While helping a stray tabby cat and her six kittens, researchers from TEARS Animal Rescue in South Africa came across a startling sight.
The cats were in fine health, having been born in a bush in a Cape Town park. But one of the kittens looked startlingly different than its other five siblings. The bizarre-looking kitty was tested for skin conditions, and all tests came back negative. Still, it had dark, patchy fur flecked with bits of grey; a narrow face with an intense gaze; and a thin, lean body.
“He’s got the look of a wolf, but the physique of a cat,” TEARS operations manager Mandy Store explained. “We thought he might be a sphinx crossbreed, but he’s got a lot of physical differences from cats. He’s quite incredible.”
Although staff at TEARS knew the kitten, whom they named ‘Eyona’, was different than the rest, they had no idea he was also incredibly rare. Eyona is a “Lykoi” or werewolf cat, a newly-recognized breed of the International Cat Association.
“If you walk up on it around 2 a.m., they can kind of frighten you,” Fox News quoted Anthony Hutcherson. “But they are really sweet cats, and it is an interesting appearance.”
The Lykoi breed was founded in 2011. The breed’s signature appearance is the result of a rare genetic mutation that developed in a domestic shorthair feline more than 20 years ago.
Cats with this rare Lykoi mutation were bred to create more, but Eyona is special because his mutation was not inherited, it was completely spontaneous and natural. In fact, he is the only known case in South Africa— and the 35th known case in the entire world.
The mutation causes Lykoi cats’ hair to become thinner with time. Interestingly though, it also makes them act more like dogs too.
Mandy Store told the Dodo, “He’s very much like a dog. He’s playful like a dog. He’ll look you in the eyes with a sense of great attachment, unlike most feral cats. He’ll even drag his blanket around with him. It’s like he doesn’t know how to be a kitty.”
Because Eyona is so rare, it’s likely that he could be sold for a pretty price on the market. His rescuers, however, do not have that in mind.
“Everybody wants to meet him, and everyone wants to buy him. But that’s not what we want,” Store said. “The last thing we ever want is for him to be exploited. We have the responsibility to makes sure he has a normal life so he can be who he is.”
Since being discovered, Eyona the Werewolf cat has been paired with a loving foster mom and a new fur-ever home to happily live out the rest of his life.
