WATCH: Extremely rare cat born with four ears brought into TN shelter

MT JULIET, Tennessee (KMID/KPEJ) – True Rescue in Mt. Juliet says it’s the largest communal cat rescue in the south.

“We’re housed in a 7,000 sq ft facility, we have just over 430 animals total in our care between cats, dogs, puppies and kittens,” said Kristin Condite, Director of Operations at True Rescue.

Recently, the shelter welcomed a new litter found abandoned in a box, including a four-eared kitten named Audio. Staff with the rescue said they first noticed the extra pair of ears during an exam.

“When we took him out of his carrier my counterpart said, ‘what’s on his ear?’ and when looked closer, it appears as if Audio has four ears on his head. Two right facing and two rear facing. It’s extremely abnormal.”

Eight-week-old Audio and his ear-isistable charm is garnering a lot of attention on social media, putting the shelter in the spotlight at a time when it’s most needed.

“We’ve had on-going issues with drainage problems and foundation issues, but a week from Sunday and Monday we had back-to-back days we had water in the building. Sunday night it was four inches from the rear walls to the front doors,” said Condite.

On top of that, kitten season is in full swing. Staff is now saying they need 150 to 200 adoptions per month to be on pace with the amount of cats coming in.

“We’re doing far more intakes, far more medical cases per day than we are adoptions.”

The flooding issues slowed adoptions significantly, but True Rescue officials said despite this, the Mt. Juliet community stepped up to foster more kittens in an effort to get the shelter back on its feet. Others donated enough to fully stock the rescue with food.

“We’ll go through it very quickly, but it’s nice to see full shelves. That’s pretty rare this time of year,” said Condite.

As for Audio, staff said they will not remove his extra ears unless the ears start harming him.

“A really frustrating week since the flooding and setbacks that have been going on in our world and for Audio to come at this time. It really does feel like a good luck charm.”

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