With 'Guide Cat' Best Friend, Blind Kitten Will Never Be Lost

A blind kitten in South Carolina is getting around just fine with some help from his sighted friend -- but the two cats are still looking for a permanent home.

Blinkin', a gray and white kitten whose name is a reference to the "Robin Hood: Men in Tights" character  of the same name, arrived at the SPCA Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare  in the city of Aiken in June, Marketing Director Sarah Neikam told The Huffington Post.

Before long, shelter workers realized that the little cat was blind.

“Staff just began to notice when they walked by that he was looking in their direction, but not focusing,” Neikam said.

To help Blinkin’ cope, the staff moved him to share a kennel with Hefty, a slightly older male kitten who was born at the shelter.

“They bonded immediately and they’ve been best friends ever since,” Neikam said. The two pals snuggle together, play together and follow each other around, she added. Shelter staff who posted a video of the feline friends on YouTube call Hefty a "guide cat":

Neikam said Hefty seems to have a “sense of awareness” that Blinkin’ can’t see and may need extra help, and will seek him out when the two are apart.

She added that the cats have been getting a lot of media attention and that the shelter has received a lot of informal requests, but so far no one has actually filled out an adoption application. The two kittens, she said, are “very, very playful,” affectionate with humans and must be adopted together. Blinkin' will do best in a home where his new family will keep his environment relatively stable, and not move things like the furniture or his food bowl around.

Anyone interested in the pair -- or any of the other great animals at the shelter in need of homes -- can find more information at the shelter’s Facebook page  and website.

Update: 8/21 -- The two kittens have found a permanent home with a local couple, Sarah Neikam told HuffPost. 

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Contact the author of this article at Hilary.Hanson@huffingtonpost.com