A pair of Esquimalt cats inexplicably tumble while mid-sprint and look incredibly unsure while taking normal steps, but their limitations haven’t stopped them from amassing over 10,000 followers on Instagram – or from living happy lives.
Charla Stromkins adopted Trooper in mid-2014 after she learned about cerebellar hypoplasia, a condition that affects motor skills resulting in a distinct, wobbly strut.
Stromkins recently added a wobbly companion named Sampson. The duo happily tumble and topple together – unaware of life any other way.
Raising Awareness Through Social Media
After realizing a lack of awareness existed around the condition, she decided to make an Instagram account.
“At first it was just private for my friends. Then people said you need to make it a public account,” Stromkins told CTV Vancouver Island. “Slowly people started following and asking really good questions, there wasn’t a lot of meanness which was really refreshing.”
“The whole point was to stop [such cats] from being mass euthanized. If people understood what they were looking at, they’d be more inclined to see it’s not a sad thing,” said Stromkins. “We know that they’re not in any pain, they don’t know they’re any different, they’re born this way, they adapt so quickly. There’s no reason they can’t have full lives.”
“You don’t need to feel sorry for them,” she said. “They’re just so resilient and I think that we can all learn something from that. If you fall down you just get back up.”
If Trooper and Sampson can do it, you can do it too.
