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AFTER A COUPLE RESCUED THIS LOST KITTEN, THEY WERE STUNNED WHEN ITS FUR STARTED
TO CHANGE COLOR

By Dave Jones

Tweet
Thu Jan 20 2022
Facebook/Bruce the cat

When Kathryn van Beek spotted a tiny kitten desperately searching for its
mother, she never would have guessed the bizarre turn things would take. In the
weeks following the well-timed rescue, the orphaned kitten's fur began to turn
patchy and dark. Now, as Van Beek watched him growing, there was no mistaking
it: his color was magically changing before her very eyes.



Bruce the cat/Facebook

Bruce the cat has become quite the popular kitty, but that wasn’t always the
case. In fact, on November 3, 2015, he was found utterly bedraggled and clinging
to life in his hometown of Auckland, New Zealand. Thankfully, though, Bruce's
fate was turned around when a woman called Kathryn van Beek found and rescued
the tiny kitten.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

Lucky as he was, Bruce came frighteningly close to missing out on such a cushy
rescue. You see, the day he was discovered was a seriously wet one. And it's a
small miracle that van Beek managed to see him at all through the torrential
rainfall. At first glance, she even thought the tiny gray creature was a mouse
or a rat.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

When she got closer, though, she realized that what she'd taken for a rodent was
actually a newborn kitten. “He wasn’t meowing when I found him,” van Beek told
Love Meow on January 4, 2016. “But he was crawling slowly along on his tummy.”




Bruce the cat/Facebook

“[It was] as though he was trying to find his mother, poor little mite,” she
recounted. And to make matters worse, the kitten couldn’t have been very old, as
van Beek informed News Now. “His eyes were still closed, and he still had his
umbilical cord attached.”




Bruce the cat/Facebook

No one seemed to know anything about the baby cat or how he'd come to be
orphaned, but the big-hearted van Beek couldn’t just leave the kitten there. So,
she did what any animal lover would do and took him home. And yep, you guessed
it - before long, she'd adopted the little guy for her very own. As for the
name, she called him Bruce after Batman’s orphaned alter ego, Bruce Wayne.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

With Bruce now inside in the warm and dry, van Beek began nursing him back to
health. Becoming a parent to a newborn of any species is no easy task, but both
van Beek and her husband rose to the challenge and stuck by the kitten during
his recovery.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

During the first few months of Bruce’s life, he was incredibly vulnerable, and
the van Beeks had to bottle-feed their new furbaby. They were on 24-hour kitten
watch, and it wasn’t long before Bruce found his voice. He wasn’t shy about
letting them know when he was hungry, either.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

But even under the attentive care of his new humans, Bruce’s poor health led to
turbulent times. Living up to his namesake, the fragile feline survived several
brushes with death. As a result of these scares, however, even van Beek’s work
colleagues became concerned for the little kitten.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

On December 24, 2016, van Beek told the NZ Herald, “I was working for Auckland
Council at the time... They were really interested, so I started a Facebook page
to keep everyone updated.” Despite all the challenges, though, Bruce was a
survivor.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

And while everyone loves an underdog (or undercat, in Bruce’s case), van Beek
didn’t expect Bruce’s popularity to soar. “At first it was a real life-and-death
battle, and then I thought interest might fade,” she said. But with Bruce
rapidly becoming an online star, something unusual started happening to the cute
kitten.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

Yes, Bruce’s light gray fur was darkening and becoming patchy. At first, the
dark splashes were limited to his paws and face, but they soon started to
spread. Before long, his entire body had become black, completing his
transformation from Bruce Wayne to Dark Knight.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

The spectacular change stunned van Beek, and at first, the cause of the palette
swap was a mystery. Regardless of the reason, though, Bruce’s magic act caused a
further swell in his fan base. Suddenly, he was more popular than anyone could
have predicted.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

“He started turning black, so that interested people,” van Beek informed the NZ
Herald. And from there, Bruce gave the world what it wanted; soon, he had social
media platforms on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. However,
he didn’t stop there.




Kathryn van Beek/Kickstarter

Bruce even set his sights on the literary world with a book about his life,
written and illustrated by van Beek. But the question still remains: what caused
Bruce’s color change? The explanation lies with a condition called fever coat.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

The unusual condition is triggered when mother cats experience upheaval during
pregnancy. The disturbance might be caused by stress, or if the expectant mommy
catches an infection. It can even occur if she’s accidentally given medication
without prior knowledge of her pregnancy.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

The resulting effect – the aforementioned fever coat – temporarily displaces the
color pigment of a kitten’s fur. Essentially, the fur doesn’t know what color it
is yet and takes on a light hue. It can, in fact, take up to eight months for
the pigments to reassert themselves.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

Anyhow, Bruce and the van Beeks moved to Dunedin, where his exploits continue to
be chronicled. There's even a second book in the works inspired by Bruce’s
adventures in his new hometown. “It’s a bit of fun really, for me,” van Beek
told News Now.




Bruce the cat/Facebook

“It’s just an interesting hobby,” van Beek added. “I think he brings his fans a
bit of light relief.” Bruce is now fever-coat-free, and these days he's a
beautiful black cat with sparkling green eyes. Bruce’s color-changing trick may
not have been magic, but how he’s using it certainly is.




Facebook/Bruce the cat

“I’d like to help other little kitties and the people who look after them,”
Bruce’s website states on his behalf. “With [the public’s] help, I’ve raised
funds for the SPCA, and now I’m working with the Animal Rescue Network.” Bruce,
then, truly is a hero.




Instagram/romeothespecialkitten

So, while Bruce’s color-changing ability made him a sort of celebrity in the
feline world, other kittens aren’t so lucky. Take Romeo, for instance, who was
born with facial deformities that some believed made him “too ugly” to love. But
when someone finally took a chance on the little animal, he repaid them in the
most adorable way.




Instagram/romeothespecialkitten

One kitten was so deformed that people thought that he was “too ugly” to adopt.
As a result, the poor little cat sat unwanted in the street with no one to love.
However, his fortunes would eventually turn around – and now, happily, he’s had
the last laugh.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

That kitten is named Romeo, and it’s fair to say that he had a rough start in
life. That’s because the little ginger cat was heartlessly abandoned and left
for dead on the streets of Spain. And perhaps most cruelly of all, it’s believed
that Romeo was ignored in favor of his littermates when the other animals were
adopted.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

Indeed, it appeared as if no one wanted Romeo. So, the plucky feline ended up
having to fend for himself while struggling to stay alive in the street. And the
likely reason that nobody had given him a forever home is heartbreaking.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

Specifically, Romeo had been born with a severe facial deformity – something
which it’s suggested had led to him being abandoned in the first place. Because
of his deformity, moreover, the little cat’s nose is slightly flattened and his
eyes are further apart than normal. However, these atypical features make Romeo
no less adorable.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

It’s not known what caused the kitten’s unusual looks; indeed, feline facial
deformities can occur for several different reasons, just as they do in humans.
But however they had first developed, one question still urgently needed to be
answered: could anyone see past Romeo’s face and see a tiny kitten in need of
some love?




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

Well, it turns out that staff at the Santuario Compasión Animal in Valencia,
Spain, did just that. And that’s despite the fact that the facility doesn’t
usually rescue cats; instead, it focuses on saving animals from the meat
industry. In fact, the sanctuary’s employees ended up smitten with Romeo.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

And Laura Llácer, the co-founder of Santuario Compasión Animal, explained as
much on Facebook. She wrote, “They told us that no one wanted him because he was
ugly.” She added, “But for us, Romeo is not ugly. He’s a lovely little kitten
who likes to play like the rest of the cats. And their differences make them
special.”




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

Indeed, Llácer and her team would commit themselves to looking after Romeo.
“While we were headed to a rescue, we dealt with the case of this kitten whose
appearance was different from the other cats, and that’s why the whole world
rejected him,” the animal shelter said in a statement.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

So Llácer gave Romeo a new home at the sanctuary, and the staff welcomed him
with open arms. Finally, the kitten had somewhere he belonged with people who
actually cared about him. And, fortunately, it didn’t take long for him to
settle in.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

While at the facility, moreover, Romeo soaked up the pets and cuddles given to
him. And, before long, the kitten’s carers had fallen head over heels in love
with him. They had been able to overlook his out-of-the-ordinary appearance and
had been duly rewarded with the most adorable companion.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

After getting to know Romeo’s personality, meanwhile, Llácer was even more
shocked that the kitten had gone unwanted for so long. “We were surprised that
people did not see that this was someone special,” she explained in an interview
with The Dodo in October 2016.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

In contrast to his time on the street, though, Romeo was now never alone. He
even made friends with the cows, ducks and turkeys at the sanctuary. However,
some attention was also reserved for Llácer herself, who has gone on to describe
Romeo as her “best friend.”




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

“Romeo is very, very affectionate and behaves differently than other cats,”
Llácer explained while talking to The Dodo. “He remains a cat, but there’s
something adorable in his behavior that reflects that lovely abnormality in
appearance.” She continued, “Of course, he suffers a deformity, but that makes
him different. That makes him unique.”




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

And as staff at Santuario Compasión Animal were keen to share Romeo’s cuteness
with the world, the sanctuary posted a video introducing the kitten on its
Facebook page. In it, he can be seen playing with his toys and cuddling up to
his favorite bunny toy – just like any other cat might do.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

What’s more, the clip proved to be quite a hit with the shelter’s 213,000
followers. Since going live in October 2016, in fact, 13,000 people have reacted
to the footage, while more than 10,000 have shared it. The post’s comment box
also soon began filling up with gushing comments for Romeo.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

“This kitty is beautiful,” one Facebook user wrote. “I would love him forever.
Thank God he has a loving place to call his forever home.” Meanwhile, another
fan said, “I do not see anything wrong with him. [He] is a beautiful little
animal.”




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

“I do not understand anyone that would reject a little kitten in need because it
does not look right,” another person added. “These are not the kind of people I
would like to be friends with. Thank you, Santuario Compasión Animal, I will be
sending [a] PayPal donation.”




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

Now, the shelter hopes that Romeo’s popularity will help other unique animals
get another chance. “He spends his days playing and calling the attention of the
volunteers to listen to him. It seems Romeo was a kitten to which no one wanted
to give a home because they said he was ugly,” a spokesperson for Santuario
Compasión Animal told the Daily Mail in 2016.




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

“Now people from all over the world have written us to ask for him,” they added.
“We hope that the story of Romeo will help to end up with a lot of prejudices
and teach us that what is important, what unites us, is the desire to live.”




Facebook/Santuario Compasión Animal

Indeed, Romeo’s story reminds us that beauty is only skin deep: to really find
the worth of an individual, then, we must look beyond their physical appearance
and into their heart. That’s what Llácer and her colleagues did, and they’ve
since been rewarded with the most endearing friend.






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