Reece was found as a kitten at around five weeks old, unable to move his back legs.
His rescuer Jesse, reached out to her friend Wilma, who had a lot of experience fostering cats and kittens, so Reece would be in a safe place while they found out what was wrong with him.
After a trip to the vet the day after he came home with Wilma, it was determined that Reece’s hind leg paralysis was congenital.
His back legs didn’t develop properly while he was still in his mothers womb.
But Reece’s condition didn’t seem to bother him one bit.
“I could tell he had a strong personality and that he was a fighter, but at the same time he was incredibly confident.”
Wilma
A handsome ‘purrmaid’
A ‘purrmaid’ is cute name given to cats who have some form of hind leg paralysis, whether the cause is congenital or not.
Cat’s who can’t use their back legs often find it more comfortable to scoot around on their front legs while dragging their back legs behind them, rather than using wheelchairs.
The way the cats look when they scoot with their back legs behind them is what initially what inspired the name ‘purrmaid’.
For some of these cats, they can develop skin sores if they are dragging their legs on carpeted floors.
Additionally, if a cat has hind leg paralysis which also makes them incontinent, they sometimes need to wear diapers to help prevent any leakages and keep them clean.
And so, the solution for owners of these special cats is to put fabric over the bottom half of their bodies to protect their lower half.
So some owners took the ‘purrmaid’ moniker further and put little mermaid tail’s on their special needs cats!
Although some cats tolerate this more than others!
So many options
Purrmaids who wear clothes or fabric on their bottom half also need breaks from wearing anything to keep their skin healthy.
But otherwise there is lots of different possibilities of clothing choices depending on a purrmaid cat’s needs.
Some prefer trousers or skirts, while others like Reece prefer to simply wear a diaper most of the time.
Either way, cats like Reece still drag their hind legs behind them in a mermaid-like fashion, making them the cutest mermaids on land.
And thanks to their owners, we get to soak up their cuteness every time a post is made!