BenBen: How the Saddest Cat on the Internet Became an Instagram Sensation

Some of Instagram’s most popular petfluencers went on quite a journey before becoming internet sensations, and BenBen is the case in point. Dubbed as “the saddest cat on the internet”, his life was quite harrowing before his cat parents gave him his forever home.

BenBen arrived at an animal shelter with crushed spine, several deep lacerations, and a cauliflower ear. He was supposed to be euthanized, but that changed when Sandy Windover, a big-hearted vet technician working at the emergency clinic, decided to adopt him.

Despite the fact that BenBen was in pretty bad shape, Sandy was immediately drawn to him, and her partner Adam felt the same way after she showed him the picture of the adorable kitty.

“My girlfriend and I have a soft spot for animals that aren’t … normal. When I first saw a picture of him at the shelter I said to her, ‘We need him.’ He broke our hearts in every conceivable way. We believed that he needed a chance to live a life,” Adam told The Dodo.

BenBen was supposed to be put down, but this generous couple gave him a second chance at life. It took some time for him to recover, but his demeanor immediately changed once Sandy and Adam took him home, and he grew into a cheerful and happy cat and a true internet sensation, with over 650,000 Instagram followers.