Like humans with disabilities, many furry friends experience the same health conditions. Some homeless cats, fortunately, found and rescued amid a nationwide feline overpopulation crisis, require extra love and patience to live their lives to the fullest.
These are special needs cats. Defined as cats that have disabilities, chronic health conditions, behavioral issues or emotional trauma according to Second Chance Cats of West Michigan. Cats too can develop diabetes, kidney disease, arthritis, become deaf, have dietary restrictions and more.
Under #CatsofTikTok’s 400 billion views, accounts like Luna, Alex and Bean, Malinka, Herman, and Ysera share their special needs journey with thousands of followers. On the other hand, local animal rescuers and fosters provide round-the-clock care for special needs cats without much media exposure.
Whether special needs cats achieve social media celebrity status or not, they all have a story to share. Many cats medically battle the odds against them and are saved by people who become their voice and caretaker. Here are seven special needs cats and their caregivers’ stories, most locally based in New York City:
1. Rosalie DeLuca & Pie
Rosalie DeLuca met Pie, a black & white “cow cat“, two and a half years ago from her friend working alongside a rescue team who brought a group of cats to the ASPCA clinic in Glendale, Queens. The ASPCA or the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, helps animal rescuers with low cost vet and spay/neuter services.
Pie, like the other cats, is planned for Trap-Neuter-Return or TNR— a humane process animal rescuers use for feline population control in neighborhoods with colonies of cats.
After Pie’s spay and general examination, the Glendale clinic labeled her as “blind.” Because she was a TNR case, the rescue group planned on returning Pie back to the neighborhood where she came from.
DeLuca’s friend stepped up, refusing to let the newly diagnosed Pie go back to the streets. Claiming Pie from the rescuers, DeLuca’s friend listed Pie up for adoption on Petfinder.
When DeLuca heard about the situation, she decided to foster Pie in her three-bedroom apartment when realizing Pie’s other option was living in a cage.
DeLuca on Pie’s first time in her apartment:
Of course, she was nervous in the beginning, and then little by little, she acclimated. And then I started opening the door and let her come out, and it ended up she fell in love with one of my cats. Once I saw that she got along with my other cats, I said to my friend: ‘Take her off of Petfinder. She’s not going anywhere.’
Rosalie DeLuca
Best Friends Animal Society provides a FAQ guide for blind cats, endorsing that cats like Pie can live whole, enriching lives with proper introduction and a safe, stimulating environment.
Now five years old, Pie is DeLuca’s first experience with a blind cat.
Whenever someone posts on a page about a blind cat, I always say positive things about it. People shouldn’t be afraid to adopt a blind cat and you know, they’re just the same as any other cat.
Rosalie DeLuca
2. Jana Rosenthal & Chowder
In January, Jana Rosenthal, the President of AdvoCat Rescue— a foster-based cat rescue in Forest Hills, Queens— received a heavily pregnant cat that gave birth to Chowder and his six other siblings.
Chowder, his mom, and siblings are cutely named after soups. On Instagram, AdvoCat Rescue shares Mama Choodle’s (short for Chicken Noodle) journey with her kittens. One of Chowder’s first updates on Instagram was about his eyelid deformity that required a vet to open his eye, which was momentarily painful but successful.
All the kittens were treated for panleukopenia and made a full recovery, but Rosenthal had a keener eye for Chowder. She noticed he wasn’t gaining weight three weeks after he was born.
Like a puzzle of “the chicken and the egg,” as Rosenthal puts it, it was challenging to tell if Mama Choodle was rejecting him or if Chowder stopped feeding on his own. Mom cats can reject their kittens if they sense an illness or deformity in them.
Despite her busy schedule, Rosenthal took action and tube fed the fragile orange tabby daily. Newborn Kittens have a better chance of survival with their moms, but require extra care from humans if otherwise.
At three months old, Chowder began having seizures where his body would shake and have tremors, lasting under a minute. He received anti-seizure medications that seemed to work. However, with Rosenthal’s busy schedule, she could not know if Chowder had a seizure when she wasn’t home.
At his neurologist appointment, Rosenthal shockingly found out that Chowder was also blind. She sometimes still questions it because of how well he navigates around the house.
Chowder’s seizures are neurological symptoms. His MRI revealed that one side of his brain is bigger than the other. Unfortunately, Chowder had roughly three breakthrough seizures while on his medications, with his last one dangerously lasting over four minutes. But as of July, as far as Rosenthal knows, Chowder hasn’t had a seizure in a month.
The doctor reassured Rosenthal that Chowder should be able to live a normal life span, but needs to stay on his medications for life. Chowder’s condition is similar to cerebellar hypoplasia, where a kitten’s brain remains in an “immature state.”
Rosenthal hopes to find an adopter who has experience with special needs cats for Chowder. “I definitely want someone who has had experience and fully understands his medical condition, seeing his last several seizures were very severe and they’re traumatizing to watch,” she says.
I would just want to be very comfortable that the person is reliable, responsible, fully prepared. You know, their expectations for him. He’s got his challenges. If he goes to a new home, he needs someone patient.
Jana Rosenthal
3. Alex Kim & Bean
With nearly 620,000 TikTok followers, Alex Kim is a Pediatric and Neonatal Nurse taking care of Bean, his asthmatic cat. Kim primarily makes videos about his career, but occasionally documents his morning routine of supplying Bean with her asthma inhaler.
Bean uses a chamber made for cats to receive her asthma inhaler and needs it twice a day daily for the rest of her life.
Feline Asthma “is a disease of the lower airways of the lungs that affects between 1 and 5% of cats,” according to Cornell University’s Feline Health Center. Veterinarian-prescribed treatment for feline asthma comes in oral, inhaled or injectable forms.
More than 80 million cats currently live in American homes, and veterinary epidemiologists estimate that 800,000 or more of these animals — one percent or so of the nation’s domestic feline population — suffer from acute or chronic asthma.
Cornell Feline Health Center
Kim and Bean’s TikTok videos often receive hundreds of thousands of viewers. In a recent “cat nurse morning routine” video, Kim shared an update about Bean needing prednisone tablets in addition to her inhaler.
Even with Bean’s special needs as an asthmatic cat, Kim creates light-hearted TikTok’s and treats Bean with compassion. He also brings transparency to the financial expenses it takes to keep up with her needs.
4. Jennifer Rhein & Mario
Two years ago, Mario was in the streets of Ozone Park, Queens, found by a rescuer. He was limping when walking and was also FIV+ positive.
While most FIV+ cats can live normal and healthy lives, Mario had most of his teeth removed. Mario’s limping is likely due to a tail injury and needs psyllium powder added to his wet food twice a day to help with his bowel movement.
Closing in on 9 years, Jennifer Rhein works at a school and volunteers for For Animals Inc. as a way to do “something positive” for a couple hours a week. She met the handsome tuxedo cat when he was first brought to their small shelter.
Bringing Mario home, it became second nature to add psyllium to his food for breakfast and dinner. During mealtime, Rhein separates Mario from her dog and other cats. He also has infrequent accidents outside of the litter box as a result of his injured tail. “Otherwise, he’s a normal cat,” says Rhein.
“Once you get into the routine of it, like Mario, it doesn’t even cross our minds,” she says. “It’s just part of his routine at this point, like it’s not an inconvenience. Even if you’re unsure [about adopting], maybe start out by fostering a special needs cat.”
Mario is now 7 years old, fostered by Rhein. Described as the “perfect” cat, Mario and Rhein attended a cat yoga event together in May where he happily greeted strangers. Another side to Mario’s “sweet” and “loving” personality.
People who adopt special needs cats are usually my favorite people. People who adopt seniors and special needs cats, I feel like, you know they’re always the most overlooked cats. They wait the longest for their homes, and most often, they are the sweetest and most appreciative of the love that they can get.
Jennifer Rhein
5. Kim Brooks & Poppy
Kim Brooks is another volunteer for For Animals Inc. that likes to help cats with socialization and emotional issues, and generally cats that others find challenging to care for.
Brooks began her affiliation with For Animals by retrieving forgotten crates from vets back to the shelter during the pandemic. She fostered two shy cats from For Animals that needed help with human socialization for the first time.
Poppy, a two year old tuxedo, was rescued as a kitten from the streets by a partner rescuer. During her year-long caged home, Poppy was experiencing seizures and the shelter volunteers suspected that she had FIP, a type of disease developed from strains of feline coronavirus. Poppy also had trouble using her litter box that many volunteers struggled to resolve.
Brooks took on the responsibility of Poppy, bathroom-proofing her home office with disposable pads to observe her litter box habits.
Poppy’s first time in Brooks’ home:
“She’s just was so sweet. She immediately came out of the carrier and climbed into my lap. And it turned out that she can urinate in the box, but she can’t poop in the box at all,” said Brooks. “And I’ve never seen it happen. It’s sort of like when you go to a petting zoo or something, it just sort of falls out.”
Poppy also has some eye scarring and recently developed stomatitis — an inflamed mouth condition. Poppy will have all of her teeth removed in August.
I knew that she had been in a cage for so long, and that just like broke my heart. And I think also when a cat is in a cage, it’s really hard to tell fully about their personality and what’s going on with them.
Kim Brooks
What would you say to those who are considering adopting a cat, let alone considering a special needs cat, or why should they adopt a special needs cat?
- Like Rhein, Brooks says cats from the street and special needs cats are appreciative of having a home. It takes patience for them to acclimate, but is still a rewarding experience.
- She advises considering adopters to be “prepared for whatever is going to potentially come their way.” It’s important to make sure you’re financially ready and try to find a low-cost vet.
- Really do your research and make sure you’re ready to make a commitment.
- Make sure that you are ready for the responsibility that cats are loving creatures. “They are not solitary animals like a lot of people think.”
- “Feed wet food, that’s important. Don’t feed all dry food.”
A cat can live for 18 to 20 years and so, we’ve seen a lot of cats get adopted and then returned because somebody’s moving, or they have something going on, or whatever, and it’s really heartbreaking for those animals that had a loving home before.
Kim Brooks
6. PuppyKittyNYC & Legend
In January, Legend the Legendary Cat was one of the 34 hoarded cats rescued from being thrown out of a second story window by a landlord in Woodhaven, Queens. Legend was found with his two back legs deformed, needing surgery.
Meagan Licari, the President of PuppyKittyNYC — one of NYC’s well known nonprofit animal rescues— manages all of their social media pages to bring awareness to rescue stories like Legend’s. Like every animal rescue: requests for adopters, fosters, volunteers and donations are always needed.
Now a recovered double amputee tuxedo, Legend went viral on Instagram for his recovery story, a funny video with his “helicopter parent”, people’s curiosity about how he uses the litter box, and simply being the strongest two-legged feline.
7. Jean Bubley & Fuji
Fuji, a white and brown 9-year-old tabby, was adopted as a kitten. Almost eight years later, she was returned due to being diagnosed with food allergies.
In 2021, Fuji’s family tried figuring out special diets and steroids for her but had difficulty getting her symptoms under control. As a result, they surrendered Fuji to For Animals Inc.
Jean Bubley currently fosters Fuji at home in a separate room away from her other cats to avoid conflict. Fuji was at another foster home and had more space to roam, but went back to Bubley after frequent vomiting episodes.
When Bubley received Fuji, all she needed was a special diet— which included a freeze-dried raw rabbit diet, as Bubley recalls this worked for lots of cats with food allergies.
One day Fuji started showing neurological symptoms having brief tremors, with one that lasted a bit longer. Luckily caught on video, the emergency vet and Fuji’s primary vet confirmed she had a seizure.
Fuji was prescribed an anticonvulsant to treat her seizures. It initially helped for a while, but lost its effect when she became lethargic and twitching.
Along Fuji’s journey to figure out what’s the actual cause of her tremors, she went through an MRI and Spinal Tap that “narrowed down to three main possibilities which they won’t really be able to know until they can do a necropsy when she passes away,” says Bubley.
Today, Fuji is on prednisolone, a steroid treatment, and phenobarbital, a different anticonvulsant that seems to be working for her. Bubley also noticed Fuji’s medications have stopped her itching symptoms which may have coincided with Fuji’s seizures.
When she was on the first anticonvulsant, that was really a pain in the neck because she had to have it every eight hours, and by the time she’d be getting to the end of eight hours, she’d be starting to be a little tick-y and tremor-y again and stuff. So it was really important to stick to the schedule. Now that it’s twice a day and it’s not quite as time critical, it’s pretty easy.
Jean Bubley
Fuji’s treatment, thanks to Bubley’s care, has reverted her back to being cuddly and playful.
The growing community of special needs cats
The “Cat Distribution System” has increasingly become popular over the past two years on TikTok. #CatsofTikTok is here to stay as animal videos continue to be one of the best-performing videos on social media.
While many special needs cats live long lives, Toru Miyazaki is developing a vaccine for 2025 to double a cat’s life span and slow down the development of kidney disease.
But no matter their condition, celebrate International Cat Day on August 8th by breaking the stigma around adopting or fostering cats with disabilities. Poppy, Chowder, Pie and others continue to thrive with the right, loving caregivers.
Jean Bubley said it best, “they can be gorgeous and playful and affectionate just like any other cat. If people saw their personalities maybe that would kind of help break those barriers.”
