Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Where there is a Will, there is a way.
A few weeks ago, at 5pm on a Thursday, HG came in to tell me that someone dumped a cat in a laundry basket out front and drove off. Unfortunately, this is fairly typical. The atypical part was that the cat has a wound and could I come see it. When I got to the cat, the wound was in fact a large (inch and a half) hole in his stomach area that was now completely covered in puss. It was one of the most disgusting things I had seen in a while. And the smell was pretty bad too. Legally, we can euthanize a stray cat if the pain and suffering are so great there is no way to stablize him or her, but that wasn't the case with this one. I knew we could help. So I picked up the cat, walked over to our clinic and said, "I need help!" Unfortunately, our vet had just left for the night. Our Veterinary Services Manager, who also happens to be a Registered Veterinary Techinician got her on the phone and was walked through what to do. She cleaned the wound, with JY and my help, gave him a little pain killer and bandaged him up. He would be safe until morning.
First thing the next morning, our doctor checked him out, cleaned it again, did surgery to fix him right up and let him recovery in the clinic. Two days later, with the exception of the huge sutures that criss-crossed his abdomen, you couldn't tell what he had been through. We kept in him the shelter and notified animal control that we had him in case someone was looking for him (which we doubted.) When he was fully recovered and his stray hold was over, we got him neutered and put him up for adoption.
I had almost forgotten about him when yesterday I was walking by the cat cages and heard a volunteer talking baby talk to one of the cats. She was sweetly whispering to a small black cat, "Did you have a little Owchie? Poor sweet baby. You'll be ok." I turned to see who she was talking to and there was Will. Happy as a clam, shaved tummy and all, purring up a storm in the volunteer's arm. This cat didn't know how lucky he was. VT named him Will because where there is a Will there is a way.
