A kitten who was orphaned at birth discovered her smile as she was nursed back to health by rescuers.

The small calico was only a couple of hours old when she was taken to a California shelter. Chris, a Los Angeles-based animal rescuer, began warming her up instantly as she felt cold to the touch. She slowly returned from the edge with the assistance of a heating pad.

The kitten desperately required a volunteer foster who was able to provide care 24 hours a day. Chris approached the founder of the Orphan Kitten Club, Hannah Shaw, as the clock ticked for the little one. Hannah jumped in her vehicle and picked her up all the way to the town.

“They can’t regulate their own body temperature. They don’t have a gag reflex at this era,” Hannah said via YouTube. “The only thing an age-old kitten can do is move toward heat.”

The kitten was frail but powerful in her core. From the start, they realized she was a fighter. That night, Rosalita was sleeping with a complete stomach in an incubator, all washed up. To guarantee her development, Hannah held tabs on her weight. The first 24 hours were a little difficult because every two hours the kitten required to be fed a tube. She was able to eat from a syringe and suckle everything by herself as quickly as Rosa received her power back.

The sweet calico opened her eyes at around two weeks old and began to peep around the world that she lived in.