He may look relaxed, but Watson the cat lived a rough life before he was left at an animal shelter in Oregon.
His former owners treated him to huge amounts of unhealthy food, then abandoned him when he started having trouble using the litter box. Fortunately he was taken in by a foster family, but they had their work cut out for them.
Watson was unhappy and shy. He wouldn't play with any of the other cats in his foster home, just sat in his room all day. It took over a year for his foster mom, Sheila, to change his life for the better.
The first problem to tackle was Watson's weight. When he came to Sheila's house he was 26 pounds. She put him on a strict diet: half a can of food in the morning, and the other half at night.
She also made him leave his room upstairs and play with the other cats. He didn't want to, but Sheila figured out how to make the trip worthwhile for him.
"I finally convinced him to go down by only feeding him downstairs. He would go halfway, rest on the landing, and continue to the bottom," she wrote on her Facebook page.
Now, Watson is a healthy 15 pounds, and much friendlier. He still likes to lay in the sunshine by the windows, and wakes his owners up early for breakfast, but he also loves to climb things and explore his home.
It's all thanks to Sheila and her dedication to making Watson's life better. He's living with new owners now, but you can still follow his story on his Instagram page.
