A kitten that was born neither male nor female has found its fur-ever home in the North East, despite adoption enquiries from the USA.
The team at Cats Protection's Tyneside Adoption Centre in Felling, Gateshead, were blown away by the reaction from around the world when they put Hope, a 15-week-old kitten born without any external or internal sexual organs, up for adoption. The charity received press coverage on UK national news and even in the New York Post, with adoption enquiries coming all over the UK and even from Sacramento in California.
However, Hope has been rehomed in the North East with student and Cats' Protection care assistant Jessi Bennett. 22-year-old Jessi, who is studying for a masters degree in Animal Behaviour at Newcastle University, couldn't be happier with her "wriggliest, craziest" little kitten, who she has been tentatively introducing to her six-month old Bengal cat, Mobius.
Read more: Veterinary first as homeless kitten that is neither male nor female up for adoption on Tyneside
Hope has now been renamed Beans and has moved into Jessi's home in Newcastle, following their transfer from Cats Protection's adoption centre in Warrington where their mum and three siblings were rehomed. Jessi said: "I was looking for another kitten at the time and I just thought what a sweetie!
"They had already stolen my heart before I found out how rare the condition was. I'm a bit concerned about the medical implications of it but it didn't put me off, they're just absolutely lovely."
"I thought they matched my other cat, Mobius', energy straight away and when the managers had discussed how Beans could be really difficult to rehome because of insurance, I thought this cat could thrive in my home, and I don't mind any potential issues, but the vets have said there probably won't be any. As soon as I got Beans home, they were running around as if they'd been here before and running through every single room, they just love it!"
The masters student says that Beans is a confident and amazing little cat and is just like a "normal" kitten. She continued: "When you see Beans running around and playing it's not like they're an amazing medical anomaly, they're really special but I feel like they have no idea."
Though there is one thing that Jessi felt needed changing: the name. She added: "Hope is quite a pretty name but it's not one I would ever have chosen myself.
"I thought Beans might be funny because they've got little toe beans on their feet and they're bright pink and really cute. Also, they're full of beans!"
The team at Cats Protection are confident they have not been able to find any recorded case of a cat being born sexless in the UK and their veterinary officer is using the working term that Beans has "neither sex status". Despite the unusual medical condition, Beans (or Hope as they were known in the centre) has been extremely popular since being put up for adoption.
Beni Benstead, Adoption Centre Manager at Tyneside Cats Protection, said: "We had a huge number of enquiries after having Hope on our Facebook page and local website just in the last week and whenever we look to match a cat with an owner, we always look for the best outcome for the cat. The feeling was that knowing Jessi and because we've never come across hope's condition before, we really have nothing to base our ideas on as to how things might be for Beans in the future.
"But at least having Hope rehomed with Jessi, someone that we know, we can get regular updates and it also means that Jessi has access to all of our Cats Protection and all of her university medical professionals as well."
And Beni admits that the team at Cats Protection were stumped when they discovered Beans' unique status. She continued: "When we discovered Hope's neither sex status, we couldn't find an incidence of any other cat like her domestically or internationally so we knew this was something really special.
"Working for Cats Protection, we all know of hermaphrodite cats, who are born both male and female, but none of us had ever come across a cat of neither sex. We're a feline welfare charity and theoretically speaking are the knowledge on all things cats, so to have something stump all of our professionals, it's a very, very special situation and Beans is a very, very special little kitten."
To find out more about adopting animals at Cats Protection's Tyneside Adoption Centre, visit the website.
What do you think of Beans? Let us know!
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