Discarded lethargic calico kitten abandoned in box given furever home with rescuer and regains spark after tense week of refusing to eat, cat dad says: ‘She loves shoes and feet and sometimes sit on my or my mother's foot since she is so small.’

Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor

Jul 18, 2026 7:00 PM EDT

Finding a discarded kitten is emotionally overwhelming enough for most of us cat loving hoomans. But to then discover, like this rescuer did, that your saved kitten will not eat nor go to the toilet. Well, that is one heck of a harrowing experience and we hope you will join us to find out how this pawrent and their kitten overcame their first furious hurdle together.

Reddit's r/cats subreddit is full of stories about kittens being found and abandoned in boxes. For some reason it seems to be cruel hoomans' favorite choice of dumping receptacle. Nonetheless, our story is of that ilk but it has a slightly scary twist added to it, one that if pawrent and kitten could not overcome would end in a trip over the rainbow bridge. And there is no more heartbreaking outcome than seeing the feline you have worked tirelessly to save slip away.

But this pawrent was not about to let anything happen to his new feline love. And he set about trying all the different options he had to hand to help this cute critter let go. However, this pawrent was no expert, and when his homemade attempts did not quite pan out he turned to the pawfessionals. Who also did not initially figure out how to help this sweet kitten. But with his pawrent's perseverance he made it to a super clever vet who straight away saw the problem and put things right as they should have been from the start.

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Wowza, that is one heck of a tense situation. It is hard enough to deal with the drama of finding a kitten in a box as it is. But to then have to handle a kitten who will not eat, well that is quite the heartbreaker right there. All you want to do is dote on the poor kitten, to see them rise from the ashes of their abandonment and shine brighter than they have ever shone. But then you are faced with a problem like this, a potentially life ending story, racked with the feeling that this cat might not even want you to save them. It truly takes a heck of a lot of will power to keep on caring for a creature that rejects your help at every turn.
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Well, thank goodness for that. At least there is some pawsitive progress to this story. It must have been so terrifying to be trying to care for this kitten who refused to do the two most basic things an animal needs to do in order to survive other than breathe. Of course in a situation like this the vet is your first port of call. Heck it probably should have been their first port of call the moment they picked up the kitten, but we can split hairs later, once this kitten is back on all four paws and pouncing at everything that moves.
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