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SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) – A blind cat, its ailing mother and a seeing-eye kitten all have a new home after a 12-year-old legally blind boy and his family adopted them.

“Just melts your heart. I mean it’s just an amazing feeling to know that they get to come home with us,” said Paul Nestor, who is adopting the feline trio with his wife, Amy.

Amy Nestor, whose family lives in Ohio and made an 800-mile trip to adopt the cats, said she saw the animals’ story in a magazine.

“I think it was like People Magazine picked it up. I just thought it was an incredible story, and after I read it, you know, I saw where you could adopt them, and I wondered if they’d been adopted. So, I said, you know what? I am just gonna; I’m going to apply,” said Amy Nestor. “I thought there’s no chance I’m going to be able to get these cats. A week later, I got a phone call, and I couldn’t believe it. I thought, really? Because I couldn’t stop thinking about them.”

After Amy and Paul Nestor told their sons about the cats, the kids couldn’t wait for their parents to bring them home.

“We have one in college; we have a 14-year-old that’s in high school, and then we have a 12-year-old that’s in sixth grade,” Amy Nestor said. “And our 12-year-old, Joshua, is legally blind. He is absolutely thrilled. He loves animals. In fact, I think he’s going to do something with animals in his life. He is just bouncing-off-the-walls excited.”

“It was real special to tell him, because you always worry about your child fitting in, wherever he’s at, and to know that he’s not alone, and he can help this animal who’s completely blind,” Paul Nestor said.

The Sioux City Animal Adoption & Rescue Center director said it was bittersweet finding out the cats would be leaving the center.

“They’ve been here about a month and a half, so we’ve all gotten attached to them, and we’re all going to be sad to see them go, but I know they’ve gone on to a forever happy home. So, that’s what makes it count,” said the center’s director, Cindy Rarrat.

The mother cat helped the blind cat before she was found to be unwell and had a tumor and all her teeth removed. Afterward, the kitten was introduced as the new seeing-eye cat.

“Oh my goodness. We’re gonna give these guys the best home, best life,” Amy Nestor said.

According to the Sioux City Animal Adoption & Rescue Center, applications to adopt the cats came from 20 different states.