Picture this: Rural North Carolina. Christmas Eve 2023. Three PETA fieldworkers are wrapping up a heartrending but fruitful day. It’s dark, they’re hungry, and tomorrow’s a holiday—but this all means nothing when a call to the local emergency pager comes through about a sick newborn kitten with a possibly broken leg. The fieldworkers, perhaps a bit like Santa’s elves, wasted no time in heading to the scene, intent on performing a Yuletide miracle. But upon arrival, they discovered that the “newborn” kitten was actually roughly 9 weeks old and the “broken leg” was in fact quite intact.

The kitten, who was promptly named Figgy by her rescuers (as in everyone’s favorite traditional Christmas pudding—the vegan version, of course), was indeed in need of some TLC. She was thin, covered with fleas, pale, and scared. And who wouldn’t be scared if they were forced to live outside in all weather conditions—including rain, wind, thunder, lightning, and below-freezing temperatures—and among predators, poisons and toxins, potentially malicious humans, and all the other horrors of the not-so-great outdoors? The three fieldworkers crawled under a porch to rescue the hesitant orange tabby.

Deciding that no one should spend Christmas Eve alone, one member of PETA’s rescue operation took shy but sweet Figgy home, where it was safe and warm and there was cat food aplenty.

“Once [Figgy] was bathed, she began to purr and ravenously ate an entire can of wet food.”

—Figgy’s rescuer and foster guardian

Figgy, although nervous at first, has done nothing but blossom in a loving indoor home. “She has really come out of her shell,” her fosterer reports.

If you’ve got treats and a crinkle ball, you’ve got a friend in Figgy.

Figgy is inquisitive, food-motivated, playful, and—above all else—adores other cats. This adoptable kitten is in search of a loving, permanent home in which she’ll have at least one other friendly feline to call family.