One day in the fall of 2016, a woman was shocked to hear meowing coming from a dumpster. When she looked, she discovered a little, week-old, motherless calico kitten. Its front limb was fractured, and one of its back paws was gangrenous.
She brought it home and started feeding it by bottle. Its eyes hadn’t yet opened when it lost its back paw because it was so young. It was a warrior though, and as soon as its front leg recovered, it quickly started to spread like a weed. She dubbed it Martyr.
No one is certain how Martyr got there, nor does anybody know what happened to the mother or other siblings, but Martyr was fortunate that particular day. Despite having a lot of experience fostering out kittens, the woman ultimately decided to adopt Martyr because she was so adorable and affectionate.
Rescuers were still in for a few surprises from the tiny cat. Most calico cats are female, but when Martyr grew older, it was obvious that he was a young guy instead!
Boy calicos are uncommon. Calicos are always sterile and only 1 in 3,000 of them turn out to be male. Martyr, however, had a generally healthy childhood and is already a boisterous yearling.
When Martyr was 3 months old, his rescuer’s niece shared a picture of him on Imgur, which quickly went viral. Everyone was relieved to learn that he had triumphed over such great odds to grow up healthy, and he became an instant hit.
