Senior cat hurt and starving makes crazy transformation after year with new family

This poor old girl was wandering the streets hungry, hurt, and infested with fleas. Then a miracle happened. 

A kind family found her and took her in. After a full year, she looks like a totally different cat!

Meet Lights the kitty

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Almost exactly one year ago, Lights was wondering the streets and looking on the brink of death. 

"A year and 5 days ago, a lady posted in a local Facebook group a picture of a cat that desperately needed medical attention. It's owners had moved away. She'd called the owners, who came and picked the cat back up, but within a day, the cat was back at her house. So, she turned to Facebook. I'd never owned a cat, but my husband and I agreed to foster what we'd been told was a young, male kitten because he needed help so badly and no one else was stepping up," Light's human mom wrote on reddit. 

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"I was told the night before I came to get "him" that he had fleas pretty badly, in addition to the obvious wound. When we finally came to the vet's office, the vet looked at me and goes, "well, SHE'S fourteen years old." I asked her, "Is that like in cat years...is that a thing?" and she stared at me like the idiot I am and says, "No, like she's lived fourteen years." That was the moment I realized we'd have her a lot longer than anticipated because it was going to be a lot harder to find someone to adopt her."

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"Anyways, Lights, as we named her after one of our favorite singers, was more than 2 pounds underweight, needed a flea treatment, and got antibiotic shots. She was still too weak for vaccinations at this point. I took her home and kept her in my garage for 3 days (until the fleas died) with fans to keep her cool.

We had to replenish water about 6+ times a day for the first few days because she was so dehydrated. She was also being fed 5 times a day w/ special high-calorie food. During those days, I would change clothes to go spend hours in the garage just sitting with her. I had to change out of those clothes to come back inside because I really didn't want our dog to get fleas too."

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"After 3 days, she got a bath. I put on one of my husband's old army uniforms (to protect from scratches) and sat in the bath just holding her, gently washing her with dawn soap (to smother any fleas left), and combing her w/ a flea comb. I'd estimate we got 200+ fleas in the comb alone. I had to drain the water at least once because it got so dirty from all the fleas, mud, blood, feces, urine, etc. caked on her.

The bath had some rough moments where she escaped and tried to bite me once, but for over an hour in the bath, I was pretty impressed with her temperament. Her fur was still stained red from blood in spots for the next couple of months until she shed that fur.

We had to clean the neck wound several times a day, but she kept scratching at it and it wouldn't heal. After a week, I went back into the vet and asked for the cone of shame. They said they'd never seen a neck wound that bad and the cone of shame may not work because of where the wound was located. I got it anyways because nothing else was working. It actually worked.

I took it off twice a day to clean after she ate her wet food, and she had to be watched for those few minutes or else she'd scratch open her neck again."

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"After another week, I took her back into the vet for an update. The vet said she didn't know if it would heal or if Lights would even live much longer, but she gave her another round of antibiotic shots. Lights was also healthy enough to finally get vaccinations. She'd been spayed at some point (I had them check), so thank God we didn't have to worry about surgery. She continued to wear the cone for two months."

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"It took about 5 months for her hair to fully grown in all over, and we finally saw the majestic beast we have today. In contrast, it only took about 10 days before we finally admitted to each other that we weren't just fostering her. After all she'd been through, we agreed she deserved a place to live out her final few years in peace and love."

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"If you're thinking of adopting a pet, please don't ignore the senior ones. They aren't all ill-tempered, angry, sickly animals. Our Lights is about 15 years old now, and she is the sweetest thing ever.

You don't get as many years with them, but the ones you do get are filled with love, happiness, and the joy that comes from letting an animal experience life the way it should be."

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