Caring Teens Surprise Their Teacher With 2 Kittens After Her Cat Dies

A teacher in Texas was understandably distraught when her beloved 16-year-old cat named Blondie died.

But Tonya Andrews' tears of sadness turned to those of joy  when her caring students at Joshua High School, in Joshua, surprised her soon after with an extraordinarily thoughtful gift: two adorable kittens.

Video posted online shows Ashlei Mahan and Rachel Hanhart consoling their math teacher with cupcakes, balloons and flowers.

They then hand over two ridiculously cute female kittens, and the educator's reaction is priceless:

Andrews is overcome with emotion  and bursts into tears. 

"Are they mine?" she asks the teenage girls, almost in disbelief, as she cuddles one of the tiny cats and then holds the other. They've since been named Missy and Girlie.

Hanhart, 16, posted the footage to Twitter on Friday. The clip is now going viral.

Andrews told The Huffington Post that Blondie died in her arms on her way to the ER vet hospital in Burleson shortly after she and her husband realized the cat was sick.

"I cried pretty much every period that next day at school," she said via email. "I thought something was afoot, however, when only half of my class was in my room second period the next day when the tardy bell rang." 

She said one of the students, who'd learned of Blondie's death, walked in with a dozen long-stemmed white roses. Others brought in homemade cupcakes and balloons.

"I was smiling so big by then because I could feel the love of the class," Andrews said. "But then, Rachel walked in holding two precious kittens."

Initially, the teacher thought they belonged to Hanhart and that the class was just going to play with them. 

"Then she held them out to me and said they were mine. My heart was filled with joy," she added, saying she'd "never forget our sweet, sweet Blondie," who they'd rescued from a warehouse in Fort Worth. "But my heart can now experience happiness again."

Hanhart told HuffPost that the students all felt "overwhelmed, blessed and excited" to have been part of such a special occasion.

"She said she was going to get new kittens soon," the high school junior said. "But we beat her to the punch on that one. Mrs. Andrews doesn't know about her fame yet, but we certainly didn't do it for this. Her happiness was the most amazing part."