A blind, special needs kitten was left ‘so confused’ after she was dumped back at the shelter just months after she was adopted.

The gray and white kitten – then named Elena by staff at the Greenville Humane Society in South Carolina – was adopted in January at just three months old.

But in late July, staff members found the kitten in a box at the shelter – with no explanation, the Greenville Humane Society posted on Facebook Monday.

They were left heartbroken as they recognized the cat.

‘We don’t know why she was brought back to us. Why she was left,’ the shelter wrote. ‘She was so confused. She didn’t know where she was.’

The shelter said staff first met Elena when she was just three months old.

She was the runt of the litter, and vets determined she was completely blind.

‘It can be scary enough being in a big shelter when you’re still so tiny, but her lack of vision only makes it that much more terrifying for a young kitten,’ the shelter wrote at the time.

‘Her unfamiliarity of her current surroundings paired with her blindness has made her miserable – she’s always in fight or flight mode. She hisses when she hears a noise. She doesn’t want to be pet. She’s just so, so scared.’

But shortly after posting about the kitten, the Greenville Humane Society announced she was adopted.

‘We were so happy for her,’ the shelter wrote in its post Monday.

After returning to the shelter, vets have discovered that the kitten is suffering from hydrocephalus – a rare birth defect that causes increased fluid in the brain.

It can cause cats to appear constantly wobbly, and unable to control their gait, according to the National Kitten Coalition.