After a “freak accident” left her owner injured and recovering at home, a normally anxious cat surprised everyone—putting aside her fears to offer comfort and care.
Katie Austin and her husband, Ryan Grant, welcomed home a rare, female orange cat, Kevin, from the Community Cat Rescue in Northern California. The kitty arrived in their care as a foster at 3 weeks old after being abandoned by her mom. But soon enough, she became a foster fail, and the couple adopted her.
Austin said she is often asked why the couple chose the name Kevin for a female cat. She answered, in part: “Since our three kittens were left behind by their mom who took their three siblings with her and never came back, we decided to name our kittens for characters with famously ‘bad mother figures.’ Our little orange Kevin all covered in milk looked like a young Macaulay Culkin in his famous aftershave scene in Home Alone. And as we all know, his mom famously forgot him, too. So, Kevin was named after his character, Kevin McCallister. Her two sisters were Cinderella (Ella) and Little Orphan Annie (aka Annie Banana, which became just Banana).
“It wasn’t until she and her sisters went in for their neuter appointments that we found out that they were all rare orange girls! We briefly discussed renaming her, but the name stuck.”
Raising this Kevin was also no walk in the park. The couple soon realized the kitty struggled with anxiety, which Austin told Newsweek via email she believes came from her struggling to eat as a kitten. She was always in need of medications. She became the couple’s “most anxious” feline.
“It felt like every time we picked her up, it was to torture her with some new goo in her eyes or mouth,” Austin said. “If we weren’t medicating her, we were bathing the food and poo off her. So she very quickly decided that she wasn’t fond of people.”
They couple worked on rebuilding trust with Kevin. Austin said she’s come around to people, but still has an impulse to run away. But Kevin’s actions following Grant’s accident stunned the couple. The cat put her uneasiness aside and decided to return the care as he recovers at home, making it her job to look after him.
In a September 22 TikTok video posted to the account @clickclickpurrr, Austin captured photos of Kevin, unafraid, and snuggling with Grant. She decided to shelve her fear of humans, especially of Grant, as his 6-foot-5-inch stature always made her nervous, Austin said. The couple thought Kevin knew immediately that something was wrong, as she provided him comfort from the very first day. She’ll sit on his chest and look longingly at his face for hours at a time.
“As Ryan started to heal, Kevin allowed herself to look away from his face and settle into a comfortable spot on his belly, but continued to stay on top of him for hours during the day and through the night,” Austin said.
Austin shared that her husband was in an accident involving his eye, but could not reveal details as they are talking to lawyers about the incident. He has had two surgeries, with more to come, she said.
“He is still very much in the thick of it, and we don’t yet know how much of his eyesight he will recover,” she said. “It’s been an incredibly scary experience!”
The orange cat continues to comfort Grant as the recovery process continues. The caringness has become one of the cat’s three modes—hiding in case of emergency, screaming at the ceiling or staring at Grant while on his chest. Grant said he thinks Kevin loves it because he is medically forbidden from picking up anything over 10 pounds, which includes her and the other cats.
“This meant for the first time, I had to wait for her to come to me,” he said. “She clearly thrived with this shift in dynamics. I’ll have to restrain myself from picking her up as I get better!”
TikTok viewers flocked to the video, stunned by the cat’s intuition, and as of Thursday, the video reached over 97,200 views and 17,800 likes.
“Her purrs are helping him heal. I love cats, they’re just the best,” one person wrote, while another added: “She’s in her healing position. what a good girl.”
An article from the Rutherford Animal Hospital says that the gentle vibrations from a cat purring can ease stress and anxiety, help lower blood pressure, promote healing of bones, reduce inflammation and the risk of heart disease.
