A lady in Phuket, Thailand, was on her way to work in February when she overheard a tormented meow. She halted and cast a wide-eyed glance towards the direction of the meow. She eventually discovered it – a cat was floating in a rice field that had been flooded.

The animal was in dreadful condition. She had some sort of skin issue, and there were terrible sores all over her body. She was also quite slow.

Credit: RENÉ CARNIELETTO
Luckily for the cat, the woman worked for Soi Dog Foundation, a group that rescues dogs and cats in Phuket. So the woman scooped up the cat and took her to the organization’s clinic, where the vet team started helping her.

“She was very depressed and appeared to have given up,” Maeve Henry, a spokesperson for Soi Dog Foundation, told . “At first our vets struggled to get her to eat, and she was very dehydrated.”

Credit: RENÉ CARNIELETTO
The cat, which they called Rose, wasn’t abandoned, though, by the medical staff.

Credit: RENÉ CARNIELETTO
In addition to antibiotics, she received medicine for her skin issues, according to Henry. She had little scabs from where she had been scratching, so these were cleansed with antiseptic medicine, and her ears were cleaned since they were quite unclean. She immediately regained her appetite after beginning medical therapy.

Credit: RENÉ CARNIELETTO
Rose began to brighten up, and she developed into a loving, affectionate cat.

Patient healing from a skin problem holds a cat.

She began to trust us when she saw she was getting assistance, according to Henry. At our shelter, this made her more at ease.

Credit: RENÉ CARNIELETTO
Two months later, Rose had made a full recovery — and she looked like a completely different cat. And in May 2017, Rose found a forever home with an ex-pat living in Thailand. Rose’s new owner, René Carnieletto, renamed her Mukki.

Credit: RENÉ CARNIELETTO
She is adorable, Carnieletto said. She always snoozes next to my legs at night. She cries out loudly when I return after being out if I went, and she enjoys being petted for a bit as payment.

Henry is thrilled that Mukki has a home with someone who appreciates her, and the rest of the Soi Dog Foundation staff is as well.

Credit: RENÉ CARNIELETTO
“We were always hopeful for Rose,” Henry said. “We see thousands of animals like her every year, and with the right treatment and lots of TLC, they can and do make an extraordinary recovery.”