When Tracy Toll brought home four foster kittens a few weeks ago, she had no worries about introducing them to her two dogs, Flash and Tasha, or even her cat, Morgan. However, she was apprehensive about how they would fare with Apollo, her newly adopted male cat.
Toll, a volunteer with the Ontario SPCA (OSPCA), told The Dodo, “He [Apollo] is 5 years old, and he’d just been repaired.” “As a male cat, I assumed he’d try to harm them.”
Toll’s suspicions were justified: unneutered male cats sometimes display aggressive habits, however neutering tends to reduce these. However, Toll was concerned that these modifications would not take effect quickly enough in Apollo’s instance.
According to Toll, Apollo’s former owner had surrendered him to the OSPCA, and it was evident that he had been horribly neglected.
Toll said, “His hair nearly looked like a turtle shell since it was so matted.” “He needed to be shaved.”
Toll fell in love with Apollo’s lovely demeanor while helping at the shelter and decided to adopt him. He got along swimmingly with her other cat and two dogs. Toll, on the other hand, was unsure how he’d react in the presence of small, playful kittens.
So, when Toll brought the kittens home to care for them temporarily, she decided to play it safe and keep them in her daughter’s room for the duration of their visit.
Toll, on the other hand, could not have been more incorrect about Apollo.
“My daughter opened her door one day, and the kittens poured out, and I was like, ‘Grab Apollo,’” Toll recalled. “However, it was too late. He didn’t hiss or snarl as the kittens rushed up to him. He was just staring at them and sniffing them.”
According to Toll, Apollo immediately became “Mr. Mom” after that.
“At feeding time, he’d walk into [their room], and then I observed he’d start laying up on the bed, enabling the kittens to snuggle near to him,” Toll said.
Teddy, Axel, Kai, and Levi, the kittens, began to lie directly on top of Apollo.
“He’d clean them from head to tail,” Toll said, “and then my son… showed me a video of Apollo letting one of the kittens nurse off of him.”
Apollo enjoyed playing with the kittens when he wasn’t grooming or snuggling with them.
She said, “They’d play together on the cat tree.” “Apollo would lie there and watch, and the kittens would be racing around all over the cat tree and on him.”
When things got out of hand, Apollo would step in like a protective mother.
“If two of the kittens raced into the room and were playing too rough with each other, and he heard them scream, he’d go check on them,” Toll explained.
Toll was sorry for Apollo when it was time for the kittens to return to the shelter to find permanent homes.
“I felt terrible having to return them,” she remarked. “Apollo guarded them extremely closely.”
