The moment terrified cat makes a friend
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00:00 It's okay.
00:00 I've literally never encountered anything like this
00:03 in my 15 years of cat rescue.
00:06 Anytime I tried to touch him, he would swat me,
00:09 he would hiss at me.
00:10 I was legitimately frightened of him.
00:12 Hi, Gray.
00:13 I'm Jen, and this is Gray's story for GeoBeats.
00:17 You're okay.
00:18 I volunteer with City Kitties Rescue
00:19 in the Washington, D.C. area.
00:21 Oh, buddy.
00:23 Gray is a cat from Kuwait, was found on the street,
00:28 barely able to move, very, very confused, disoriented.
00:31 I know how brave you are.
00:33 They think he'd been hit by a car.
00:34 We're gonna get you checked out, buddy.
00:36 It turned out that he also has a polyp in his ear,
00:39 which causes a severe head tilt
00:42 and causes imbalance issues.
00:43 Hi, Gray.
00:44 Hey, you're okay.
00:45 I realized he was not going to get the opportunities
00:48 over there that he was going to be able to get here,
00:51 whether that's access to adoption opportunities,
00:54 access to surgical opportunities, and just advanced care.
00:57 (Gray crying)
00:58 So we took him in, and I was a little nervous about it
01:00 because his condition seemed really severe,
01:02 and I wasn't sure how socialized he was.
01:05 Oh, buddy.
01:06 When I met him, he was aggressive,
01:08 and I couldn't get close to him.
01:10 I have never in my life met a scarier cat.
01:13 It's okay, there you go.
01:14 (Gray crying)
01:19 I had to use different sorts of things
01:22 to be able to get close to him in order to get food to him.
01:25 It's okay.
01:27 I needed to put some medication,
01:28 so I had to come up with a strategy
01:30 to do that without getting hurt.
01:32 I can't wait until we get to cuddle.
01:34 (gentle music)
01:35 Don't you wanna cuddle?
01:36 At one point, I had the door to the foster room
01:39 somewhat open, and he saw one of my cats,
01:42 and was immediately calm, like really, really relaxed.
01:45 That gave me this idea.
01:47 We had Philly Pokey in one room.
01:49 He came from a shelter in Pennsylvania.
01:51 He was shy, but he had a lot of love to give.
01:53 (Pokey crying)
01:55 So we decided to experiment with it.
01:57 I brought Philly Pokey into Gray's room,
02:00 just instantaneously took to each other.
02:03 Just the body language,
02:08 and watching the expressions in their eyes,
02:11 they just were like, "You are what I've been waiting for."
02:13 What are you doing?
02:15 It brought me to tears.
02:20 It was so unbelievably cute.
02:22 Gray, you could just see his entire outlook on life changed,
02:26 and he was thrilled to have a buddy.
02:29 Hi, boys, what's up?
02:30 Hi, cuties, what's up?
02:33 Are you sleepy?
02:34 We'll be downstairs, and we can hear them
02:36 as little bowling balls rolling around the room,
02:38 'cause they're not small cats.
02:40 They're both these big, tough guy tomcats.
02:43 Neither of them had been neutered before they were rescued,
02:47 which is why they've got the big jowls.
02:48 This is so good.
02:50 Hi.
02:52 Hi.
02:53 Philly Pokey loves to just hang out on your lap.
02:55 Gray's still a little bit nervous.
02:56 Good job, you two.
02:58 Good job.
02:59 He really does rely still on Philly Pokey for confidence.
03:03 He will let me pet him.
03:18 I can pick him up.
03:19 I can do whatever I need to with him,
03:21 medicate him, cuddle him,
03:23 but he's always sort of got an eye on Philly Pokey
03:25 to be like, "We still trust her, right?"
03:27 Oh, honey, you're like a hermit crab.
03:30 Their relationship is unlike anything I've seen
03:39 in all of my years at Cat Rescue.
03:41 I'm just so proud of both of them.
03:44 They've brought out the best in each other,
03:46 and they make each other better, stronger,
03:50 more affectionate cats.
03:51 We have decided we're gonna keep them together.
03:54 When Gray is fully recovered,
03:55 the two boys will be ready for adoption together.
03:58 (door creaking)
04:02 (door creaking)
04:04 (gentle music)
04:07 [Music]