Sam freely admits that he once despised cats – right up until a special kitty named Scooter came into the picture and stole his heart.

Sam met Scooter while still involved with an ex-boyfriend, who had suggested bringing cats into their home. The very evening the couple discussed it, a friend of Sam’s found two kittens huddled in her yard, where they had barely survived a storm.

After adopting the two cats, Sam and his ex noticed that Scooter couldn’t walk normally. The tuxedo cat had been born with a spinal deformity that left her unable to use her back legs. According to Sam, “the first vet told me that I might need to put her down if I wasn’t ‘willing to put in the work.'”

Sam was willing to put in the work. In his words, “I couldn’t, in good conscience, put an animal down because of a thing that’s not their fault.”

From that point forward, even after he became a single cat dad, Sam did everything he could to make life easier for Scooter. Scooter’s mobility is limited by her hind legs, so Sam built ramps to help her climb onto furniture. To ensure that Scooter’s legs don’t get caught on any cords as she drags them around the house, he tapes all wires neatly along the wall. He even made a customized cat fort, which he calls the “Scootbutt Snooze Hut.”

Sam worries about Scooter frequently, but describes her demeanor as that of a typical cat: “she so profoundly DOES NOT care what you think.” The two have an inseparable bond – like a lifelong cat lover, Sam has given Scooter a seemingly endless array of silly nicknames and sings to her!

Thanks to one very unique cat, Sam has gone from hating felines to living in a world that revolves around one. He credits Scooter with helping him discover the person he truly is. Their touching story reminds us that it’s never too late to become a “cat person!”