A NEWPORT Olympian has welcomed a new addition to her family after discovering a deathly ill kitten in her back garden.
Mica Moore, who has competed on the ice and the track at the Winter Olympics and the Commonwealth Games respectively, found the kitten, which was suffering from severe cat flu, on Monday May 25.
She had been revising and training as normal all day, listening to what she assumed were the meows of her neighbour's cats.
Throughout the day, the cries became fainter and, as she was about to lock the back door for the night, she decided to have one final check of the garden.
"I followed the meow and, tucked right in surrounded by brambles, was this little kitten," she said.
"He looked in a terrible way."
Miss Moore's boyfriend, Curt Matthews, retrieved the kitten and brought him inside.
It was only then that the pair could see just how unwell the tiny kitten was.
As well as looking severely malnourished, both of his eyes were sealed shut.
"I've never had a cat before so didn't know what to do," said Miss Moore.
"I posted on social media to ask for advice, which came flooding in."
The pair washed the kitten off, before bathing his eyes to try to get them to open.
"A friend's dad owned The Cat Clinic in Lisvane,"said Miss Moore.
"He wanted us to take the kitten down to the clinic that night. He said if we didn't, he wouldn't make it through the night."
By this point Miss Moore, by her own admission not a cat person, had become attached to the as yet unnamed kitten.
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"I'm sometimes a little afraid of cats but I knew I wanted to give him a good home," she said.
She woke up early the next morning, worried he had not made it.
"Of course he had. He's a fighter," she said.
"Unfortunately, the cat flu had caused him to lose his right eye."
The pair settled on the name Mike Wazowski, after the one-eyed Monsters Inc film character, and Miss Moore even handcrafted Mike his very own eyepatch.
"His favourite thing to do is to cuddle up in my hair and go to sleep," she said.
"From the moment I picked him up he hasn't stopped purring, we think this means he's happy here."
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