When Grace Redmon and her father first met Athena, she was living with another family two doors down from Redmon’s father. She would frequently leave her house to play outside, and she would spend a lot of time in Redmon’s father’s backyard, observing birds and attracting Redmon’s attention.
“She was really nice, and my dad would feed and pet her,” Redmon explained, “so she would come back more often, especially just when he came home from work.” “She’d be waiting for him just outside his door when he got home.”
Athena’s family adopted two dogs around ten months ago, and they didn’t get along with their new cat sister very well, so Athena was thrown out of her house and forced to live outside.
Athena began sleeping beneath her neighbor friend’s porch, confused and heartbroken, and he soon began to detect indicators that she could be pregnant.
“However, because she was so tiny, it was difficult to tell,” Redmon remarked.
Redmon’s father heard little meows coming from beneath his porch one day, but he couldn’t find Athena and her kittens when he went to look for them. Athena had them carefully concealed, and Redmon’s father was at a loss for what to do.
After a few weeks, Redmon’s father stepped outdoors onto his yard…
…and was taken aback when she saw Athena and three kittens out on a walk. He promptly snapped a photo for his daughter, who is a huge animal lover, and she immediately offered to come over and assist him in capturing and transporting them all inside.
Her father was first hesitant since he already had two elderly cats and was unsure how they would respond to a litter of kittens. Redmon had no room in her own home, but she persuaded her father that the tiny family needed to be brought inside so they could be properly cared for.
“I went over and wrangled her three kittens on perhaps the hottest and most sweltering day of the summer, who were extremely upset at being captured and were maybe 8 weeks old at the time,” Redmon recalled. “Athena cheerfully accompanied us inside, and we placed some food out for everyone.” The kittens were wary, but Athena was her usual kind, cheerful self.”
Even after everything she’d gone through, Athena looked entirely undisturbed, and she settled in quickly and gladly to her new neighbor’s home. It was as if she had always known that was where she was intended to be.
Redmon was able to arrange with a rescue to get the entire family spayed or neutered and vaccinated, and she initially kept them in her father’s massive basement before gradually introducing them to the rest of the house’s cats. Her kittens were called Zeus, Artemis, and Apollo, and her father progressively came to fall in love with all three of them, despite his reluctance to accept it.
Because Redmon couldn’t adopt the tiny family because she already had too many cats, she felt the only way to keep them in the family was to persuade her father that they had already found the forever home they were intended to be in.
“At first, my father simply wanted to retain Athena and put the kittens up for adoption,” Redmon explained. “Then he wanted to keep Athena and Artemis, and then he wanted to keep Apollo as well.” “He hesitated for a moment, but I ultimately persuaded him that it wasn’t right to just exile Zeus. I’ll admit, I put a lot of guilt on him, but I knew he just wanted to retain kids and was only putting up a show of opposition.”
Finally, Redmon’s father realized that he adored all four new members to his house and told himself and his daughter that they had found their home.
The young family has already lived in their new house for almost six months, and none of them could be happier. The older cats that previously resided in the house adore their new kitten grandkids, and everyone — especially Athena — is overjoyed.
“She still likes to peek out the back at the birds, but she spends most of her time napping on my dad’s lap or following him around the house,” Redmon added. “Athena is currently a happy and healthy sweetie who has maintained her sociability throughout the process.”
