The night before her wedding in Australia, Chloe Hayden thought her biggest concern would be last-minute details. Instead, she found herself crawling under an old barn with her bridal party — trying to coax out a terrified stray kitten.
“My bridesmaid spotted this tiny little head poking out from under the barn,” Hayden wrote on Instagram. “He was so small and so scared, and we made it our mission to befriend him.”
The kitten vanished before they could help, but Chloe couldn’t stop thinking about him. Even on her wedding morning, she kept slipping away from hair and makeup to check the barn, hoping the little one would reappear.
The ceremony went beautifully, yet Chloe and her new husband left the venue still wondering: Where had the kitten gone?
The next day, they returned with tuna and kitten food, but hours of searching turned up nothing. Heartbroken, they prepared to drive away for good. Then Chloe suddenly asked to check the barn one last time.
Her small prayer was answered.
“Despite not seeing them for two days, four babies were sitting at the tin of tuna, wolfing it down,” she wrote.
You can watch that moment here:
The original kitten had returned — and brought three siblings with him. Hungry and distracted, the kittens allowed the newlyweds to scoop them up safely.
When no mother cat could be found, Chloe knew what she had to do. She and her husband brought all four kittens home, giving them the new start they deserved.
The timing couldn’t have been more meaningful. Chloe had just lost her beloved bunny, Posie, and was still grieving. Cradling four tiny rescues in her arms helped her heart begin to heal.
Two kittens — Woolbrook, named after the wedding venue, and Freja, after the Nordic tradition of gifting a bride a kitten — stayed with Chloe. The other two, Lilo and Stitch, went to her parents.
Today, the four siblings are thriving, visiting back and forth between homes and bringing constant joy to the family.
Looking back more than a year later, Chloe can hardly believe how her fairytale wedding unfolded. She left with a husband she adores — and four unexpected little souls who made her family complete.
“Our home is a riot of paws everywhere,” she wrote. “And my heart is so, so, so full.”
