00:00Imagine finding a day-old kitten small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.
00:04What would you do?
00:05Caring for a kitten that tiny means getting up every two hours, day and night, to bottle
00:09feed them.
00:10Astrid didn't hesitate for a second.
00:12She waited to see whether the kitten's mom would come back for her first, but she never
00:15did come back.
00:16So Astrid picked up the tiny, starving kitten.
00:19She even managed to find her a surrogate mom, who accepted her straight away.
00:22But after four weeks, the little kitten, now named Athens, stopped growing.
00:26She grew weaker, her energy faded, so Astrid went back to round-the-clock bottle feeds
00:31and constant care.
00:32Day after day, Athens kept fighting, and slowly, she regained her strength.
00:36Then the nightmare started again.
00:38Emergency vet visits, tests, injections, a bacterial infection was found and treated.
00:43At three months old came another diagnosis, a rare condition in kittens, congenital hypothyroidism.
00:49But once again, Athens received the care she needed.
00:52More recently, a new complication appeared, idiopathic hypercalcemia, as if she hadn't been thrown
00:57off already.
00:58And yet, now over a year old, Athens is a true little fighter.
01:02For Astrid, this isn't about refusing to let go.
01:04Athens is full of joy.
01:06She simply needs someone by her side, supporting her through the illness, for as long as she chooses
01:10to keep fighting.
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