A kitten has gone viral for taking her first steps in her new leg braces after her owner said her legs are what almost led her to be put down.
In the video shared to Reddit, the kitten can be seen using pink leg braces to walk up to her owner and take a treat from her hands. Her owner moves the treat around to coax the kitten into taking more steps.
Some of my kitten's first steps thanks to custom leg braces!
byu/CheesecakeFull7886 inaww
"Good girl! There you go!" the woman says in the video as the kitten takes a few steps at a time in the direction of the treat.
The video posted Thursday has since gone viral, amassing more than 2,200 upvotes on the platform as dozens of users cheered on the kitten.
"This is one beautiful and motivated kitty!" one user wrote. Another commented, "Man, this is so great! Happy for you both!"
The kitten's owner, Madison Russell, said that the kitten named Athena was born with feline radial hypoplasia, which caused abnormalities in the bones of her front legs. Athena had been placed on the euthanasia list before she was rescued by a Georgia humane society and adopted by Russell, as reported by Newsweek.
"She still has a long way to go, but with lots of physical therapy she's making huge strides," Russell told Newsweek. "It was very obvious she had serious deformities of her front legs and as a wheelchair user, I immediately felt attached to her and knew she had to be mine."
Russell said she decided to get the custom braces made by an orthotist after Athena's previous way of moving around was giving her spinal issues. The viral video was taken a little over a week after Athena had her braces fitted.
"While she is everything to me, it's amazing to see everyone else loves her too," Russell told the outlet. "She's such a special cat and I've been really lucky to be able to share her story with others."
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