Cats are amazing creatures, but they also have a tendency to enter our lives in very unexpected ways. Oftentimes, out of nowhere, we find ourselves enamored with a feline fluff— and after that, our heart is forever theirs. That’s what happened to one woman who told our staff she had no intentions of getting a pet after her first cat passed away.
In an e-mail, Reddit user tuemley said, “We didn’t really plan to have cats. My boyfriend always wanted to get one. He was really into them, but I didn’t want one because the loss of my last [cat] was tough.”
All of that changed for tuemley, however, when she met a tiny British Shorthair named Robert Speck.
Robert Speck was named for his chubby form, with tuemley revealing that the word “speck” translates to ‘bacon’ or ‘chubby’ in German.
“One day, he [boyfriend] told me about a co-worker’s friend who was urgently looking for a home for a kitten that couldn’t use his legs well.”
“The moment I saw a video of that small kitten crawling over the couch, and heard the veterinarian wanted to put him to sleep, I wanted to give the poor, little guy a home.”
The adorable, chubby kitten almost had his life robbed all because his legs didn’t work properly— but in an amazing turn of events, he proved every doubter wrong.
Having a kitty with special needs presented a unique set of obstacles, but tuemley and her boyfriend were prepared for any challenges that may arise.
“We both talked about how we could give him a normal cat life, and collected information about cat wheelchairs on the internet.”
Although Robert’s initial vet had no hope for the adorable kitten, “another veterinarian told Robert’s owners about a similar case where the kitten had just been too chubby for his own little legs.”
Even though Robert’s first vet’s wanted to put the kitten down, Robert just didn’t give up!
“Robert’s legs kept getting better and better.”
By the time tuemley finally got to meet him in person, Robert was able to race around and chase his siblings across the room!
Last month, tuemley shared this heartwarming picture of her meeting Robert (above) to the /r/aww subreddit on Reddit. In this short span of time, the photo has already garnered over 82,000 upvotes (a feature similar to Facebook likes).
But this amazing story doesn’t end with just one adoption! When tuemley met Robert’s brothers and sisters, she immediately changed her mind. She couldn’t adopt just one little kitten, she had to adopt a sibling too!
“When we visited him, we saw that he really loved to play with his sister. We kept reading about how to raise a cat and we noticed that they needed a companion to live a happy and fulfilled life.”
“We decided to give Robert and his sister a home.”
Nowdays, Robert and his sister Ina are five months old, and tuemley says, “They are getting bigger every day.”
Robert is a total cuddlebug and will even let Ina eat his breakfast if it means getting extra snuggles and pets.
“Such a chilled out cat!” tuemly says.
“Ina is really into hunting toys. She also steals everything and hordes it under the couch and our bed. I always have to crawl underneath to get lipstick back.”
Tuemley says Robert and Ina have made a tremendously positive impact on her and her husband’s lives.
But she does admit, “We can’t rid of the feeling Robert and Ina are the real reason people are visiting us. They are always topic number one!”
It’s so heartbreaking that a vet was willing to give up on little Robert so quickly— but thanks to this loving couple, Robert and Ina got a second chance.
Follow Robert and Ina on Instagram for more adorable photos like these!
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