Two blind cats rescued at Christmas last year have now found their forever home with a family who love to adopt ‘special needs’ cats – and have eight felines in total.
The Marrit family, from County Durham, couldn’t resist adding to their six-strong cat gang after previously taking on one-eyed cat Greebo, who had a broken leg.
Helen, 44, her partner Andy and their daughter Willow knew instantly that they had space for ginger brothers Gabriel and Arthur, who were first rescued in December 2020.
“Ever since we adopted Greebo we’d been discussing adopting another cat with special needs as we have the love, time and space to really care for a special cat,” said Helen.
“As soon as we saw Arthur and Gabriel we just knew that they were the right cats for us,” said Helen.
“I read up everything I could find about looking after blind cats and fell in love with them even more.”
The felines are settling into their new home and “bumbling along really well” with all their new furry step-siblings.
Helen said: “Greebo is especially loving having some new cats to play with and they all spend hours chasing balls around the room.
“It’s hard to believe sometimes that Arthur and Gabriel can’t see, it’s truly amazing watching them play, they’re so clever.
“Arthur enjoys ‘helping’ Andy work from home by climbing up on his shoulders and keeping him company.
“Gabriel is less keen on human company but loves all our other cats and follows them around, which is really sweet.”
The family are now looking forward to their first Christmas with eight cats and will be showering Arthur and Gabriel with lots of affection and fuss.
Helen said: “Christmas with all eight cats will be hilariously chaotic; we’re already making bets on how long the Christmas tree will stay up.
“Arthur and Gabriel are so curious and love to climb and they both love playing in boxes and chasing scrunched up balls of paper so Christmas Day will be heaven for them!
“All of the cats will get their own special stocking so the mantelpiece will be a bit full this year but we wouldn’t have it any other way.
“Arthur and Gabriel are our little Christmas miracles and we love them so much.”
The two felines had a tricky start in life after being discovered on a building site in Peterlee, County Durham when they were just weeks old.
Found separately by staff at the RSPCA just days before Christmas, the cats both had conditions that meant their eyesight had completely disappeared.
Inspector Krissy Raine, who rescued him, said: “We believe poor Gabriel lost both of his eyes after having cat flu as a tiny kitten and that left him with empty eye sockets.
“After telling one of my colleagues about his story we realised she’d rescued another little kitten from the same area a few weeks before and that they were brothers.
“It was so wonderful to reunite them; it was a Christmas miracle.
“They instantly recognised each other and it was really heart warming to know that they had each other again.”
In other news, have you seen the hilarious images of seals that look like they’re laughing, waving and face-palming!
