'Pocket rocket' kitten leaps into new home

The tiny tot was spotted in a bush in a London garden, softly mewing. The concerned homeowner gave him some food. But, when he was still in her garden 12 hours later with no mother in sight, she knew she had to rescue him. Perhaps Atlas understood that he needed rescuing too – he tottered happily into her cat box.

At the Blue Cross hospital in Victoria, central London, Atlas, just eight weeks old, was safe. Our team gave him a full medical examination, flea and worm treatment and his first vaccination.

“Very playful,” the vet wrote in Atlas’ notes. That turned out to be something of an understatement…

As Atlas was fit and well, the priority was to find him a loving home. So, after five days in Victoria, he was transferred to the home of one of our devoted team of fosterers, Wendy Penfold in Kent. Wendy has three luxury duplex chalets for foster cats in her garden and within minutes of arrival Atlas had made himself at home, playing with his new toys and tucking into a bowl of kitten food.

“I’ve never met such a confident kitten,” Wendy, who’s been fostering for Blue Cross for 13 years, says. “Atlas is supersonic – a pocket rocket.”

This was certainly true on the day of his photo shoot as Atlas showed off his parkour skills, scaling the walls of his chalet like Spider-Man and jumping off his shelf and landing on his bench with the ease of an acrobat. He enjoyed a cuddle with Wendy – then leapt from her arms to find the next adventure. If there was a Kitten Olympics, Atlas would break every World Record going.

Unsurprisingly he also leapt quickly into a new home – after just 28 days in Blue Cross care, a family with an Atlas-shaped hole in their lives spotted him on the Blue Cross website and adopted him.