'Love at First Sight' as Rescue Cat Demands Owner Adopts Foster Kitten

A rescue cat has been urging his owner to adopt the kitten she is fostering, after striking up a close friendship with the young feline.

Pet owner Kati from Latvia told Newsweek that it was "love at first sight" for her cat Lucis and their tiny kitten guest, who is staying with them after enduring the toughest of starts to life.

Cats are often considered to be solitary pets who prefer their own company over that of another animal. However, there are plenty of examples of feline friendships and even cats striking up bonds with dogs and other pets.

It ultimately may come down to biology. A 2022 study published in the journal PLOS ONE saw scientists link cat behavior to the presence of certain hormones in the feline body.

The scientists found that cats with lower cortisol and testosterone levels were more likely to be tolerant of other felines and even willing to share food. By contrast, those cats with high levels of these two hormones interacted less and were more likely to evade fellow felines.

Cortisol and testosterone have been previously linked with increased aggressiveness, which goes some way to explain the results.

Lucis does not appear to have a single aggressive bone in his body. Much of that may be down to his own difficult beginnings. "He showed up on my parent's porch two years ago during a storm. After that, he began to visit them daily," Kati said.

After about a month, she noticed an injury around Lucis's ear had become infected. With winter closing in, she decided to take him to a veterinarian and begin the process of domestication.

"He was a stray tomcat, but after being neutered and recovering from the infection, his calm, gentle, and playful personality really started to shine through," Kati said.

"Surprisingly for a tomcat, he was quite friendly with the other cats in the household, never hissing or getting aggressive upon meeting them."

Kati has fostered several kittens in the years since, but while Lucis has always been happy to play with them, he took a particular shine to their most-recent addition: a tiny black kitten that has faced a lifetime's worth of rejection already.

"This unexpected foster litter was discovered in a plastic bag near a cat-feeding spot by a woman who shared their story on Facebook," Kati said.

"I saw their picture and immediately recognized they were around 3 weeks old, still in need of milk. Since no one would take them, and with a cold, windy night approaching, I gathered them in a box and brought them in with my roommate."

The pair spent weeks getting up every few hours to feed the kittens formula before the animals eventually transitioned to solid foods.

Kati and her roommate were able to find loving homes for two of the three kittens but struggled to find someone to take the third. That was how she wound up meeting Lucis.

"We introduced her to my male cat so she wouldn't be lonely. It was love at first sight," Kati said. "She became instantly obsessed with him, following him around and trying to play. They quickly became best buddies. By the second day, he started grooming her and treating her like his own kitten."

Kati said they are now seriously considering keeping the kitten. Lucis has also made it clear that he is also eager to keep his kitten companion around by cuddling up to her at any opportunity.

"They're inseparable," Kati said. "He watches over her while she plays, and if she meows or cries for some reason, often because she can't reach something or is hungry, he acts distressed and bites her scruff to calm her down, just like a mother would."

After a nightmare start to life, It sounds like Lucis and his new kitten friend have found the dream they so richly deserve.

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