The cat pawed at her door, meowing as if to ask for help.

The woman, a foster volunteer with Un Chat à la Fois, a kitten rescue in Quebec, messaged Marie Simard with a photo of the cat. “She said she knew we were not taking adult cats and was looking to help him,” Simard, founder of Un Chat à la Fois, told The Dodo. “As soon as I saw the picture it broke my heart, and I told her to take him to our partner clinic so he could be evaluated.”

“His face said everything that needed to be said,” she added. “He stayed in front of her door for a while, and as soon as I told her to get him, he didn’t try to get away.”

At the clinic, the vet discovered that the cat did indeed need help. He was covered in bite wounds, fleas and ticks and was suffering from frostbite, rotten teeth and diabetes. Simard knew if the stray hadn’t asked for the attention he so desperately needed, there was no way he would have made it through another freezing winter.

Despite his weakened state, the cat was just grateful to be around people again. “He was very nice to the employees at the clinic,” Simard said. “He would take his paw out of the cage at the vet so the people would pet him.”

Simard named the cat Aslan, after the lion in “The Chronicles of Narnia” series. After a few days of treatment at the clinic, Aslan’s health improved and he went to live in a foster home, where he quickly became friends with his new mom’s cats.

Every day, Aslan made sure his foster mom knew just how happy he was to be safe and warm.

“He’s a very affectionate cat,” Simard said. “He likes to sleep close to his foster mom.”

When it came time to find Aslan a forever home, his foster mom couldn’t bring herself to separate him from his new sister and fellow rescue cat, Cleo. “He would just sleep next to her, groom her and she would groom him,” Simard said. “It made sense to have them stay together — two rescue cats who had a tough life.”

A year later, Aslan has turned out to be the best valentine his family could’ve asked for.