A Purr Saves A Life
In August 2009, I saw a tiny, injured kitten where I work. One leg was very swollen and she smelled of the dumpster she lived near. Little did I know, the smell was from more than the dumpster. But when I picked up this tiny, colorful bag of skin and bones, she was purring like mad. I couldn’t leave her to die.
PHOTO: Amy B.When I left work, I had a little box holding a tiny kitten sitting up and looking around at her world. Off to the vet to find the one pound, six week old kitten had a dislocated elbow that was terribly infected.
The infection had eaten away the skin on most of one leg and half of her chest. She was not a pretty picture, but still… she purred.
The vet knew she was a stray and asked what I wanted to do. I said her name is Gaia Rose and she’s mine. He smiled and said we’ll do it. The journey began.
Eight months of twice a month vet visits, sometimes more, creams, compresses, antibiotics, and preparation led to surgery in February of 2010 to remove the leg. The skin would never fully grow back and the muscles were damaged. An entire kitten-hood lived in a cage due to her condition.
After a bout of ringworm brought on by the stress of the surgery, and almost losing her in recovery, she was on her way to enjoying life as a “real” cat instead of a caged one.
PHOTO: Amy B.In July 2014, this little bundle of love and energy will be five years old. She still acts like a kitten and, due to her rough start, she’ll always be kitten-sized at barely six pounds.
She runs on par with all her four legged siblings and can give the boys twice her size a run for their money. She’ll snuggle under the blanket with me, or in my shirt if there’s nothing else, to sleep and she’ll sleep as long as I do most of the time.
Gaia is my tiny miracle and she still purrs like crazy.
Story submitted by Amy B. of Kershaw, South Carolina.
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Life with Milo
We remember it as if it were yesterday! A friend sent us a photograph of a scruffy, scraggly, skinny black kitten with ears too big for its small head. As a matter of fact, he kinda looked like a bat. My husband was allergic to cats and we knew we couldn’t have one. Plus, we already had two rescued dogs, which took up a lot of room in our modestly sized apartment. I kept looking at the black kitten’s photos. I kept throwing hints at my husband, but the answer was always a firm, “NO!”
