Nancy Hutchinson hears a lot of things others don’t.

Like cries for help.

That’s probably because, as founder and president of Michigan Cat Rescue, she’s heard a lot of them. And it may explain why she was the only one who heard the tiny distress call.

“I was at my friend’s house on her porch,” she tells iHeartCats. “I kept hearing a faint cry. I told her, ‘I think I hear a cat.’ She didn’t hear it.”

Hutchinson couldn’t find the animal in distress that day. But a couple of days later, her friend spotted a black kitten scampering across the street.

A neighbor managed to get the kitten into a shoebox. Soon after that, the kitten found himself in a warm bath, with offerings of food — “which he inhaled because he had been starving,” Hutchinson says — and, naturally, plenty of cuddles.

 

Christy Regan, a veterinarian at Cat’s Veterinary in Clinton Township, would later pronounce the 4-week-old kitten healthy, even if desperately thin.

She also gave him a name: Oatmeal Stout. While the kitten’s coat fits the bill — Oatmeal Stout is a particularly dark beer — it’s what’s on his inside that truly lives up to the ‘stout’ part.

Just barely in this world and entirely on his own, Oatmeal Stout needed a strong heart to survive as long as he did — a heart that overflowed with gratitude once he was finally among friends.

“He loves tummy rubs and loves having his photo taken,” Hutchinson says.

 

Michigan Cat Rescue, a nonprofit group that relies entirely on donations to save countless animals like Oatmeal Stout, made sure the kitty got the care he needed, as well as a foster family.

But this kitten’s journey doesn’t end there.

 

“We received a good couple hundred inquiries on him,” Hutchinson explains.

And one of those potential adopters proved the perfect fit.

“A nice lady named Debbie sent in an adoption application and it’s been approved,” Hutchinson says. “She went to Cats Vet to meet him for the first time and she is in love.”

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