A 15-week old kitten with no sex organs — believed to be the first of it’s kind — is up for adoption.
Hope, a Tabby who was found and taken to the Cats Protection rescue center in Warrington, in the UK, was originally thought be to be a female feline.
However, when vets looked at the cat they found no sex organs — male or female.
Fiona Brockbank, senior field veterinary officers aid for the Cats Protection said Hope’s sex organs didn’t develop due to agenesis — which is when an organ fails to grow.
Vets have seen hermaphrodite cats — which have both male and female sex organs — before, but not a cat born without either sex organ.
“We carried out a procedure to look for sex organs but there’s nothing apparent inside or out,” she told the Independent, adding there is a possibility of ovarian tissue hiding internally but they think that’s “extremely unlikely.”
“This is so rare that there isn’t really a commonly used term for this condition,” she continued.
Brockbank said it’s not something their clinic has seen before, so they don’t have any prior cases to help navigate Hope’s condition.
“While this means we don’t have any previous cases to base our knowledge of how this will affect Hope in the future,” she explained. “We spent time monitoring this cat to ensure they can urinate and defecate appropriately before they were considered ready for rehoming.”
Staff at the Tyneside Adoption Centre manager where Hope is now described them as a playful kitten and that would “bring someone many years of fun and companionship.”
“Hope has been a delight to care for and it is fantastic that they are now ready to be adopted,” manager Beni Benstead gushed. “Discovering Hope’s special status has been an exciting time as none of us have seen this before or are likely to again.”