Tender story of love restores badly burned feral kitten to health and happiness

Luka, a receptionist at RSPCA Felledge Animal Centre in Cleadon, South Tyneside has done something remarkable and so has the cat who survived a bad fire in a shed. The kitten at 6-weeks-of-age, named Pheonix for obvious reasons, was under a shed trapped in rubble when it caught alight. We don’t know how the fire was started. I hope it was not deliberate. And I hope no other cats were hurt.

Phoenix was very badly burned and the photos are hard to look at but I felt the story was uplifting enough at Christmas for us to bear the ‘before’ photos. The ‘after’ photos are hard to view as well but she has been nursed back to health. It is hard to believe that she survived.

Her burns removed almost all her fur and she suffered burns to her paws, face and eyes. Her paw pads were badly injured. Luka had looked after Phoenix on a temporary basis but the amount of care she gave ended up with a bond between them so she adopted her for good.

Luka said:

‘It was very difficult. I honestly didn’t know if we were doing the right thing in keeping her alive. She’d just been so badly burnt. All of her fur fell off, she looked like she had been shaved. She also received injuries around her eyes, leaving her inner eyelid exposed and meaning she needed lots of eye drops.’

Luka says that she is now like any other kitten. She is lively and feisty. Her coat is a magnificent dark tortoiseshell. Torties are meant to have personalities. This seems to apply to Phoenix.

She loves cuddles in the evening. She’ll get all the cuddles she needs, I am certain of it.

Source: Metro.co.uk via North News.