A flood leaves this newborn black kitten without a family, so a kind person saves him and gives him a new home: 'Last year, my home town flooded'

Author image for Mariel Ruvinsky
Mariel Ruvinsky • Writer and Editor
Oct 19, 2026 11:00 AM EDT

During weather disasters, humans are not the only ones who need help. 

Natural disasters are one of my biggest personal fears. They come out of nowhere, there are few ways to prepare, there isn't really anyone to blame, and they are always devastating. Floods are like that. Over the past few months, some of the flooding footage that we have seen has been amazing - in the purest meaning of the word. It has left me amazed. Lives turned upside down, washed away, changed within a moment. We look at the people, the structures, but I don't think that most people think about the beautiful wildlife experiencing the same disasters too. 

Being a stray newborn kitten is hard enough as it is. Having to learn how the world functions so early and so quickly, just to survive, is hard. Having to do all of that during a flood… impossible. The itty bitty kitten in this story never had a chance to learn. The flood came out of nowhere, he was swept away, and finding her family within all that madness, when he still needed his momma there for basic needs like food, was not something that he could do. That's where we have to come in. People like us, people with compassion for animals, we can try to help. We won't be able to save them all, but every life saved is one worth celebrating. 

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  • 01

    "Flood left kitten without a family, so I gave him a new one"

    Cheezburger Image 10671046656
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 02
    Last year, my home town flooded. For whatever reason, our area had a large population of stray cats. We kept finding the strays de d for days, even weeks, after the flood. It was horrible.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 03
    One day, I had Co id and was waiting on a doctor's appointment, just driving around, when I saw this tiny black thing in the middle of the road.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
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    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 05
    Didn't know what it was, but saw it move and swerved out of instinct. Pulled an illegal U-turn and came back and found the tiniest little kitten in the world just trembling in the middle of the road.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 06
    Too weak to even fight me. He wasn't moving at all, and he was bloding from his nose.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer

  • When floods happen, when all that scary footage comes out of homes being swept away and houses being destroyed, that is what we tend to focus on. And for good reason. These floods change lives. In a heartbeat, everything that you knew before could be gone. But this is true not just for the people in the area. An entire ecosystem gets swept away, and within that ecosystem, all the animals' homes get swept away just like ours. Except that when the rescue crews arrive, they don't think about the animals. Not really. Not as much as we wish they would. So, it's up to us, the people whose lives are irreparably changed, to help as many animals as we can find. 

  • 07
    Cheezburger Image 10671046144
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 08
    I was certain he had been run over and so I took him to an emergency vet and they handed me a bunch of paperwork and took him back.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 09
    They asked me if I was willing to be financially responsible for him, and, I assumed he was about to be put down, so I said "of course!"
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
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    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 11
    They asked me his name... and I said the name of the street... Sydney... because I was short on unisex name ideas. They let me back after I agreed to pay for everything, and the vet did an examination.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 12
    He told me "Sydney" was a boy, around 4 weeks old, only 4/10s of a pound. He was severely malnourished and incredibly small for his age, but they guessed four weeks because of his teeth.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
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    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 14
    He told me had a sinus inftion and was bl ding from the nose from a minor scrape, that he had no broken bones and was most certainly not d¸ ng.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 15
    It was at this point I had to s k it up and tell my father (I was staying with him for a bit back then) that I had another cat... and that I needed him to look after him while I went to my doctors visit.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 16
    After throwing a fit, he accepted and went home with Sydney. The first picture I have of him is from when they got home.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer

  • For a kitten like this, who was injured, malnourished and still needed to be bottle-fed… if he hadn't been found, he would not have made it. It's that simple. This wasn't a simple rescue. This was a person saving a creature's life. And considering the situation, considering how much their own lives had been affected by the flood, that is not something to be taken for granted. It's not the same as saving a kitten off the street on a normal day. We don't know how much appreciation this person got in their day-to-day life for doing what they did, but we would like to do our part in it by saying thank you. We wish more people could be like this - caring about others even when things in their own lives are hard. 

  • 17
    Had to bottle feed the little guy for a week or two, and started calling him "Syd" for short.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 18
    Us both being sick at the same time definitely sucked, but it also meant I got the time off work needed in order to feed him as often as he needed (every 2-3 hours, per the vet).
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 19
    These days, Syd is lively and adores his sister, Baby, who can be seen on the right of the last. picture. They look IDENTICAL.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 20
    The only difference is Baby is missing half an ear, and their eyes are slightly different shades of green.
    via u/wholefoodsgrocer
  • 21
    misssmoonchild I'm not doing good today and this just made me cry happy tears instead of sad ones Thank you for saving Sydney! He's a beauty
    via misssmoonchild
  • 22
    wholefoodsgrocer OP Thank you! He's definitely a pretty cat (and he knows it! lol) despite me saving him, I can. honestly say I've been the lucky one in this relationship.
    via wholefoodsgrocer
  • 23
    Silvermouse29 Aww. You and your dad are good people.
    via Silvermouse29
  • 24
    wholefoodsgrocer OP Thank you. My dad adores Syd. Even though we've moved pretty far away, my father insists on FaceTime calls where he can "catch up" with Syd! I think it's cute.
    via wholefoodsgrocer

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aww wholesome cat adorable adoption heartwarming cute adopted story Cats rescue
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