The day Hope Hollandsworth saw a tiny shelter kitten in a custom wheelchair, she knew she wanted him.
“He was just so cute,” Hollandsworth said of the kitten, Gelato, whose wheelchair was made by shelter staff out of Hot Wheels cars and wooden rulers.
She first saw a photo of Gelato in the summer, a few weeks after the kitten arrived at a Cincinnati animal shelter as a stray with a lower-back injury that prevented him from using his hind legs. Gelato was too small for the shelter’s wheelchairs, so Cincinnati Animal Care employees improvised.
Hollandsworth, a 28-year-old tattoo artist, has two cats who have use of only their forelegs due to spinal injuries: Bread Crumb, 1, and Sprinkles, about 5 months. Hollandsworth said she wanted her cats to have “an additional cuddle buddy.”
She met Gelato, who now uses a more stable and traditional wheelchair, at the shelter Monday afternoon and took him home. The kitten, about 5 months old, spent his first night there sleeping in Hollandsworth’s arms.
Gelato will continue therapy with the hope that he will regain use of his back legs.
“Either way he’ll be perfect to me,” Hollandsworth said.
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