“None of us have ever seen a kitten coat transformation like his!”
Emilie Rackovan first met Fievel when he was only 2 days old. The tiny kitten was the size of a mouse, snugly fitting in the palm of her hand.
Born with a fever coat, the result of Fievel’s mom undergoing intense stress while pregnant, he was silver and scruffy, resembling what to Rackovan looked like a “baby werewolf.”
Fievel was the only one of his siblings to survive after his mother, a feral cat, gave birth prematurely and didn’t care for her kittens. Rackovan knew it would be an uphill battle for the silver baby to become a healthy cat, but she could tell he was a fighter.
“Premature kittens, in general, often do not make it, as the odds are stacked against them,” Rackovan told The Dodo. “He really is a miracle.”
Fievel was so small that, for the first week with his foster mom, he couldn’t drink from a bottle. Rackovan fed him by hand every hour of every day. Luckily, she wouldn’t have to shoulder the entirety of his care for long.
“I was fostering a mom and babies just about Fievel’s age for a different shelter and asked if I could try introducing Fievel to them,” Rackovan said. “I put Fievel with Persephone (the mom) and the babies, and she took to him immediately.”
Now part of a cat family, Fievel seemed at ease and quickly started to grow — and change.
Fievel’s fever coat started to grow out, revealing the kitten’s true colors. Rackovan assumed he’d be a gray and white kitten, but when Fievel was about a month old, he underwent an amazing transformation.
“I noticed the white tips on his fur starting to come through at about three weeks, but that is relatively typical of a fever coat,” Rackovan said. “Around four weeks, the roots started to turn a dark gray on his back and his legs became jet black. I still wasn’t sure if he was going to be dark gray or black.”
“He has continued to get darker and darker,” she added. “I had absolutely no idea that he was going to be a tuxedo. All of my friends who foster are equally as shocked and none of us have ever seen a kitten coat transformation like his!”
Not only has Fievel transformed on the outside, but the once timid orphan has now become a confident, young cat.
“Fievel is just the goofiest kitten ever!” Rackovan said. “He does the ‘scary cat,’ where he arches his back and hops toward you. He likes to think he’s intimidating, so I play along!”
Fievel gets along with all of Rackovan’s other foster animals and resident pets, but has a special bond with the people he meets.
“He purrs the second he sees you and also cries out whenever he can’t find me,” Rackovan said. “When I call, ‘Fievel!’ he comes sprinting and wants to be held.”
Once Fievel is neutered, he will be adopted into his forever home, where he’ll continue to surprise and delight whatever family is lucky enough to have him.