It’s every cat lover’s dream: a fluffy, wide-eyed kitten somehow stumbles into your life, and it’s such a fateful event, you know that you have to keep him…
For 28-year-old Ellie Haywood and her housemates, this dream became a reality!
It all happened at the house they’re renting in Melbourne, Australia, which is apparently in less-than-stellar condition. In a story by Buzzfeed, Hayworth describes it as an “old and decrepit property” that is “totally falling apart.”
This tweet from a few weeks ago will give you a good point of reference:
just rearranged my room, flopped down onto my bed with the satisfaction of accomplishment and my bed promptly fell through the floor pic.twitter.com/bnafTYjya7
— eller o’deo (@ellerodeo) November 22, 2017
However, the roomies appreciate that their rent is cheap. Haywood told Buzzfeed:
“One of the legs of my bed fell through the floor…paint is cracking off the walls and something we need breaks roughly once a week, but we’ve decorated it with posters, fairy lights, and plants, so it’s still pretty cute.”
When the housemates heard that a storm was on its way, they knew they had to batten down the hatches of their little ramshackle home.
“I was already kind of worried (but weirdly excited) for what that would mean for our leaky waterlogged house. We even joked about preemptively calling the state emergency service. So we emptied all our leak buckets to prepare for the onslaught,” Haywood said in the story.
UPDATE ON THIS
PART OF MY BEDROOM CEILING CAVED IN AND A KITTEN FELL OUT OF IT AND WE’RE KEEPING HIM WE’VE NAMED HIM ASBESTOS pic.twitter.com/1cO0lPa9qS
— eller o’deo (@ellerodeo) December 2, 2017
As predicted, the pouring rain came, and that night, Haywood heard scratching in the walls. At first, she thought the intruder was a possum, and went about her evening doing laundry in a nearby room. But when she heard a crash from behind her, she ran to the source — her bedroom — to find a hole in her ceiling. Instead of a rodent on the floor, Haywood was staring at a stray cat and her kitten.
The mama cat sprinted away and escaped, and the helpless tuxedo baby was left behind. Haywood is already a mom to one kitty, and she, along with her roommates, knew they wanted to keep the newcomer.
hello pic.twitter.com/3U0ST82frE
— eller o’deo (@ellerodeo) December 6, 2017
“My housemates woke up and came into my room and we decided within about 30 seconds that we were keeping him, and named him Asbestos in the first 10 minutes,” she said to Buzzfeed.
The scared baby initially hissed and bit at his new caretakers. Haywood thinks this was his first encounter with humans, and maybe even his first experience venturing outside the wall where he was living.
But it wasn’t long before Asbestos warmed up to his new family, and after a visit to the vet, it was determined that he is as healthy as a kitten can be!
“Now Asbestos is comfortable with us he’s so naughty, he loves to bite hands and feet and thinks it’s the best game,” Haywood said in the story.
Asbestos Update: he’s come so far in just 24 hours, he was snapping and hissing and biting with his NEEDLE SHARP TEETH and now- pic.twitter.com/Y4oobtQGVd
— eller o’deo (@ellerodeo) December 3, 2017
Of course, Haywood’s Twitter followers couldn’t help but make jokes about how it was literally “raining cats and dogs”!
Now, this tuxedo sweetheart gets to enjoy a life full of love, care, and play instead of sneaking around and scrounging for meals within the dark walls.
We’re so glad that little Asbestos “fell” into the right hands!
You can keep up with this cutie on Instagram @asbestostheroofcat.
(h/t: Buzzfeed)