After her pet passed, Wren couldn’t stand being in an empty house, which is why she quickly went to the shelter to adopt another cat—but as soon as she got home with her new feline, she knew something “wasn’t normal.”
Wren, who runs the Instagram account @puddlesforbrains, shared in a June 12 video that her new cat, Puddles, started showing unique behaviors soon after finding her new home in April 2024. From not caring about the vacuum noise to being unable to track a toy, Wren ran through a list of possibilities: Is Puddles deaf or blind?
Visits to the vet didn’t provide immediate answers. The cat’s “no-fear instinct” toward loud noises convinced not one, but two veterinarians that she was deaf, Wren told Newsweek via email.
“She is really bad at tracking things with her eyes,” Wren said. “It’s almost like she has tunnel vision and doesn’t use her peripheral vision.”
However, it turned out Puddles has excellent vision. What Wren learned was that Puddles had a learning disability.
“The vet did confirm that she has a learning disability,” she said. “They believe she has some cognitive dysfunction that presents as a learning disability.”
All breeds of cats can experience cognitive dysfunction, also known as kitty dementia, a vet-reviewed article from Catster reported. This disorder usually affects cats 10 years or older, and is characterized by a decline in cognitive abilities such as memory, learning and spatial awareness.
The team believes that Puddles’ cognitive dysfunction was caused by a mix of brain damage, due to an accident that broke her leg, and malnutrition as a kitten, Wren said. But it is impossible to know for certain, as Puddles was a stray kitty for the first six months of her life.
Wren couldn’t imagine a life without Puddles now, quirks and all. She explained that Puddles does not turn her head left or right and rarely looks behind. Instead, she’ll tilt her head backward and look at you upside down.
Her walking routes aren’t always the smartest. She’ll take the slow way, feeling along the walls of the house. And if she wants to turn, she stands up against the wall and uses it to help. Plus, she’s a bit clumsy. She never stops meowing or wanting to cuddle.
“Adopting her is the single best thing to ever happen to me, and I don’t think anything will ever beat that,” Wren said. “She is the love of my life and my soulmate.”
Instagram users quickly became obsessed with Puddles, bringing the video to over 2.3 million views and 305,000 likes as of Friday.
“She is ‘no thoughts, just vibes’ personified and she’s absolutely perfect,” commented a viewer.
Another person added: “It’s so amazing that she has a home where she’s perfectly happy and lives a wonderful life even with her silliness! Y’all are doing a great thing for her.”
A third user wrote: “It honestly didn’t cross my mind that a cat could have a learning disability for some reason. Or maybe I never thought of what this would look like. She’s such a sweetheart.”
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