“His eyes were really infected, and there was a lot of discharge and odour present.”

She said a vet suggested it was likely that early in the kitten’s life an infection had “eaten away at Scout’s eyeballs”, leaving him completely blind.

“He wasn’t born with no eyes, it was a result of illness.”

While Hay said cat flu was a relatively common condition, the way it had affected the kitten was “incredibly rare”.

“I think he is a bit of a miracle kitten … the fact that he has gone through this illness and then the trauma.”

Hay said the kitten’s time “alone in the wild” meant his body had adapted and he learned to cope without eyesight.

“He tries to scout out his environment – hence the name – with his little nose up in the air and whiskers twitching, trying to get a sense of his surroundings.

“While he is a little bit timid and quite wary and unsure in new environments, he is also incredibly affectionate once he is secure.”

She said due to his risk of a secondary infection, the next step under vet recommendation is a $900 surgery, and they need the public’s financial support so they can give him the best chance.

“Realistically, it is the difference between being rehomed or not, it is a life or death surgery for him.”

She said the vet would remove any debris in the eye sockets and clear out decaying and dead eye tissue.

“The extent of the surgery is relatively unknown until the vets are in there having a good look.”

Should the surgery be a success, the kitten would be potentially placed into foster care and rehomed as an indoor animal with aftercare provided by the SPCA.

“He’s shown us he has a will to live.

“He’s eating, he’s drinking, he’s playing, he’s purring.”

They hoped that through his adoption, he would be united with someone with previous experience with a blind cat, but that wasn’t fully necessary.

Hay said if people wanted to donate to Scout, or give a general donation to SPCA, they could do so by visiting the link www.spca.nz/scout

Michaela Gower joined Hawke’s Bay Today in 2023 and is based out of the Hastings newsroom. She covers Dannevirke and Hawke’s Bay news and loves sharing stories about farming and rural communities.