Nat Rumoro was recently watching her fiancé’s baseball game in Puerto Rico when an unexpected fluffy guest showed up. Out of nowhere, a tiny stray kitten hopped up on her lap — and refused to leave.
At the time, Rumoro didn’t think of herself as a cat person. But the kitten didn’t seem to notice or care. He curled up, got comfortable and didn’t budge for seven whole innings.
“Another guy [who was] watching this interaction [came] over and was like, ‘Looks like this cat just chose you,’ and I was like, ‘Oh no, I’m not bringing him home,’” Rumoro told The Dodo. “And he was like, ‘I have a feeling I’m going to see you tomorrow, and you might have a different answer.’”
When the game ended, the kitten ran away. Rumoro assumed he’d disappeared and prepared to return home. But then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw him sprint back over to her. He even sat down right on her foot, refusing to let her leave without him.
Out of every single person at the game, the kitten had chosen Rumoro. He followed her around everywhere she went, never straying far from her side.
At that point, it was already midnight. Rumoro and her fiancé had a choice to make: They could either leave the kitten where they’d found him, or take him home with them to their Airbnb. Considering the state he was in, they decided they had to help him.
“He had three different gashes on his nose [and] his ears were black,” Rumoro said. “He clearly needed help.”
Since it was already so late, Rumoro decided to take the kitten home and bring him to the vet first thing in the morning.
“It was like he almost knew or could sense that we were helping him,” Rumoro said. “The first night was so cute because he just curled up and … I swear it was the first time he’d ever felt safe in his life.”
At the vet, the kitten got diagnosed with ear mites, which can be deadly for cats. But after a course of antibiotics and some medicated cream, the kitten started feeling better in no time.
Even though Rumoro and her fiancé live in Kentucky, over 1,000 miles from Puerto Rico, after everything they and the kitten had been through together, they knew they had to take him home. Rumoro decided to name him Toro, the Spanish word for bull.
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“He’s living his best life now in Kentucky,” Rumoro said. “He’s a little confused by the snow, but he likes to put his paws in it until they get just cold enough. And then he’s like, ‘Yeah, get me back inside.’”