Little turtle meets an orange shelter kitten and races over to show him love
Nelly is a turtle who was rescued from a hoarding situation and adopted from Feathers, Scales and Tails a little over three years ago. When his mom, Amy Husk, brought him home, he was already a super social guy and loved people and animals of all kinds.
Husk volunteers and fosters for If Cats Ruled The World Feline Rescue, and despite being social, Nelly wasn’t all that interested in his kitten foster siblings at first.
Until his mom brought home an orange kitty. That’s when everything changed.
“Nelly has a specific type, and his affections started with Amy's first rescue orange tabby, named Mac,” Crystal Bryant, founder of If Cats Ruled The World Feline Rescue, told The Dodo. “Nelly would follow him around and would lay next to Mac when the kitty settled … The funniest thing about Nelly is that he is only interested in the orange kitties. We have done several ‘tests’ and he could not care less about the black and white kitties. Just the orange guys!”
For whatever reason, Nelly has decided that orange cats and kittens are his soulmates. He gets so excited the moment he sees one and immediately goes into foster brother mode.
The rescue recently took in a pregnant mama cat from a hoarding situation, and Husk stepped up to help foster. She took in Bert, a tiny orange kitten, and couldn’t wait to see Nelly’s reaction.
As soon as Nelly saw Bert, he sped towards him as fast as his little turtle legs would carry him. Bert is still a little unsure of Nelly, having never met a turtle before, but Nelly will surely win him over.
“It will just be a matter of time before he’s [lying] contentedly with Nelly, spreading the warmth and love,” Bryant said.
The rescue posted about Nelly on TikTok, and everyone quickly fell in love with the adorable turtle and his quirky personality. They plan to keep everyone updated on the unlikely duo as Nelly puts his foster brother skills to work with Bert.
No one knows why Nelly is so obsessed with orange kitties, but it might have to do with the fact that turtles have exceptional color vision, even better than humans. Different types of turtles can even be attracted to specific colors based on how strongly they can see them. No matter the reason, everyone loves Nelly exactly the way he is.
“We believe it is friendship, love and possibly Nelly thinks his mother was an orange tabby,” Bryant said. “Whatever it is, we hope that it helps us to reach more people [who] love kitties and will support our boots on the ground TNR effort!”
