When animal abuse investigators received photos of Sinbad the cat, they had a hard time being able to tell that it was, in fact, a feline.
That’s because Sinbad had been neglected to the point where his fur had collected into a five pound mat of gnarled hair.
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“They had the pictures on the camera phone and they said, ‘Elliott, we found you a cat,’” Sinbad’s new owner Elliott Serrano, a humane education specialist at the Anti-Cruelty Society, told WGN-TV. “I said, ‘Really?’”
The owner agreed to relinquish Sinbad to the organization, after which they got to work.
It reportedly took hours to shear off the excess fur because it was hard to tell the difference between skin and hair. Sinbad, though he was even put under anesthesia during the ordeal, was still extraordinarily patient and sweet.
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Serrano agreed to foster Sinbad until he found a forever home. But as he spent more time with the healing Persian, he couldn’t help but fall in love. Shortly after taking him home, Serrano signed the adoption papers.
“He was so sweet and tolerant during the process that we knew he was a special little guy,” Serrano recalled. “After all that he’s been through he’s a sweet, loving cat. How can you say no to that?”
The adorable survivor has since become an Instagram star alongside Serrano, scoring over 6,000 followers since last week.
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Click To Share This Pawesome Story With Your Friends (Photo by The Anti-Cruelty Society)