Sick Stray Cat Transformed Into Fluffy and Beloved Pet: ‘To Be Loved’

When a stray cat suffering from multiple health issues showed up outside a woman’s door, she did everything to give him a new life.
Now, Dumbo the stray is happy, healthy, and utterly adored by his new owners.
Nicoletta H, who posts to TikTok under the username @no.1nicoletta, shared Dumbo’s story in an emotional video on August 14, which so far has been liked over 340,000 times.
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It begins with a scrawny stray meowing outside their glass door, with visible injuries to his ear and mouth, his teeth visible through a painful ulcer on his lip.
But after that painful clip comes a montage of Dumbo now: looking strong, his fur soft and silky, cuddling up with his owners and relaxing in his safe home.
His damaged ear still flops to the side, and his tongue sticks out thanks to his previous injuries, but as Nicoletta wrote in a caption: “We love that his tongue is always out, and his one floppy ear is what gave him his name.”
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She explained in a caption that Dumbo arrived at their door “very close to death, with a lip ulcer, a messed up ear and multiple skin and respiratory infections.”
But they didn’t give up on him, and with love from his rescuers, and many vet visits, “now he lives his best life inside with us”.
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Describing Dumbo as her “friendly vampire toothed cutie,” she confirmed his infections have healed, “and now he’s nothing but affection”.
Animal lovers were left in pieces by Dumbo’s incredible transformation, and the clip, viewed over 1.2 million times, received hundreds of comments, one saying: “Thank you for giving him a second (or 8th it looks like) chance! He is so beautiful.”
“He looks like an old loved favorite stuffed animal you gave a good bath to,” another said, while one sent crying emojis along with the words: “His floppy ear.”
And as one person put it: “I’m so happy he found you.”
Nicoletta, who lives in Los Angeles, wrote in a comment that Dumbo likely went through “a few” of his nine lives, “but this one is gonna be comfy and full of snacks”.
There are estimated to be between 60 and 100 million stray and feral cats in the United States, according to Catster. And data from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) estimates that around 27 percent of cat owners got their pet as a stray.
There are countless stories across the internet of cats finding their forever home by simply showing up on people’s property. The phenomenon of stray cats finding their owners in apparently random ways, such as by showing up at their door or place of work, is so well-known that it has a title: the cat distribution system.
Newsweek has reached out to @no.1nicoletta on TikTok for comment on this story.
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