Meet Russell, a special cat who has been helping give people hope at the North Carolina Animal Emergency Hospital.

You see Russell is a survivor of a terrible house fire that destroyed his family home and also stole the life of his doggo sibling.

Unfortunately, the hero feline suffered from second and third-degree burns as well as being dehydrated and developing fatty liver syndrome.

Things were looking very bleak for Russell, but he would not let it happen and made a strong recovery while snuggling with fellow injured and sick animals at the clinic.

He took care of Darla the baby deer, who quickly became his favorite, as well as many dogs while they were recovering from terrible accidents and injuries.
“He wants to be friends with every animal. He’s a very inquisitive cat. A very loving little cat.”

Russell took a while and many surgeries and treatments to heal, thanks to generations from the hospital’s Good Samaritan Fund, all his medical bills were covered.

He’s also welcome to stick around since he has been comforting people who are having a bad day just by sitting with them.

“He helps give them some hope,” explained Maus. “Him being such a little cat of perseverance.”

“He’s incredibly engaging. He wants to meet all our patients. He just wants to be with them,” Wilford said.

“I don’t know if he can sense that other animals are in pain or have stuff going on, but he does seem to have some weird knack for connecting with patients, even when you wouldn’t think they would.”