Meeseeks and his siblings seemed to be doing well, until one day when the entire litter was diagnosed with feline distemper, a potentially deadly disease that some kittens do not survive. Miraculously, all six kittens were able to pull through, and eventually it was time to put the entire cat family up for adoption. When it came time to say goodbye, though, there was one kitten that Kruczynski couldn’t part with, and that was little Meeseeks.

“The day we went to the shelter to say our goodbyes, I hesitated,” Kruczynski said. “I’d never hesitated before. He looked up at me from the mass of fluffy siblings in his carrier and basically signed the adoption papers himself.”

While all of his siblings recovered normally from their feline distemper, Meeseeks never seemed quite right in the following weeks. He started vomiting daily, and eventually began having severe respiratory problems. It soon became clear that there was something serious going on with him, but test after test came up with nothing, and his new family was at a complete loss. They were already so in love with the unique little kitten, and they knew they had to do everything they could to help him pull through.

After being misdiagnosed with cancer and incorrectly given very little time left to live, Meeseeks was finally diagnosed with feline gastrointestinal eosinophilic sclerosing fibroplasia. While the disease is newly discovered and not a lot is known about it, it’s something that Meeseeks is able to live with through the help of his vets and his family, and for that everyone is so grateful.