Frankie the kitten was born a bit different than other cats, and his differences make him very, very special.
In a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, rescuers found a kitten hiding underneath a house alongside his brother. As the rescuers got closer to the frightened kittens, they were stunned to see that one of them had an extra set of ears, sitting right in front of their ‘normal’ ears, as well as a deformed right eye.
The kittens were taken to the Geelong Animal Welfare Society, and a shelter volunteer named Georgia Anderson caught wind of Frankie’s unique traits; she immediately knew she had to meet the little guy in person.
“I’d heard that a kitten with four ears had come in and was in the vet clinic waiting for surgery to remove his eye, so I went up to have a look at him,” she told The Dodo.
The cat needed to have surgery to remove the deformed eye and the shelter volunteer expected the kitten to be a bit stand-offish afterward, but as it turns out, it was quite the opposite.
“He would have been in a lot of pain, but the first thing he did when I picked him up was purr and rub his face on mine,” Georgia said. “I told the girls in the vet clinic that I would foster him for recovery after his eye removal.”
The surgery left a long row of stitches down the side of the kitten’s face, earning him the nickname ‘Frankenkitten,’ or Frankie for short. Despite all of the pain and suffering this special kitten had been through in his 10-weeks of life, his sweet demeanor never changed.
Georgia intended on only fostering Frankie until he had recovered, but as soon as she brought him home, she knew she couldn’t let him go.
“When I got him home, he was very dopey and in pain, but still had so much love and affection for me, the kids and other animals,” Anderson said. “By the next morning, I’d decided that I wanted to keep him.”
After waiting through the shelter’s required eight-day holding period, Frankie officially joined Georgia’s family. He officially gained three cat siblings named Toothless, Mina, and Lucius Malfoy, as well as Beagle brother named Dudley.
Although Frankie has a home, he still has a long road ahead of him; he was born with a large overbite that will need to be corrected when he gets a bit older. Cats born with four ears tend to also have other genetic issues.
“We are still waiting for his adult teeth to grow (roughly another five months), but when they do, his lower canines will need removing,” Georgia said. “If they aren’t removed, they will cause damage to his palate when he closes his mouth. His upper canines should be able to remain, but they are probably going to hang out of his mouth like little vampire teeth.”
Despite all of the odds being stacked against him, Frankie is a fighter and it doesn’t stop him from living life to the fullest – just like a kitten should. He now has a family that loves and supports him, no matter how rough things get.
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