Smushie the kitten can’t help the way she looks. She was born with a cleft palate and an underdeveloped nose, which gives her face a bit of a ‘smushed in’ look. Sadly, her first owners didn’t like the sweet girl’s appearance and abandoned her in an alley. However, this story has a very happy ending.
Lisa Ancarrow-Maltby and her husband Brian noticed the interesting looking cat wandering around in an alley near their Virginia home.
Lisa and Brian’s neighbor, who works at a vet clinic, also noticed Smushie and attempted to feed her, but she was far too scared and skittish to accept food or come close to humans. Over time, she must have worked up some courage because Smushie was at the couple’s doorstep.
“In late December she came by our house and we offered her food,” Lisa told The Dodo. “She started to come by more often and on one particularly cold and snowy day, she followed me onto the front porch. As I walked inside, she approached our glass door, sat, placed a paw on the glass, and started crying. We brought her inside immediately and she has been part of our family ever since.”
It wasn’t long before the couple fell in love with the ‘smushed-faced’ kitty and saw that she had a heart of gold.
After taking her in, they knew she had probably never received medical care, so they took her to their local vet clinic. Lisa and Brian were ecstatic to learn that other than her cleft palate underdeveloped nose causing some breathing troubles, the young cat was just fine. The one-and-a-half-year-old kitty cat had a long, healthy life ahead of her.
“If she gets overly excited she has difficulty breathing through her nose,” Lisa said. “She is very vocal, and maybe because of her breathing issues, her happy noises are a little unusual, but completely original and endearing. We love it. People tend to notice that her face/nose are a little different, but that doesn’t stop her from enjoying life.”
Smushie doesn’t know that she’s any different than any other cat, and she loves giving snuggles and attention to her new cat brother.
Brian, who is actually allergic to cats, still takes them in and loves them anyway; they also rescued Smushie’s brother from the streets.
“His allergies can be awful, but he loves animals, and me, so we make it work,” Lisa said. “When given the opportunity to help an animal in need, we do.”
It almost seems like Smushie knew exactly what she was doing that day when she went up to Lisa and Brian’s doorstep. Having been wandering the streets and in the alley for quite some time, Smushie never trusted people – but for some reason, she knew that Lisa and Brian would take care of her, love her, and keep her safe.
“She seems to be getting happier and healthier every day,” Lisa said. “We love her so much!”
If you want to keep up with Smushie and her new, amazing life, you can do so by following her Instagram page. Fair warning – it’s overflowing with cuteness.
“Hello! I’m Smushie! I was an alley cat stray up until 1.6.18. So I guess you can call that my Find Day. Born with a few missing chromosomes, that’s ok,” her bio reads.
Congrats, Smushie! It’s so heartwarming to know that she found her perfect, forever family.
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