Last October, Brendan and Kayla Dunn were taking their dog on an evening walk around their neighborhood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when they suddenly found themselves face-to-face with a fluffy stranger. To their surprise, a small stray cat appeared
just as they were walking out the door, and she seemed desperate to get their attention.
“When we walked out our front door, [she] came running out from across the street, crying over and over,” Kayla told The Dodo. “She was skin and bones.”
Kayla, Brendan and their dog, Cora, were all taken aback by the cat's surprise appearance and incessant crying. They had never seen her before, but they couldn’t bear to walk past her without helping. So, Brendan rushed to the nearest Walgreens, while Kayla and Cora stayed behind to console the kitten.
“She was very skittish but seemed curious and eventually came close to me and let me pet her briefly,” Kayla said. “She seemed friendly.”
Brendan soon returned with two cans of cat food, which the kitten gobbled up. She was clearly starving, so Kayla carefully picked up the kitten and carried her to their garage.
The couple placed her in a large crate, where she could rest until their vet appointment the next morning. It was supposed to be a temporary setup, but the sweet kitten quickly started to grow on Kayla and Brendan that night.
“We were not planning on getting a cat. But I was already starting to love her,” Kayla said.
The next day, the couple took the kitten, whom they named Callie, to the vet. They were sad to learn that Callie didn’t have a microchip, realizing that she’d probably been surviving on her own for most of her life.
She also had fleas and ringworm, which required extensive treatment. But Kayla and Brendan had already decided that they were keeping her, and they were willing to do anything to help her feel better.
Back at home, Kayla and Brendan set Callie up in their garage again for an extended quarantine until her fleas and ringworm had resolved. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but everyone — including Callie — made the best of it.
“Because of the fleas, we had to keep her quarantined in a crate set up in our garage,” Kayla said. “She managed really well and was always friendly from the beginning. She would rub her head affectionately on my hands.”
Callie quickly learned to trust Brendan and Kayla, and she allowed them to care for her ringworm each day despite how uncomfortable it was.
“Managing the spread was vital because we had a dog, too,” Kayla said. “It requires diligent daily disinfecting of her crate environment, lime sulphur dip baths and oral medication for Callie. She was a trooper the entire time …”
After two months of care, Callie’s ringworm was officially cleared, and she was finally able to be spayed — her last step before gaining access to the rest of the house. By this time, Callie’s quarantine location was moved from the garage to the bathroom, which allowed her to become familiar with her new sibling, Cora, at a safe distance.
As soon as Callie healed from surgery, Kayla and Brendan opened the bathroom door and officially introduced her to her new forever home. It was the moment they’d all waited months for.
It’s been almost a year since Callie ran up to the unsuspecting couple, and her life has flourished ever since. Once a 4-pound kitten, Callie is now a happy, chunky girl who never misses a meal or an opportunity to cuddle.
She may have been an orphan when they found her, but Callie now has a family who loves her more than anything in the world, and she couldn’t be more grateful for their care. As Brendan and Kayla see it, though, they’re the lucky ones.
“We truly feel so grateful to have her in our family, and she is a symbol of resilience to us,” Kayla said. “Through it all, she’s maintained her sweet and affectionate nature. She’s the sweetest girl.”
