'He was way too big as a kitten': Couple adopts a "normal" kitten only to find out it's a rare and unique Norvegian forest cat

Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor

Sep 25, 2026 12:45 PM EDT

All cats are cats. And sometimes, a unique and rare cat looks completely normal as a kitten.

Every cat is unique. This is something that we know ourselves, as people who write about cats every single day and simply as cat owners. Cats have silly habits, likes and dislikes, thoughts and feelings that they express in all kinds of adorable ways. Some cats scream at closed doors for no apparent reason. Some cats decide that your laptop is the comfiest spot to lie on. Some cats snack on your plants. Some cats will have one ear that is folded and maybe one toe bean different in color than the rest of them.

Cats are all special in their own ways, but at the end of the day, all cats are… cats. And gartlandish's story on Reddit is not the first time that we have seen someone mistake a rare cat for a normal kitten. Because while rare cats do look different when they are older, when they are kittens, they look pretty much like all kittens. And in this case, we would have made the same mistake.

Luckily, unlike some other people who have made this mistake in the past, the cat in today's story is actually a domestic cat. And they can keep the cat. The owners simply have to follow the cat's rules, and they know it.

We once read about someone mistaking a puma kitten for a normal cat, don't think that can't happen. Kitten blindness in humans is real, and when we really want to pet one of them, we will ignore every sign of danger. That's how a new cat species was discovered for the first time in 100 years - by someone attempting to rescue what they thought was simply a kitten.

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"We adopted a kitten, didn’t realize he was a Norwegian forest cat."

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This has got to be one to be one of the biggest domestic cats that we have ever seen. Sure, we have known about the existence of Norwegian Forest cats and Maine Coon cats, we have been writing for ICHC for long enough, but we don't think we have ever seen one of quite this scale. And yes, honestly, even with all of our knowledge about cats, looking at the kitten pictures that this cat's owners posted a little later on, we can confidently say that we would have made the same mistake. He really does look like a completely normal kitten.
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Like… look at this thing. We would not have had a single doubt. This is a normal kitten. We have no idea how it grew into that giant. But we agree with your attitude. We would have been great servants to this little guy just because of how adorable he is, but seeing him now, he is not really giving you a choice in the matter, is he? This is the meowster of the house, and each and every one of his requests will be met with a bow and with tuna cans. Yes, sir.
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