welcome to the Zoo on Instagram @ilckenzoo and Facebook.
Related Story: Kind People Took in a Kitten From the Cold and Wouldn’t Leave His Look-Alike Mother Cat Behind
Source: www.lovemeow.com