Two domestic short-haired cats, one adult gray with a teal background indoors. Another kitten or juvenile white with gray markings sits nearby. 3:08
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Toby looks like an old cat but plays like a kitten

People take one look at Toby's wrinkled face and call him grumpy. His family will tell you he is nothing of the kind. more

Christopher and Georgina adopted two special-needs cats, Toby and Quinton, and Toby is the one people notice first. A genetic condition, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, leaves his skin loose and wrinkled, so a small kitten wears the face of a "little sad old man," as his family puts it. The face fools people. Toby is happy and affectionate.

Under the wrinkles he is a kitten like any other. He wants to play and he wants to be loved, and he's obsessed with birds. He parks himself at the window to watch them, and his people have caught him trying to imitate them. Once he relaxed a little, he started letting Georgina rub his belly, and he likes it.

Two domestic short-haired cats, one adult gray with a teal background indoors. Another kitten or juvenile white with gray markings sits nearby. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
People take one look at Toby's wrinkled face and call him grumpy.

Quinton has no teeth at all, not one. The two brothers had lived together their whole lives, and when they were rescued from the same house they were found hiding together, so the rescue kept them as a bonded pair. Christopher and Georgina had gone looking for cats who might wait a long time for a home, and taking both meant helping two cats instead of one.

Quinton seems to know that Toby is a little different and a bit more fragile, and he has taken on the job of dad. He washes Toby's face, and he tells Toby off when he's up to something he shouldn't be. Without Quinton around, his family thinks, Toby would hardly ever be seen.

A fluffy white cat with gray markings rests with head down and eyes closed. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Quinton looks after his fragile brother, washing his face and keeping him in line.

The house is child-safe, which is what a cat with Ehlers-Danlos needs. There are no sharp corners and no open windows, and wherever Toby needs to get up or down there is a step or a column, so he never has to make a big jump.

Their people don't think the brothers could live without each other, and they count themselves lucky to have both. To them Toby is "the most beautiful lovely boy," and after a few minutes with him it is hard to argue.

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