Right after losing their beloved cat, person finds an 8-week-old, 1-pound, half-blind kitten in terrible condition and is heartbroken once again thinking she won't make it through the night, but the tiny fighter refuses to give up, and now she's thriving

Author image for Mariel Ruvinsky
Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor
Jul 30, 2026 1:30 PM EDT

This kitten wasn't meant to survive the first 24 hours after being found, but she is a fighter. 

As a cat owner myself, even just the thought of losing my cat is an unbearable one. My sweetheart is 11-years-old already, and even though I write stories every day about cats who reach very old ages, I also see the ones who don't. I try to make every second with her count, and I try not to think about the day it'll all be gone. Because I can't. She is my first cat, my soul cat, my everything, and I don't know how long it will be before I'll be able to adopt again after her. But a situation like the one in today's story might get even me to deal with the future grief differently. 

If I, like this person, right after losing my cat, found a sick kitten in desperate need of help like this one, I wouldn't have been able to look away either. This kitten was 8 weeks old, 1 pound in weight and half-blind, and she wasn't meant to survive the first 24 hours of her life after being found. Of course, when this person rescued this kitten, they didn't know this. They saw that she wasn't well, but they couldn't know that the situation was so dire. And while still dealing with the grief over their own cat, they had to deal with the news that this one was likely not going to make it. But they didn't give up on her, waking up every hour or so to feed her and help her. And the kitten didn't give up either. She had hope now for a better future, and she wanted to live, so she fought for it. And right now, she is doing so, so much better. 

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  • 01

    "Good update on dying rescue kitten"

    Cheezburger Image 10650945280
    via Noombat22
  • 02
    Cheezburger Image 10650945536
    via Noombat22
  • 03
    I posted yesterday about finding this kitten and wondering if she was going to survive the night. Today we took her to the vet for a full checkup. Of course everyone was obsessing over her because she's adorable.
    via Noombat22
  • 04
    The first photo is what she looks like now after getting her home earlier today, the second and third one is yesterday when we found her. We knew she had an upper respiratory tract inftion because of all the boogers but it was actually much worse.
    via Noombat22
  • 05
    Her left eye has completely rotted away. It's only half there, all the volume in the socket was in ted goop they cleaned out at the vet. She almost d d well she was there because she went roughly 6 hours without milk because of a scheduling issue with the vet when she was only supposed to be gone for 2 hours.
    via Noombat22

  • Goodness, we cannot imagine the stress of this situation, the anger that you must have felt. She's lucky to have made it at all. 

  • 06
    She's much much older than we thought, 8 weeks old. She's just under 1 pound so extremely underweight. I didn't think she had a fever yesterday but her temperature was over 106 at the vet. Her blad work was shockingly normal though, other than she was extremely dehydrated.
    via Noombat22
  • 07
    They gave her the strongest antibiotics she can handle and said that there was actually a very good chance of her recovering despite everything she's going through. They gave her some high calorie food which she loves and some fluids.
    via Noombat22
  • 08
    I mix 50% with the high calorie pate and 50% with kitten formula and she gets 3 baby spoons full every hour now that she's back home. I was able to get her to eat so much more than she was eating yesterday but she has to have food every 1.5 hours or else she could get extremely sickly.
    via Noombat22
  • 09
    Unfortunately that basically means my sleep schedule is completely wrecked since I can't sleep more than an hour or so at a time or else she might keel over on me. She's already started getting up and exploring again though now that's it's night.
    via Noombat22
  • 10
    It's completely unbelievable how bad of a condition she was in and she keeps on staying playful, curious, and sweet. They said if she gets better in a few days and the infections go down there's a very good chance of her recovering so that's what we're hoping for.
    via Noombat22
  • 11
    Cheezburger Image 10650970880
    via Unsplash / vonvix

    Image of a cute gray cat napping. 

    The feline in the image is a meowdel. 

  • 12
    Flowercat9843 Oh my goodness, bless your heart. This is a tough situation for even experienced cat owners and rescuers! She looks adorable and sweet and I will keep her and you in my thoughts. Nature is a cruel, relentless beast, even in all of its beauty. I'm not religious but I do believe in something greater than ourselves.
    via Flowercat9843
  • 13
    Noombat22 OP Aw, thank you! I think getting her is an act of karma enough. I've been wanting to get a cat so bad since my last one passed away of a blad disorder and she showed up at the exact right time. The vet says she probably wouldn't be saveable if we found her even one day later since the inftion was going to her brain which I hope is a sign of something that she'll make it.
    via Noombat22
  • 14
    If it increases the chance she survives I'm fine with missing some sleep this week, my parents agreed to come over and help me care for her after they saw some photos of her so hopefully it's not going to be every night. They said if she improves over the next few days she'll likely pull through and I feel like she's so much better after just one day so I'm really hoping!
    via Noombat22

  • We are going to wait for every single update that you provide. We want to see her not just make it through this ordeal. We want to see her grow up - healthy and happy. 

  • 15
    Cheezburger Image 10650966016
    via Unsplash / Yosei G - yoseig

    Image of a sweet gray cat with large ears napping.

    The kitten in the image is an adorable model. 

  • 16
    Ok-Sky-3038 Thank you for saving this precious little soul, you're doing a wonderful job giving her all she needs to survive, with all your love I hope and pray she gets stronger with every passing hour! Please keep us updated on her progress, and make sure to take care of yourself as well! My thoughts and prayers are with you, I'm praying for very good updates tomorrow!
    via Ok-Sky-3038
  • 17
    Noombat22 OP thank you so much! I'll definitely keep making updates, I'm surprised so many people are supporting her! So far she's doing SO better than when I made the post, she's playing now and I had to switch her to a silicone spoon because she'd finish eating her food and start trying to eat the spoon. She also opened her good eye completely so she can see now! Long gone is the blind cat she was. She loves climbing up anything she can get her claws in and baskets as well, here she is in her
    via Noombat22
  • 18
    She's definitely in much less pain, she's chirping all the time and rubbing against my legs every chance she gets. When I found her she was mostly completely sedentary so it's huge improvements that I hope are going to be lasting
    via Noombat22
  • 19
    Cheezburger Image 10650945024
    via Noombat22

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aww wholesome cat adorable adoption heartwarming cute adopted story Cats rescue
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