Miss Moffett’s story started on one very unlucky night 8 years ago when she was hit by a car.
She was tiny – about 4 months old – so it is remarkable she was not killed. It kicked off a series of mistakes that ultimately saved her life.
Mistake #1 – The police officer that picked her up should have taken her to the emergency veterinary clinic that had the contract with the city. But he did not. For some reason, he took her to a different veterinarian that was open 24 hours a day – possibly because that clinic took care of most of the police dogs in the area.
Mistake #2 – The overnight veterinarian admitted her instead of redirecting the officer to the clinic with the contract.
Mistake #3 – There were two organizations with similar names: one was a humane organization that was primarily an advocacy group – it didn’t run a shelter or do direct animal care; the other was the local shelter and operated animal control under the direction of the police department. No one could seem to remember they were two different organizations. As it happened, that morning I had an appointment with the veterinarian who had inherited her care from the overnight shift. I do some volunteer work for the humane organization so the Dr told me about her and asked if I wanted to see her on their behalf as long as I was there.
Mistake #4 – I said yes. We walked back to the ICU and I saw a tiny frightened kitten with an IV catheter in her paw. We looked at the x rays and the medical notes from the night before.
She had a broken humerus (upper front leg) that needed surgical repair. This type of break is not common in cats.
Splinting her leg to let it heal was not an option, which meant using plates and pins in that tiny leg. She was going to need complicated surgery. She also had broken bones in her face, but those were expected to heal on their own. Remarkably she did not have any internal injuries.
The veterinarian staff told me, “We called the office and left a message, but no one has called back yet.” They had correctly called the shelter, but we both thought they had called the humane organization.
Mistake #5 – I took a photo of her and sent it to my contact at the humane organization. If I had not done that, they would never have become aware of her. Animal control would have picked her up and taken her to the shelter for care and that would have been it.
Her injuries went beyond what the shelter could treat, and their budget didn’t allow for complicated expensive surgeries to be performed by outside clinics. She acted like a feral cat, so amputation and re-release were not considered. With no good options, they would have euthanized her. But she was now on our radar and that of the humane organization.
Miss Moffett (Missy) was put on “stray hold” at the shelter. We reached out to one of our favorite veterinarians to see if he could do her surgery. He could and spoke to management to receive permission to do her surgery as a training opportunity for another vet, which lowered the cost substantially. The humane organization called other local cat rescues and raised the necessary funding to cover this reduced surgery fee. Once she completed the stray-hold period, and all the pieces were in place, the shelter transferred her to us and she went straight to surgery.
Since she was a baby, everything was growing quickly. The break was on the equivalent of our upper arm. The bone below the break was displaced up an entire inch. That does not sound like much, but when your whole "arm" is less than 6 inches, and inch is a lot. Basically, the bone had shifted up nearly to her shoulder and had already started to fuse. So, they had to separate it ("rebreak" it), move it down into position, insert a plate to keep it there, and use tiny screws to pin the whole thing together. Everything matched up perfectly - it was a work of art.
Initially, she did not have use of that leg, but the surgeon reassured me that it was not unexpected. The radial nerve gets annoyed when things happen to it and it can shut down temporarily. Once she started to heal, it came back to life and she has had full use of all four legs since.
She probably was a feral kitten – no one ever contacted the shelter looking for her. And, after spending six days with a broken leg, followed by all the medicine, confinement, and vet visits she endured after surgery – she is not a huge fan of people. We put her up for adoption. But not surprisingly, people – while interested in her story –
were not interested in her. So, she stayed with us. She will interact with people on her terms, usually involving food. Most of the time she prefers to hang with other cats. She is very accepting of the rescue cats that move through, although not a fan of rambunctious kittens. She tends to gravitate toward and comfort the older hospice kitties. Her quiet demeanor is comforting to them – she has found her place in the world.
Comments