Artist Shares His Kitten Adoption Story In A Heartwarming Comic Without Using A Single Word

This Brazilian journalist, screenwriter, and illustrator is a master of visual storytelling who doesn't need any words to create a touching story everyone will understand and feel. We've previously featured the emotion-fueled comics of Ademar Vieira twice. We introduced the artist's work with a viral comic called "The Choice" which shows what life looks like when deciding to have a dog compared to not having one and shared more of Vieira's best comics that explore different topics from the pandemic to parenting.

This time, Vieira has illustrated a real story about adopting a kitten he didn't think he needed at first, dedicated to all cat lovers out there, called "The cat." The heartwarming story shows how wholesome life with a cat can be and questions who rescues who after all? People save pets in times they need a loving home the most without realizing that pets save them as well.

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Vieira shared the inspiration behind the comic with Bored Panda: "When I lived alone, one day a kitten appeared at the door of my apartment. I started to feed her, but I didn't want to adopt her. I was waiting for one of the neighbors to adopt her, but that didn't happen. Every time I got home, she was in the front, waiting for a little milk and a cuddle. Until one day, I arrived and she was not in her usual place. Several days went by without seeing her. I was afraid that something terrible had happened to her, so when she reappeared, I adopted her. It was a relief and a joy."

Vieira said he had never imagined he would end up as a cat parent.

"When I was younger, I just couldn't imagine having a cat as a pet. I was living alone and thought that my lifestyle would not allow me to have a cat. Turns out that she chose me anyway," he says.

However, after some time, he probably can't imagine not having a cat by his side.

"We played a lot and I had fun watching how she used the spaces in the house and tried to have fun alone. Over time, I realized how much I cared about her as if she was a member of the family."

We asked Vieira to tell us more about the cat he rescued which inspired the comic:

"'Gata-fera,' which can be translated into English as 'Wild Cat,' has a very strong personality. She only receives affection when she wants to and she's able to bite or scratch anyone who tries to cuddle her when she doesn't want to be cuddled. She spends most of her time looking for unusual places to sleep and she loves to hunt and chase the dogs in the house. On the other hand, she can also be very sweet when she wants to."

He says that the message he wanted to spread with this comic is that "sometimes we adopt a pet because we find them in a difficult situation and we think that we will be helping them out, but over time we realize that they are the ones helping us. We rescue them at that moment, but they end up rescuing us every day."

"I think that people who live with animals understand better than most that humans are not the owners of the planet, we are just another tenant like all animals. We are responsible for this planet and for the impact we caused, and we must take better care of this world so that all living beings can have a chance at a good life. To avoid the extinction of other species is to avoid our own extinction."

We went more in-depth and explored what Vieira's art is about. He stands out not only because of his art skills but because of the ability to tell emotional stories without using a single word.

"My comic strips are not conventional like most, with three pictures and balloons. They are more like short films that tell stories about life, loaded with emotion, criticism, and some twists and turns."

The artist explained how his idea for dialogue-free comics came about: "My native language is Portuguese and my intention was to make strips in Portuguese, but trying to use as little dialogue as possible. I managed to do some without dialogue and one of them went viral in several countries. From then on, I realized that it was a path of no return and I started using the no-dialogue format as a signature of my style on the comic strips."

"The raw material of my stories is life," the artist said when we asked about his inspirations. "Some are things that I experienced, other things are the result of observing the world around me. What inspires me are themes that I find myself talking about or thinking about. Some of these themes are opinions, views, or things that bother me somehow, like social inequality and everything bad that comes with it."