What a wonder Stevie is

Watch a video of Stevie at nzherald.co.nz

Akitten found abandoned in Hamilton bush was born with no eyes, its new owners have discovered. Although the frisky, grey fluffball can’t see, it doesn’t stop him wanting to play.

Petra Hendrikse said her mother found the kitten in bush behind a local high school.

“I got a text from my mum yesterday with a photo of him and I was just like ‘oh my god, we need to keep him’ . . . I went over there and he was just the cutest little button and from there on we took him into the staff room and decided what to do.

“We took him to the vet to make sure he didn’t have the cat flu or anything and he’s fine.”

The vet decided that he was born without eyeballs, Ms Hendrikse said.

“They said he was good to go because if he had cat flu we would think about putting him down. He’s so brave, that’s what really got me, especially because he was a stray. It really surprised me how affectionate he was.”

Stevie Wonder was found by him- self, so they believed his mother and siblings took off to play or hunt, not realising his debilitation.

However, as to whether the family would keep him remains to be seen as they already had two adult cats. If the trio don’t bond, they would have to look at adopting him out, she said.

Auckland Animal Eye Centre veterinary ophthalmologist Peter Collinson said while he hasn’t assessed the kitten, if it was born without eyes, it wasn’t an unknown phenomenon.

“It is unusual, it is certainly not a common congenital fault and they can have it for a number of reasons.

“Without doing specialised imaging they’re not going to see if there’s anything in there or not, they’re probably just not opening eyes or they’re very small, atrophic eyes and you can either get that from an infection or just congenital bad luck in utero that they haven’t formed properly.”

Despite the deformity, Collinson said the kittens go on to lead a normal life. “The majority of the kittens cope exceedingly well, unless there’s another fault, but they should have a good quality of life.”