Posted by: Lois Lindemann on: January 13th, 2008 
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Should you become a three legged cat you will still be able to enjoy your pampered cat lifestyle. Here is some advice for the newly three-legged cat:
1. Prepare to become a local legend
Everybody loves three legged cats. Absolutely everybody. Even the man next door who didn’t like you at all when you had four legs will say “Ah!”. Make the most of your fame and use it to your advantage.
Train the paperboy. He will think you are so cute that he will turn up with little treats for you hidden in his pockets, you will hardly be able to keep up with him as he does his round because you have to keep stopping to eat them.
The two children across the road will fall in love with you and worship you. Allow them to pet you, then they will feed you bits of chocolate biscuit when they think no-one is looking.
When your human pet has gone to work, hang around looking very sad and neglected. You will be able to persuade the nice lady who lives up the road to set out early for work, just so that she can stop and make a fuss of you. When you sneak into her house later on, she will feed you little dishes of tuna fish, allow you to sleep in front of her fire and play with her own cat’s toys.
2. You will discover just how stupid some humans can be
Some foolish people will completely fail to notice that you only have three legs. They will make stupid remarks such as “I think your cat’s limping, is he alright?” Do these humans really think that you can’t run about on three legs? They seem to manage, even though they only have two. Do not allow these idiots to rub your ears, for they are not worthy of it.
3. Develop some new climbing techniques
At home, you may need to be more imaginative. When your human pet thinks that an unattended dish of trifle is out of your reach, you can prove her wrong, by climbing onto a chair, then jumping onto the table, before finally launching yourself at the work surface. Mmm custard, your favourite thing in the world…
However, it is best if you do not attempt to climb any tall trees, this will result in an undignified failure. Instead hang around on the ground looking disinterested and mock the four legged cats who attain more height, but who look most ungainly as they clamber upwards.
4. Play cat and mouse.
Hunting birds is more difficult when you have only three legs, it is so much more effort to leap in the air. You may prefer to develop a taste for mice instead. When you get really old and lazy you might even try hunting worms. Or slugs. (But don’t let your human pet see you do that, or she will shout “Yuk!” and decline to cuddle you.)
5. Train your human pet to pander to your every whim
Your human pets will worry greatly about your three legged status and will be acutely aware of your every difficulty, so make the most of their feelings of guilt and use them to your advantage.
In the first weeks after your operation, decline to eat anything apart from the finest cuts of meat. Your humans will be extremely vexed about your health and will happily serve your choice of food.
When you begin to recover, pull your claws wildly on the carpet of the bottom step of the stair and on the base of the sofa until your dozy humans get the message and provide you with recumbent scratching facilities.
Once you are fully mobile, remember to look as if you are struggling from time to time, this will allow you to keep your human pets’ undivided attention. If you see one of them walking home laden with as much shopping as they can carry, hop out pathetically to meet them, making sure that you appear to be struggling to walk, then ride home in state, sitting on their shoulder whilst chuckling inwardly at how much they are struggling to carry you and all those bags. Once you have reached home in this manner and been placed gently back at ground level, run off at top speed with no difficulty whatsoever.
You will quickly discover that your three-leggedness is not necessarily a disadvantage as some humans might think; in fact it often makes it much easier for you to train the local humans to worship you and do your bidding.
Dear All
I have posted on this site before, re my beautiful boy Brie who had his rear leg removed 2 years ago now. Brie is only 5 and the loss of his leg has not held him back at all, still jumps 6 foot fences etc etc – he is such a clever boy.
I write for my advice because we are feeling desperately sad at the prospect that we may need to rehome our little one. Soon after Brie’s op, our daughter Emily arrived. Brie has never coped well with this. Despite all our efforts, he has never been anywhere near her and is positively petrified of her. If he even hears her he hides. We have tried plug in calmers, sprays. You name it. Brie is so so scared of children yet with adults he is loving and very sociable.
It breaks our hearts seeing him so stressed in his own home and having battled with this for 18 months we are starting to think that he needs a new home where there are no children, where he will get lots of adult fuss and be able to play outside lots.
We are not willing to put him into a centre, I will not have him live in a cage waiting for a new home so we are trying to find him a suitable home whilst keeping him as content with us as possible. If anybody would like another (very gorgeous and special) tripod or knows of anybody who could offer our Brie a loving hom then please please let me know.
Thanks, love, strokes and purrs to your furry babies xx
it might help to say where you are located….
We are located in Kent, and for the purrrfect home we would take Brie anywhere. If we didn’t find somewhere that suited him just right then we would obviously keep him and love him forever. We just feel guilty knowing that we just dont offer him the right home anymore and I can’t just ignore that. xx
Kate, I think that each cat, being different, has their preferances to who they are comfortable around. I have an 11 year old niece that my cats are terrified of. It breaks her heart because she is such a cat person. But my cats have never been around children and will hide at the first sight of anything that looks smaller than an adult. Your boy apparently just has an inate fear of little people. My heart goes out to you because the thought of having to part with my tripod would break my heart but I know that you are just looking out for the best interest of both of your babies. Keep your chin up, I’m sure that there is someone out there that will be willing to take your sweet furr baby in and love him as dearly as you do. I would love to try to help but I live in Michigan in the USA. So for now, all I can do is give Hugs to you from Sonja & Tre’pod.
Is that Kent, Ohio?
Kent, UK I am afraid x
This website is fantastic. It’s truly inspiring that so many people out there care for and love their cats so much. Our little boy Dylan had a climbing accident a fortnight ago. He’s six years old. Despite the very best veterinary care his front left leg was so badly damaged, the only option left open to us was to have it amputated. A truly terrifying decision to have to make. I started researching information on the web to see just what we were doing to him. Were we making the right decision? The stories on here convinced me we were. Consequently, he had his operation last Thursday and came home to us on Monday of this week. Although we are devastated, he appears quite relaxed and cool about the whole episode. He appeared to be more concerned about the collar around his head and the fact he couldn’t have a wash than the fact he now only has three legs. Generally speaking he appears to be very well. He has already figured out a few things we thought would be a challenge so he’s not letting the grass grow under his feet. It’s very early days for him right now and he hasn’t been outside yet. I’m worried he might have another mishap but I guess we’re just going to have to let him get on with life and see how he fairs. If he makes the full recovery we hope for and settles back down and enjoys life we will be incredibly blessed and lucky. Like a lot of the cats described on this site, he’s also a fabulous character and we love him dearly. Your messages are inspiring and I hope we get the same type of outcome that a lot of you guys have done.
Hey Rob, Welcome to the family! One of our members was told by her vet that you are not doing this to them, but you are doing this for them. It is an incredibly hard decision to make but you will truly be amazed at the way Dylan quickly adapts to being a tripod. He’s still young and strong and he’ll recover quickly and will find his new normal before you know it. The one thing I found with a front leg amputation is that it is harder to get down off of things because all that weight ends up on one leg and because it is harder to balance. We put “steps” all over the place. My husband built steps to put beside the bed which is very high, there is lugs & crates around and we just found a platform that has steps & a drawer for under the window. This will be a learning experience for you both, best advice, just go with it. Watch Dylan to see where he needs help and just put things there and you’ll be amazed at how quickly he’ll realize that it’s there for him. Our furr babies are very adaptable & adjust so much better than we humans do. Stay positive, he’ll feed on your attitude and if you have an attitude that he can do anything, he’ll feel the same way and he’ll be back to normal before you know it. Hugs to you and please keep us posted on his progress. Sonja & Tre’pod
Wow! I’m going to pray for your little cat to find a new home.
I’m in the United States, New York
Ella Catticus had to have her left front limb amputated in late November.
I truly believe I suffered more emotional damage than the cat.
Ella’s moto, “less to worry about, more things to do!”
I often worry about her head first landings but apparently nothing is too uncomfortably high for her
Like others, i put some steps around, not that she uses them:)
Just love your cat and he’ll be recovered before you know it!
Sarah and Ella Catticus
If this worked, this is my Roxie. She’s still doing awesome!
it worked, shes beautiful!
Kim, Roxie is beautiful and does remind me of my Frida. I’m glad that she is recuperating nicely!!!!
Thank you for sharing the photo!