Flipper the kitten has an unlikely group to thank for saving her life: high school students.
Flipper suffers from a twisted spine, a disability that's left her hips and hind legs abnormally rotated at a 90-degree angle to the rest of her body. As a result, notes KDVR, when she "walks," her back legs, turned sideways, can only flop along the ground.
When students in the Blitz Robotic Club at Conifer High School in Conifer, Colo., learned the 9 month-old kitten was slated to be put down as a result of a birth defect, well, they were smitten and decided to help.
They designed several different modes of transportation for the cat, ultimately settling on a sort of "chariot" to relieve the pressure on her hips and help Flipper recover.
Against the odds, the club's efforts have paid off, the Denver Post reports.
"There's been significant improvement," H.C. Gurney, the veterinarian, told the paper. "And that supposedly doesn't happen."
As Mashable's Neha Prakash quips, "So, thanks, Conifer High School, you did the rest of us cat lovers (that means the entire Internet) proud."
Flipper is one of at least two other animals with disabilities that have made the Internets smile this week. Chris P. Bacon, a lovable piglet, won over audiences with his spunk and fashionable wheelchair, and a spirited goldfish made waves with her very practical floating harness.