Blind kitten and little dog forge unlikely friendship

We all know the famous “odd couples”: individuals with opposite personalities whose friendships somehow just work. There’s Oscar and Felix. Bert and Ernie. Coraline and Rocky.

Wait. You’ve never heard of Coraline and Rocky? Let’s fix that. 

Coraline came to the Best Friends Lifesaving Center in Salt Lake City from a local shelter, blind and alone. This tuxedo kitten weighed just 1 pound. Besides Coraline’s eye issues, the first thing the staff noticed was her sweet, social nature. So they paired her with another blind kitten who had also arrived by himself.

Coraline’s eyes needed to be removed, so she could live pain-free. To recover from surgery, Coraline and her kitty pal went to stay in a foster home. Best Friends’ goal is for all shelters nationwide to reach no-kill by 2025, and people who step up to foster pets, with Best Friends or another animal rescue organization, play a vital part in achieving that.

[Blind, deaf kitten shows the meaning of resilience]

Coraline’s foster home was a safe place for her to learn how to navigate the world. She learned to walk along the furniture and jump down with ease. You could always see her sticking her nose and whiskers into the air, using her other senses to help guide her. Coraline also learned to trust people, even letting people carry her around like a baby.

Once she was healed and socialized, it was time to find Coraline a permanent home. A potential adopter fell in love with Coraline and decided to make her part of the family. Coraline didn’t know it, but she was about to meet a new best friend: her adopter’s resident dog, Rocky.

Rocky is playful, yet easygoing. When Coraline first entered the picture, let’s just say he was a bit taken aback. She was a black-and-white tornado who literally bounced off the walls. But Rocky soon realized that his rambunctious new roommate was actually a lot of fun.

[Blind cat sees the good in everything]

This unlikely duo soon found ways to play together. Rocky would carry over stuffy toys in his mouth, and Coraline would wrestle and bunny-kick them with her feet. Their human also provided lots of toys with sound, like jingle balls and toy snakes with rattles inside, so Coraline could use her other senses to hunt and play.

They may appear to be opposites, but Coraline and Rocky are two peas in a pod with a lifetime of adventures ahead of them.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill by 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.