KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A local medical student will graduate this week and take on a new role helping local patients, but it's his work with animals that has garnered national attention.
You might not recognize Sam Tochtrop, but you may be familiar with his cat, Scooter, who had nearly 55,000 followers on Instagram on Thursday afternoon.
Scooter isn't able to use her back legs due to a spinal deformity, but that hasn't stopped her from being mostly like any other cat.
"Whenever people ask me like, 'Oh, it must be so hard to care for a special-needs cat,' it's like any work that I put into it is returned 10-fold by all the love that she shows me," said Tochtrop, who is graduating Saturday from the Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.
Tochtrop said Scooter, who appears on a surprisingly wide range of merchandise as an "animal influencer," has taught him some valuable lessons for his future career.
