When Gianna Llewellyn and her boyfriend Rob moved into a first-floor apartment last summer, they were surprised when their new neighbors dropped by to say “Hi.”
While they were arranging furniture, a small orange tabby and a black cat came right up to the window. The cats looked hungry, so Rob set out some leftover salmon, and the grateful strays immediately ate it up.
“They started to come back every single night after that,” Llewellyn told The Dodo. “Meowing, waiting at the door and sleeping on the windowsill.”
For the first few days, the cats, whom they named Miso and Suki, only visited the window when they were looking for food, but gradually, Llewellyn and Rob gained their trust. Soon, the cat couple was spending all their time at the apartment — lounging in the garden during the day and snuggling together on the windowsill at night.
As the weather got colder, Llewellyn noticed something odd about the black cat. “They were both pretty small when we first met them,” Llewellyn said. “Suki was very skinny but for some reason, her belly seemed a little big for her. So we were like, ‘She’s either pregnant or something worse.’”
Llewellyn bought two cardboard carrying cases at the pet store and wrangled the cats inside so she could bring them to the vet. The cat couple hated being separated, and Miso punched a hole through his box to see Suki again.
“They kept mewing to each other from the cardboard boxes making sure the other was OK,” Llewellyn said.
The vet confirmed that Suki was pregnant but otherwise healthy, so Llewellyn called the local rescue Little Wanderers NYC for support. Llewellyn and Rob became the cats’ official foster parents and moved them inside.
One night, the couple came home and spotted Suki on a towel with four newborn kittens by her side.
They thought they had missed the big event when she started giving birth again, bringing the total number of babies to seven. Through it all, Miso was there to comfort his girlfriend.
“She still has contraction pains and every time she yelped from a contraction Miso would run over to be next to her,” Llewellyn said. “They’re the perfect couple.”
Miso happily took on the role of father, grooming and playing with the kittens. “At first it looked like every kitten was black, but as they grew up, we could see that there was one black cat, three gray and black tabbies, and three torties,” Llewellyn said. “In the tabbies and the torties you can see a little orange in them, so Miso is definitely the father.”
Llewellyn has since found the kittens loving homes with her friends and she and her boyfriend have decided to make Miso and Suki a permanent part of their family.
Now, the cat couple never has to worry about being separated ever again.