Melanie Rose’s life changed forever one fateful morning when she suddenly heard a kitten screaming outside of her Texas home.
Fearing the worst, she sprang into action, rushing out of the house in her pajamas to see what was going on.
What she witnessed left her speechless…
An Unexpected Rescue
Upon rushing out of her home, Melanie noticed something scurry under her truck.
“So I got down on my hands and knees, and I saw white…I wasn’t sure what it was,” she recalled.
After taking a closer look, she realized that it was an opossum holding a snowy white kitten in its mouth!
Melanie was understandably shocked.
She’d never known of opossums causing problems, much less attacking other animals.
“We do have a lot of possums where we live, but we don’t dislike them…we don’t know what happened,” she said.
Luckily, Melanie managed to get the opossum to drop the poor kitten from its jaws.
The snow-white kitten then ran off to a nearby fence where Melanie scooped her up to see what was wrong.
She rushed inside to get the startled kitten to safety and clean her up.
What she saw next broke her heart…
Assessing the Damage
Melanie immediately noticed that the kitten had lost one of her ears.
“The opossum severed her ear completely,” she recalled.
The sight of the poor kitten suffering silently made Melanie’s heart sink to her stomach.
Though the kitten’s ear was gone forever, there was still hope on the horizon.
On the Mend
Melanie let out a sigh of relief after looking the kitten over and finding no life threatening injuries.
“She was pretty dirty and a little bloody, but luckily, she didn’t have any other injuries,” Melanie recalled.
Aside from her severed ear, the kitten only had a few minor scrapes that her new mom happily took care of.
Melanie then gave her new little princess a name: Penelope, or Penny for short.
This marked the first day of Penny’s life with her new forever family.
Adjusting to New Life
Since Penny’s wounds were all fairly clean, she didn’t require any special treatment.
In fact, her ear healed on its own after some time.
All Penny needed was a little love and patience to help her make a beautiful trans-furr-mation!
“When her ear healed, it sealed up, so her ear canal is completely sealed,” Melanie shared.
Because of the way her ear healed, Penny now has some trouble with directional hearing.
“If she’ll hear something, she won’t really know where it’s coming from a lot of the time,” Melanie recalled.
Fortunately, this was only a minor issue.
Penny never let a little hearing problem stop her from living her best life.
Soon enough, Penny came out of her shell and became the adorable, enthusiastic kitty she was destined to be.
One Happy Family
Penny was understandably shocked and fearful after the opossum attack.
Though a little timid, Penny was mild mannered and quickly learned that she was in good hands.
“She was a real calm kitten from day one,” Melanie shared.
She even made a new friend!
“Penny and my other cat, Henry, hit it off right away. She adjusted really quickly,” Melanie shared.
Penny has also begun exploring the outdoors under her mom’s supervision.
She loves to go on adventures, explore, and even chase a lizard or two!
Happily Ever After
Penny has also become quite the cardboard architect.
Melanie will always catch Penny remodeling their cardboard boxes, crafting the perfect little oasis to curl up in.
“She shreds and remodels any box she gets. That’s one of her favorite things to do,” she said.
Though Penny is now all grown up, she’s still the same calm little kitten at heart…most of the time.
“She gets a little bossy now, but not too much. She’s just always been a really calm cat. We’ve never had one quite like her,” Melanie said.
Both Melanie and Penny are so glad they met on that fateful morning.
Now Penny has a lifetime of beautiful memories to make with Melanie and her cat brother, Henry, by her side.
Follow Penny on Instagram to keep up with all of her adventures!