Kitten who lost both eyes gets a fresh start — with another cat who ‘beat the odds’
A “fearless” kitten lost both of his eyes — then came a heartwarming adoption.
Cri-Kee the kitten is now settling into a new home with Soba, another North Carolina cat once found in rough shape.
“It’s cool to see that these two cats who both really beat the odds and have overcome so much are now going to be siblings and best friends and get to live their lives together,” Samantha Ranlet, a spokesperson for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) of Wake County, told McClatchy News in a Jan. 28 phone interview.
Cri-Kee got a fresh start after he melted hearts on social media. The little kitten “fearlessly befriended” a 65-pound dog at his foster home, so the Raleigh-area shelter introduced him to four puppies whose mom wouldn’t nurse them.
An adorable video posted to Instagram shows the animals playing together. Social media users couldn’t get enough of the cuteness, with some commenting on the way Cri-Kee took command of the “friendship experiment.”
“He definitely held his own,” Ranlet said. “And 5, 10 minutes into that, he was already in charge of the whole room.”
Cri-Kee, who bears the same name as a character in the Disney movie “Mulan,” landed at the shelter in January after he and his brothers were transferred from another facility. Both of his feline siblings, Mushu and Khan, have since been adopted.
Cri-Kee was likely born outside and couldn’t see, so the odds were “stacked against him.” He got much-needed surgery for his eyes, which shelter workers feared were making him uncomfortable.
“His two badly damaged eyes were causing lots of issues, so our veterinarian had no choice but to remove them,” the shelter wrote in its Instagram post. “Since he had already grown up blind, he’s had no problem adapting after his surgery.”
But the good news didn’t end there. The 3-month-old kitten was adopted by a family familiar with the SPCA. The owner previously adopted Soba, a cat who recovered after he reportedly was found looking “like a skeleton with skin.”
“It’s always a really good day to see one of these pets get a home, especially one of the special needs pets,” Ranlet said. “They always have a special place in our heart.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 3:16 PM with the headline "Kitten who lost both eyes gets a fresh start — with another cat who ‘beat the odds’."
