kids

The beautiful story of a bullied boy and his adopted cat with the same rare conditions.

Madden Humphreys is a gorgeous seven-year-old boy from Oklahoma. He has one green eye and one blue eye. He was also born with a cleft lip.

Madden’s different appearance has made him the target of bullies at school.

“There were a few kids saying really ugly, mean things to him,” Madden’s mum Christina Humphreys told Love What Matters.

“It really broke his spirit and he had a rough year.”

Last month, Humphreys saw a picture of a cat with a cleft lip in a “cleft moms” group on Facebook. Amazingly, the cat also had one green eye and one blue eye, just like Madden.

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“We knew immediately that this kitty was meant to be part of our family,” she said.

The cat had been taken in by a rescue group in Minnesota. That’s more than 1500km drive from Oklahoma. But Humphreys was determined to get there.

“We had quite a few incredibly generous, friends and strangers help make the road trip possible so that we could adopt this sweet fur baby and we are so thankful!” she posted on Facebook.

Finally together ???? #maddenandmoon

A post shared by @ maddenandmoon on

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Madden named the cat Moon.

“We knew they were destined to be best friends,” Humphreys added. “Funny how a pet can make you feel less alone.”

She said they’re not usually spontaneous people, but she knew they were meant to love this cat.

“In a world full of bullies and hateful words, we will choose to chase love.”

Speaking of bullying, we speak to expert Katrina Kavanagh about the key to stopping bullying in our schools. Post continues after audio.

Humphreys had such a huge response to the story about Madden and Moon that she started up an Instagram page devoted to the two of them.  It already has 16,000 followers.

“Moon is proving to be the sweetest kitty ever,” she wrote in one update. “He’s a little nervous as he’s adapting to a new place, but he’s so affectionate, and he LOVES Madden. He’ll come right up and snuggle in his lap!”

Other people with different coloured eyes – a condition known as heterochromia iridum – got in touch with the family on social media, sharing their own stories.

“I’ve had two different eye colours since my birth, plus one ‘disease’ called iris coloboma (cat eyes),” wrote Rene Buchmann from Germany. “Unfortunately, at your age, I was also teased and insulted as a ‘cat eye’. But believe me, as soon as you get into the age where the boys realise that the women love your eyes, then everything will be better and you‘ll be a little star then! So stay a bit strong!”

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A woman calling herself gingerdyan said she always wanted to have different coloured eyes.

“I just love this because my daddy had a brown eye and a blue eye. I always thought it was awesome and wished I had inherited it because I love him so much.”

Humphreys believes that fate willed Moon and Madden together.

“I hope Moon helps Madden realise that being born unique is an incredible thing, that he is magic. These two handsome guys truly are a wonder.”