“It was touch and go for a while.”
Last spring, firefighters in Boone, Iowa, responded to a call about a barn fire. They also heard about a litter of kittens who could be inside. Sure enough, as they fought back flames, firefighters pulled four tiny kittens from the wreckage.
They were alive but in bad shape.
Covered in soot and grime, the 5-week-old kittens struggled to breathe. Luckily, the Boone Area Humane Society (BAHS) was on the scene and gave the babies some oxygen.
BAHS staff had no idea that three of these babies were incredibly unique. Underneath the soot, they hid bright orange fur. They were also girls. Sandra C. Mitchell, DVM, writes on PetMD that only 20 percent of orange cats are female. Combined with the fact that just 2 to 5 percent of all domestic cats are orange, Dr. Mitchell says orange female cats belong to an “elite club.”
One thing that BAHS staff did notice was that the tiniest kitten in the bunch had the most serious burns on her face and paws. They rushed all four babies to the vet, hoping for the best.
After gentle cleanings and some pain medicine, the kittens were in much better spirits. They ate from syringes and breathed more easily. But the smallest one, who they named Penelope, had to fight harder than her sisters.
“She was pretty severely burned,” Kim Adams, social media manager for BAHS, told The Dodo. “She lost a lot of fur.”
The fire also significantly damaged Penelope’s left eye. Staff worried she would never be able to see out of it again. They gave her antibiotics, cleaned her wounds and applied medication to her eye every few hours.
Through it all, Adams said Penelope “was just a little fuzzy thing [who] just wanted to purr and snuggle.”
Undeterred by Penelope’s grim prognosis, the shelter director at BAHS made it her mission to save the kitten’s eye. When Penelope’s littermates were released to a foster home just a few days after the fire, the director took Penelope to her own house to provide 24-hour care
After more than a month of nursing Penelope and diligently cleaning this orange girl’s eye multiple times a day, the director’s dedication paid off. Penelope could see again.
“It was touch and go for a while,” BAHS posted in an update on Facebook. “But this brave little girl is a survivor!”
Adams said that even though Penelope will have scar tissue around her eye forever, it doesn’t seem to bother this fighter in the least. BAHS cleared her for foster care, and she finally joined the rest of her sisters, where she was able to play, lounge and soak up all the love she deserved.
In the few months Penelope lived in foster care, she made remarkable progress. Her creamsicle-colored fur grew back beautifully, and her personality blossomed.
“She was always so sweet and loved everyone the moment she showed up,” her foster mom told BAHS. “She loves to give hugs.”
This past week, three months after the fire that almost killed her, Penelope met her forever family. She and one of her sisters were adopted together, and Penelope’s new mom renamed her Penny Rippa.
“She is so perfect in every way,” Penny’s new mom told BAHS. “My lil’ love bug, Penny Rippa! She is so loved here … and nothing is gonna slow this girl down.”