Freddie is one extra special cat.

Sure, he’s funny looking. His ‘snaggle’ teeth and cross eyed stare certainly draw attention. But the most fantastic and truly wonderful thing about this cat is his innate gentle sweetness and kindness. Freddie is one VERY special cat, and BFFR have been so lucky to get to know him over the past few months.

Freddie came from a colony of cats in Springvale who were living in a hard rubbish pile in the driveway of a property. The property owners and neighbourhood had been feeding these cats food scraps for years, allowing the cats to breed out of control without any attempt of intervention.

Many cats who live in colonies have a natural, (and understandable!) distrust of humans. When cats grow up on the streets and aren’t exposed to people from an early age, they can become very fearful and cautious of people. When these cats are brought into care, they need to be socialised – in other words, be given slow and gentle positive exposure to humans to prove to them that people aren’t so bad after all.

There are some cats, though, that are naturally outgoing, confident and trusting, even though so many humans have let them down in their lives. Freddie is one of those cats.

Freddie was always the first to run out and greet his colony feeder. In the beginning he was a little skeptical, but very soon he began enjoying the company of the people offering him yummy food, and would start accepting pats and chin scratches from his feeder friends. It was clear to the volunteers at BFFR that Freddie had a rough life, born with deformities and limited vision, which made it even more amazing that he was so willing to put his trust in people.

Once Freddie was trapped and brought into care, he was a little scared but never showed a hint of aggression. It took him only a matter of days to discover that living inside is actually AWESOME. You get pats, delicious food and treats, and you get to hang out with other kitty cat friends!

Poor Freddie had some horrible (and incredibly painful!) tooth decay which required many of his teeth to be removed and cost BFFR over $1,200 in vet expenses, however he bounced back so fast you would never even know he was in pain.

His story stole the hearts of many volunteers at BFFR, but none more so than his amazing foster carer, Sam, who decided to take Freddie in and treat him like a king! Freddie has been thriving in Sam’s care, getting to play with his kitten foster siblings (Lilith and Dean, fellow BFFR alumni! now named Aelia & Callisto) and enjoy all the pats and cuddles he could ask for. He discovered that he loves to climb up high on cat trees and nuzzle into his foster mama’s lap. Due to his limited vision, new things and places can be a little scary for him at first, but he takes it in his stride and never backs down to a challenge.