Sydney Mollentine, CEO of the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City (HSGKC), was enjoying her Fourth of July weekend with her family when she got an urgent text from a staff member about a stray kitten who’d just been brought into the shelter. From the photo
of the kitten, Mollentine could see that his head was extremely swollen and he urgently needed medical attention.
Mollentine immediately knew she had to set aside all of her plans to help the little kitten with the huge forehead. She loaded her kids into the car and immediately headed to the shelter.
Mollentine was relieved to find that despite the kitten’s obviously uncomfortable condition, he still had a calm temperament and seemed to want nothing more than getting as many pets and cuddles as possible.
“He was still very sweet and active,” Mollentine told The Dodo. “It didn’t really seem to bother him a whole lot.”
In reference to the iconic character with an oversized head, the HSGKC staff decided to nickname the little kitten Megamind. With the help of a medical team, Mollentine began examining Megamind’s head to figure out what was going on with him.
Everyone crossed their fingers that Megamind wasn’t dealing with hydrocephalus, a serious condition in which the brain swells up with cerebrospinal fluid. But as Mollentine examined Megamind, she started to think he was dealing with an abscess outside of the brain, which is much easier to treat.
“I had suspicions when I felt it that it was more of an abscess versus hydrocephalus just because of the way it was really bouncy and fluid-filled,” Mollentine said.
The first step after the examination was an X-ray. Mollentine wanted to make sure that Megamind’s skull wasn’t misshapen in any way and that it didn’t have any fractures. Everyone was relieved when the X-ray revealed that Megamind’s skull was just fine and he was dealing with an abscess.
The next step was to gently drain the fluid from Megamind’s head. As Mollentine did the procedure, she was amazed by how the little kitten sat very still and let the staff members work on him.
“He was such a trooper,” Mollentine said. “He just sat there and continued to be a sweet cat.”
The only part of the whole process that seemed to agitate Megamind was when the procedure was over and he had to go back into his kennel by himself and stop getting pets.
“[H]e was extremely agitated and angry that we had stopped holding him.”
Megamind ended up staying in the hospital for a week and emerged back into the world feeling on top of the world. Given how adorable and sweet he is, it’s no surprise that once he was fully healed and ready, someone decided to make him a permanent member of their family.
“He’s been adopted by the person that actually found him … So [a] perfect full circle moment there.”
