A disabled Langley kitten, who became a viral sensation after getting a special 3-D printed wheelchair to help him walk again, is back in the news.
Cassidy the kitten continues to increase his Internet following – this time around, by riding a Roomba vacuum cleaner.
Shelly Roche, Cassidy’s foster mom and the “Snuggler in Chief” at TinyKittens Society says Cassidy is a miracle kitten in many ways.
He was part of a feral colony in Langley when he was rescued at just nine-weeks old.
When Roche found him, he was missing both of his hind legs below the knee, likely because of trauma that occurred shortly after he was born.
“From the medical perspective, there is no reason that he should still be alive,” she says.
Roche says when Cassidy was taken to a emergency vet, he was so sick, the staff recommended putting him down.
But Roche, who fosters other abandoned animals for the Langley Animal Protection Society, never gave up on him.
“He is a little fighter,” says Roche. “I just knew that he deserved a chance to survive and to know something other than fear, pain and starvation.”
In September, two local students built a custom 3-D printed wheelchair to help Cassidy walk properly.
“It was great at that time because he was so frustrated by his difficulty moving,” says Roche. “It gave him some mobility and totally improved his outlook on life.”
But now Cassidy has upgraded to a new, smoother way of getting around – namely, Roche’s Roomba vacuum cleaner.
But Cassidy took quite a liking to his new, unusual transportation device. It’s his main set of wheels now, after outgrowing his tiny wheelchair.
“I think he likes being able to go places and look around. He is not scared at all,” says Roche.
Roche runs a popular 24/7 webcam feed of her foster animals, and earlier this week, she uploaded a video of Cassidy’s Roomba adventures on YouTube, drawing a collective “aw” from many of his Internet fans.
“People went crazy for it,” she says. “He has a lot of fans on the Internet already because he is just so remarkable. But seeing him on a Roomba and how smart he is, everyone just loved it.”
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Roche says other cats in the household don’t mind Cassidy’s claim to the Roomba.
“They just kind of look at him and they are just happy he is not pouncing on them or biting them in the face, which is usually the case. They are happy for anything that keeps him occupied,” she adds.