A two-month-old kitten whose life was saved when he was rescued from a bucket of glue has bonded with the foster parent who helped him to recover – and is sticking with her permanently.

Staff at the Humane Society of North Texas say they were swamped with applications to adopt tiny Elmer after the non-profit shared on social media in mid-April the story of how the cat was found dehydrated and close to death in a pot of glue – before being painstakingly nursed back to health with canola oil baths and hours of massages.

Now the kitten, named by his rescuers for the popular glue brand, has become attached to Leah Owens, a volunteer with the Humane Society who has become Elmer’s permanent new caregiver.

Owens looked after Elmer through weeks of intensive treatment to remove the last traces of the hardened adhesive from his fur – and says his company also comforts her after she lost her husband, Roger, in October to the bone marrow cancer multiple myeloma.

“He filled that void and just gave me a lot of joy, a lot of happiness,” Owens, 72, told the Washington Post.

Elmer’s story began on 31 March when a good Samaritan brought him caked in white glue to the Humane Society’s headquarters in Fort Worth, which is near Dallas. It is not known if the kitten fell into the bucket or was placed there deliberately.

Rescuers immediately set to work trying to remove the glue before it became hard and further restricted Elmer’s breathing and movement. Initial efforts to clean him up with dish soap and olive oil were unsuccessful, and veterinarians feared they might have to euthanize him before somebody suggested using canola oil.

Elmer was submerged in two gallons of the oil. And after several more hours of gentle rubbing and massaging, most of the glue had separated and patches of the cat’s gray and white fur began to appear.

“If that Good Samaritan had not come along, he probably would’ve died within minutes,” Misty Mendes, the rescue group’s director of shelter medicine, told the Post.

Now, a month later, Elmer weighs 2.5lbs, and has become a playful new member of Owens’s household, enjoying the company of her three other cats: Rickey, 14; Tarzana, two; and Poppy, 11 months.

The Humane Society announced Elmer’s adoption in a post on Facebook, saying it had received hundreds of inquiries. But it ultimately decided his welfare would be best attended to in the hands of “one of our dedicated foster heroes”, as it described Owens.

“After recently losing her husband to cancer, she shared that her home had felt quiet and empty, as her other cats are more independent,” the post said.

“When Elmer entered her life, he brought a sense of comfort, joy, and connection she hadn’t felt since his passing. She fostered Elmer purely out of kindness and to support her community, but the bond between them was undeniable.”

Elmer has now been able to shed the foam collar that was in place to prevent him licking the oil from his fur. And he has developed a habit of nudging people’s legs to try to get them to replicate the multiple massages he received during his recovery.

“He honestly feels like every day is spa day,” a Humane Society spokesperson, Cassie Davidson, told the Post.