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.
Hello! Here via the comments at Blue Witch, and couldn’t resist saying how beautiful the TLC is – gorgeously shiny fur! Glad he’s adjusted to life as a tripod – he is clearly thriving.
Three Legged Cat, you are indeed wise in the ways of humans. Your superior knowledge leaves me humbled.
KW: Thanks, he was beautiful! Sadly, I don’t have him any more, the TLC only made it 14 🙁 – but I do still have his equally beautiful 4 legged brother who is nearly 16 🙂
Quite a few people were arriving here via Google searches about cats with only three legs, could they survive, how did you look after them etc, so I thought it was time to blog about my specialist subject.
i think that you will make it
Hi my cats just lost his front leg! we’re not sure how he got hurt, but we’ve all been feeling pretty misrable about it.
But i just read your blog and it made laugh out loud, and i’m now feeling much better and more positive about my newly three legged cat.
Thanks for sharing
El: I hope everything goes well for your cat! Mine struggled at first, and I thought that I was crazy to think he could ever manage, but he recovered so quickly it was amazing. In fact, he came to terms with his 3-leggedness much more quickly than I did.
Good luck!
I was very encouraged to read your blog. My two year old cat was shot with a pellet gun and is facing a probable, most likely amputation of her right front leg. She has always been an outdoor cat. Will she be OK to go back outdoors? We have allergies so she cannot move her indoors. Desperate for words of encouragement. Please advice.
My cat went back outdoors fairly quickly. One problem was that he not only lost a leg, he also injured his remaining back leg, so he wasn’t very mobile for about a week/10 days until he started to heal properly.
The biggest delay was caused by the weather. An amputation seems to involve having a lot of fur shaved off. It was early February and feezing cold, so letting him outdoors wasn’t a possibility, I think he stayed in for nearly two months until he had some fur and the weather warmed up. He was desparate to get outside much sooner than that!
I’ve read someone else’s description of their three-legged cat, Basil who was outside within a matter of days.
I’m sure your cat will be fine to go back outdoors – they will just need a bit of recovery time first.
This made me giggle. We adopted a 3 legged cat from the Sheffield RSPCA earlier this year and I am sure they must have given your advice to her before she left as she is now the most pampered cat. One example of her 3-legged demands – she manages to easily jump up on our window ledges and enjoy laying in the sun however when it comes to getting back down she just sits and meows until she is picked up and put down on the carpet. She has us so sussed!!!
Hey, what a lovely blog you have! I have come across a three legged cat and she is so adorable! We have decided to adopt her even though she has only three legs. She has moved from house to house the past five years… I want to give her the warm and happy place she deserves. We are probably going to pick her up tomorrow evening and I can’t wait. I was a bit curious about the three legs thing but it seems cats can handle pretty well with only three legs! I’ll keep you updated when we picked her up and how she is coping in the house!
Lovely blog, thanks.
Regards,
Rebecca (from the Netherlands)
We adopted our three-legged cat, Sammy, from our local vet at Christmas 2007.
I went to their open-night to see the strays with strict insructions from my husband to “avoid any old crocks”. Sammy pushed his front paw through his cage as I passed and I was immediately captivated. On getting home, I applied female cunning when my husband enquired – “how many legs has he got” with the response – “three and a half!”.
Sammy is very special. Bonding was almost immediate, as he called us to support his eviction of “big ginger” from next door out of our garden.
He has many plusses – It takes 25% less time to clean his paws; 15% less food to ensure his three legs can support his weight; and his vocal abilities are really extensive, presumably, in compensation.
He has developed a targetted precision fall (TPF) into the most comfortable part of the duvet or chair, dispaying an amazing ingenuity.
We wouldn’t be without him.
For all those worried about their cats getting around with three legs… meet Cassidy (yes, he only had 3 when I got him from the RSPCA, aged 2, about 5 years ago). We live in Moss Side in Manchester, in a Corrie-style back-to-back. All the yards are separated by 5-foot walls with pitched tops, but this doesn’t stop Cass, who is missing a front leg and shoulder blade. No, he happily hops along the tops of the walls and into and out of other people’s yards. He can happily jump the width of a garden gate onto the next bit of (pitched-topped) wall. He also once caught a magpie that was bigger than he is, but I’ve never quite figured out how, and thankfully he hasn’t repeated that stunt.
Thanks very much… this was exactly what i needed to hear… My beautiful cat Spike was hit by a car last night, we took him to the vets & after his x-ray this afternoon he had his back right leg amputated.
I feel really sad & i must say, after reading this i feel hopeful he will be as happy & active as he was before his ordeal.
I hope Spike is recovering well. I was amazed at how fast my cat recovered, I thought it would take months, but in fact he was charging about within weeks – and it only took that long because he also had injuries to his remaining back leg.
Spike might just surprise you with a swift recuperation, I hope so.
Best wishes
I too had a 3-legged cat – Louis. He adopted me when I was a veterinary nurse and he was brought in having been hit by a car. Not only did he have his right hind leg amputated, but the nerve damage to his bladder from a fractured pelvis meant he couldn’t wee!! So I spent the next 12 years going out into the garden with him and squeezing his bladder empty (caused much amusement with friends and neighbours). He too made the most of his 3-legged status and, yes, everyone loved him. Mind you he was adorable!
A year ago I found a home for a kitten living in the garden of an empty house who had had his foot bitten off by a dog when he was younger. He used it like a foot and seemed to do well. However the couple separated and I was asked to watch him for a couple of days. I have four dogs, one I would not trust around a cat which is why I can’t keep him. He is living in my bedroom & bath area. Anyway when I picked him up he had 107 temp so I rushed him to the Vet Hosp. where they said he had an infection probably in the bone marrow and amputated his leg (rear)
I brought him here – it has been about 11 days. When he walks slowly he lowers his rear section about half way. When he has run a couple of times he didn’t.
My question is is this usual, will it continue? I want to get him in good enough shape to find him a good home, do you have any idea of how long he will need. Thanks for any advice you can give me.
He is such a loving animal and has been through so much he deserves a special place.
My cat also lost a rear leg & was mobile quickly, but it was several weeks before he moved ‘normally’.
It takes a while because once they have 3 legs, they move differently, so the combination of recovering from the operation, learning ‘new’ movements and building up the muscles took quite a while. He was outside catching birds within three months, but he was 1 year old when it happened, so an older cat might take a bit longer to adapt.
If you want the cat to be able to go to a new home and not need much care & support, then I’d estimate about 3 months. If new owners can offer a bit of help (my cat just got tired and needed to be carried up & downstairs for a while), probably a few weeks will be fine.
Good luck!
Hi, I enjoyed reading your blog and what a beautiful boy he was. I was so sorry to hear he had passed.
I was encouraged to hear that he lved until he was 14 tho. My boy Goldie lost most of his rear leg as a feral kitten, we think it was a snapping turtle. What a kick he is! When he runs full out in the back yard we call him sidewinder because he runs kind of sideways. And like the previous blogger Lucy, he has his own way of getting what he needs help with. We have little sets of steps all over so he can get in windows and up on high things but when he wants to get somewhere that one of the other cats can get to he plops himself right down in front of me and stares at me then stares at where he wants to go. He keeps doing that until he gets his way, which of course he always does.
I was wondering if your guy had a problem with arthritis as he got older? Goldie is 9 now and seems to be moving a bit slower and favoring the 2 legs that bear most of his weight.
hi, i just got a cat from the RSPCA four weeks ago, his third time outdoors he came back in agony. i rushed him to the vets and to cut a long story short he will nearly definately at this moment in time be having his back leg amputated. i feel terrible, poor thing.CAN he live a fulfilled life?
Hello there. Our beautiful Oriental ?Shorthair, Gandalf, just had to have his front leg amputated. He is still adjusting but is doing some pretty amazing things already. Reading your blog really made us smile and gave us hope for him to lead an active, athletic life like he had before.
French Family
thank you so much for this article, it’s really made me smile. my cat has just had one of his back legs amputated (only got him home today!) and hearing your experiences has really given me hope that he’ll be back to his normal michevious self pretty soon, plus he’s already hobbling around and attemping (sucsessfully i may add!) to jump up onto the sofa! thanks :)x
Hi! Our beautiful 2 years old boy Brie had his leg amputated last Thursday and reading your page has made me smile so much……thank you.
Brie had a nasty accident which shredded the tendons on his rear left leg 6 weeks ago, he underwent a major op and 6 weeks in cast only to get a nasty infection. When the vet suggested amputation, we were devastated, we worried about putting our nervy boy through another op and how he would be afterwards. I was so nervous about seeing him last Friday, the day after his op but there was no need – just the day after he managed to run across a room to us to roll on his back and have a tummy rub. We brought him home on Sunday and although he seems to get a little tired and sleeps more often (which could be a side effect of the pain killers and also all the adrenalin that he has been managing recently), touch wood, all seems to be a huge success. He chases his brother and purrs non stop. No falls, he runs up and down the stairs and we are so incredibly proud of him!
We now just wish that we had opted for this 6 weeks ago as we feel now that trying to save it made the process far longer and stressful all round than it needed to be. We are confident that Brie will still have the same quality of life as before. He and his brother Cesar are very precious to us.
Thank you again, I am sorry to hear that Mr TLC is no longer with you but it sounds like he was very lucky to have an owner that loved him as much as you!
Stella limped in one night (almost a year ago now), off to the vets, broken right back leg. Not only broken in one place she manage to break it close to the knee join and then really smash it up further down. Vet tried to do an internal fixation, but her bones were too small so she ended up with a huge external fixation devise on her as well as the little bits of bones wired together.
While she was at the vets she wouldn’t eat unless I went and hand fed her everyday, we made a big cage in the spare room and brought her home (where she didn’t demand to be hand fed), but after 4 weeks it became apparent that there was too much soft tissue damage and there was no blood supply to her foot, so her leg had to be amputated. I found this site the weekend before she had to go back to the vets, it made me laugh and convinced me that she would be OK on three legs. Anyway, she is now a perfectly happy tripod who adapted very quickly (she was 6 when this happened), she manages to run, jump and climb almost as well as she did before. Although she can still climb the tree to get on to the roof, thankfully she has stopped doing her death defying leaps from the roof to the tree, so her human slave have to let her in upstairs.
SupaJ really nice to read your story too. Brie is 4 weeks post op now and doing so well. The only time we really notice his missing leg is when he is sleepy and it all looks a bit of an effort, possibly because this is the only time he walks / hops – the rest of the time he runs everywhere. We are so proud of our 3 legged cat and it is so nice that his lovely personality has returned too. We just want his fur to hurry up and grow back, in the meantime his brother has a tendancy to lye across the baldy bit to keep it warm for him!!
Thanks for this little blog. My 18 year old cat Megan just had her rear right leg amputated this afternoon. She fell 30 feet onto a concrete floor a couple of weeks ago and has been contained in a cage ever since so that her broken leg could begin to set again. Unfortunately her leg broke again this morning, at the point where one of the pins was securing her fragile thigh bone.
It was a bit hard for me to make the decision to get her leg amputated – especially at her grand old age – but l’m hopeful that she will be up and about again very shortly. She’s a stubborn little minx so will hopefully make a good recovery. Reading everyone’s stories here makes me feel more optimistic than l did just a few hours ago.
Jenny – Thanks for posting your story too. My cat is 16 and I’ve been agonizing if he’s too old to have his front leg amputated. He has a cancerous tumor in his shoulder and the only treatment is complete removal. I’ve researched what I can but yours is one of the first of an older cat having such a procedure. I hope you’ll be able to tell me how Megan is doing.
Jenny & Cindy
I know our puss is a lot younger than yours but I cannot say enough how happy he is now! The weeks when he was in plaster casts and unwell were terrible and he became like a different cat. Admittedly for a week after we opted for amputation he was pretty quiet and sleepy (prob a lot to do with the drugs) but he soon got back to himself and now has exactly the same life that he had before – he even goes outside and manages the 6ft fence to invade next door’s garden.
I hope that Megan is doing OK post-op, would be interesting to hear.
Good luck ladies and big strokes to your cats.
Hello again, Megan is doing well after her operation. The scar wasn’t as frightening as l thought and she does seem to be taking it all in her stride (no pun intended!). She’s a bit sleepy and doesn’t want to eat very much, but drinks a good amount of water.
I keep her in the cage during the day when l am out at work and take her to bed with me in the evening. She seems more comfortable than she did when she had the external fixator on her leg and can stand up well enough to get in to her litter tray and do “the business”.
I haven’t wanted to test her walking ability too much yet until she gets her check-up at the vets tomorrow. The vet thought she probably has osteoporosis (which is why the leg wasn’t healing too well)
so l’ll have to keep a close eye on her as l’m as she’s never been one to learn from her mistakes!
Jenny
The wound really isn’t too bad is it? 2 months on Brie’s fur has nearly grown back (just a fraction shorter than the rest of it) and you will find that within weeks there really is nothing to see on the wound front, they heal so well.
I guess where Megan is an older puss it may take her longer to adapt, Brie was running round just 2 days after (although did get his legs tangled every now and then). As soon as Brie came off the painkillers (1 week after op), he was less sleepy and far more co-ordinated. I would try and get her walking though because the sooner she is up and about the sooner she can get used to it. We didn’t even use a cage but you know what is best for your cat.
Keep me posted, it would be nice to hear her progress. This was a such a major thing for us and it is so nice being in a position now where life really has gone back to normal, we have a pain free cat and like Brie, Megan will adapt so well.
Good luck!
I use the cage just to prevent her from getting herself into any further situations whilst l am out at work. Meg is a klutz and likes to pull things over and get herself trapped in little cubby holes, so l thought it best to minimise those opportunities, at least initially.
She’s coming on leaps and bounds in the last 24 hrs, asking to go out in the garden and nearly putting the fear of god into me when she suddenly launched herself up the side of my bed – struggling only for a moment before dragging herself up onto the duvet for a well deserved nap.
She will have her stitches removed next monday. 🙂
Megan seems oblivious to her age and any limitations, so l think that perhaps your cat will be the same once he has had his operation Cindy.
Thank you for the supportive comments; l’ll let you know how she gets on. 🙂
hi, recently my 18 year old cat was mauled by two dogs and had to have his back left leg amputated. At first he slept all the time, but he has become braver, and is now returned back to his normal life. He is an outdoor cat which i thought would be worse, as he would have to learn how to use a litter tray, and stay in all the time, but he has adapted really well to having three legs, and now he hops around with ease. Seriously, 3 legged cats are better! they are so much cuter and cuddlier!
my cat was caught in a leg trap last week and will be having her leg amputated tomorrow. I am happy that other cats have survived this and are well. Wish us luck
These are very inspirational stories! My 12 year old cat Buddy is getting his rear leg amputated this morning. I was worried at first as to how he would adjust, but it seems as if cats do very well with only 3 legs, with the help of a little extra love and encouragement from their owners. 🙂 Best of luck!
Hi Amanda, hi Tamra – just spotted your comments. Hope everything is going well for your cats.
Hi all, thank god for this lovely website and all your posts. It really did put a smile on my face as well. My little cat Tequila (17 years) will have to have her left hind leg amputated first thing tomorrow due to a cancerous tumour. I was seriously worried and wondered whether I have made the right decision and if there is still quality of life for her after that (the other alternative was to put her to sleep). She is very slight and does sleep a lot on her favourite garden bench so this will hopefully help. I have already got little steps & stairs for her as she was a little wobbly recently but is there anything else I can do to make her new life on 3 legs easier? (apart from loads of TLC and little bits of salmon)
Manuela and Tequila
Hope the op has gone well, I think that a caring owner is what she needs most! Brie really was fine soon after, the painkillers made him very groggy for a few days but he certainly appreciated some good food. Don’t be surprised if Tequila may seem a bit reserved for a while. The main piece of advice I would give is to stay calm, one day whilst still rather groggy Brie slipped on the kitchen floor (I had stupidly just washed it) and I reacted really badly and panicked him which meant he struggled to get up – it was horrible, I wish I had stayed calmer which would have been far more helpful. Keep us posted, I am sure it you will find that Tequila adapts fast and well (it will definitely help that she is slight!!).
Hi Kate & Brie,
Thank you for the kind words, it’s good to know you’re not on your own in this. I brought Tequila to the Vet early this morning and then got a call at 12h30 to tell me that she is awake and very cantankerous (that’s my girl :o). BIGGEST RELIEF EVER; I really wasn’t sure if she would make it considering her age and heart problems and had already mentally said goodbye last night. I was even able to pick her up this afternoon (after hovering and washing all floors). I have to admit I was pretty horrified to see the dreaded scar and it broke my heart to see her stumbling about but hey, she made it and that’s what matters. The vet sent off a sample of the tissue and lymph node for test so we should know by end of next week whether it was cancer and how far it has spread.
She is obviously in pain and can’t get comfortable on the left side, where the scar is. The vet gave me some extra painkiller ready in a syringe but I think she’ll be ok. She has already wolfed down her food (bland chicken) and charmed me out of two spoon full of cheese cake (bad, I know) and have been sitting with her all afternoon outside in the garden on her favourite bench in the sun, holding her paw and making sure she doesn’t nibble on her stitches.
I guess we’ll have to see how she is doing over night and tomorrow and then take each step at a time so to speak. I will keep you posted.
Cheeio,
Manuela & Tequila aka Tripod
Glad to hear Tequila’s op went well. The scar looks bad at first, but it’s amazing how quickly it starts to heal. Hope things are still going well for you!
Hi Lois,
First of all Big Thank you again for this webpage, it really did help me through a few dark hours.
Yes, Tequila is still very tired (she is 17 after all) but she seems to be coping ok, well certainly better than I do.I think she enjoys having me around 24/7. Her belly still looks very bruised but she has got no fever or swelling which is good. I think it is me who struggling more with the whole thing; it breaks my heart seeing her wobbling about like that but then I try to remind myself what the alternative would have been.
Did anyone else have the same experience (or am I just one big wuss?)
Regards,
Manuela & Tequila
I had exactly the same experience, I think most people who experience this would say the same.
When my cat came home badly injured and had to lose what was left of his leg, he coped pretty well. I didn’t, I was a nervous wreck. My cat quickly realised that looking a bit sad and pathetic would have me rushing to help him, something that continued for many years afterwards (he had me well trained).
I’m sure you’re finding it hard at the moment, but hang on in there. The first few days after the op are pretty awful. Things do improve – three months after his amputation, my cat dragged a dead bird in through the cat flap. Must’ve been a pretty stupid bird (my cat wasn’t that agile), but still, pretty unbelievable that in such a short time he’d gone from needing to be helped to move about to going out hunting.
My oriental lilac cat JJ is 9 soon and has had a very eventful life as a show cat and family pet. He is a popular character in the neighbourhood and everyone knows him. So far he has survived pancreatitis, cat flu and a fortnight of being lost in a January snowstorm living rough. Recently he was diagnosed with asthma so is on inhalers too. 10 days ago he was cornered by a feral tomcat in next door’s garden and in trying to escape cut his back leg on wire or something. He severed his tendons and despite the best of care, will have his leg amputated at the ‘elbow’ tomorrow as the wound has broken down and is necrotising and the toes are cold. Having got over the initial shock and shed a few tears I was inspired by the comments here. There is life as a TLC after all!
Hi Anne & JJ,
I was in your shoes just under a week ago so it is still all fresh and I can totally relay to what you are going through at the moment. Hang in there, it sounds terrible, it certainly looks terrible and it will break you heart seeing your beloved cat having to go through amputation, but trust me, there is light at the end of the tunnel. If your JJ is anything like my old cantankerous Tequila (17!), and he does sound like a real trooper, he will cope just brilliantly. Tequila had her rear leg amputated just last Thursday and is already purring on her prime position on the sofa, being served custard and other goodies and enjoying being the centre of attention of her mummy (I’ve got 5 cats) whilst I am still struggling to come to terms with it. (Lois, you were soooo right, they got us completely figured out!) Cats are amazing creatures, so be prepared to be amazed how well they cope. Good luck to you two and keep us posted how the op went.
We’ll keep everything crossed
Manuela & Tequila aka Tripod
Manuela, thank you that is so kind. I have cried on a cat-loving neighbour’s shoulder and had a glass of wine and the world doesn’t seem so dismal anymore. I feel more reassured that there is a whole lot of life left in JJ even with just three legs. Now to give my other two orientals a cuddle, they have been very much neglected this week.
JJ post op is fine – a bit cross at the stitches and had pulled out his drip but was so pleased to see me he nearly leapt out of the cage and urinated all down my top. Spent a long time fussing him and will collect him tomorrow to spend the next 10 days in a crate to isolate him from my other two orientals till he gets back to his usual feisty self. The leg has been taken off right at the top so he is a very wobbly moggy. I am glad I looked at some pictures first to prepare me for the shock. Reading all these stories is so supportive and inspiring. My vet is an absolute sweetie and said he looks upon amputation as a ‘failure’ on his part but there were 2 lots of aerobic bacteria that had got into the wound and the major blood vessel as well as the tendons were severed – so he had no chance really of saving the leg. I feel if it has been a huge success as JJ now has some quality of life.
Hi Anne,
I was actually thinking about you guys all day, hoping it all went well. From what I have read, taking off the whole leg rather than a part is actually better for the cat as it will restrict their movements far less, i.e. they won’t try to use the stump. Little old Tequila did actually walk down from the sofa to her food ball so smoothly today that I didn’t notice any wobbles.. and that’s just in less than one week. Am so proud of the old girl. She has only tried to bite her stitches once or twice, which is still better than a collar I think. See how you get on with keeping JJ in a crate; you might not even need it. I have placed Tequila on our sofa and when the weather is nice, I put her on her garden bench outside. The other 4 cats have so far been really good and left her to her own devices. Maybe just keeping him in a separate room to your other two orientals will help and just see how they behave with him under your watchful eyes?
Keep us posted,
Manuela & Tequila (half Siamese/ half Heinz57 mix) aka Tripod
Ah thank you for your concern, that is kind. It is so reassuring to hear other success stories, I don’t know how I would have coped otherwise. Isn’t it silly to think it’s only happening to us – well I did anyway LOL. But the vet said he’d had to amputate a leg after a cat was caught in a trap yesterday so these things must be so commonplace. Hope I can pass on my experiences to the next newbie on here.
Tequila sounds as though she is really on the mend, that is good news. I’m just wondering how JJ will cppe in the cat tray, should I just leave him to it and sit on my hands watching him falling all over the place, or wade in and hold him up? That’s why I want to crate him for a bit as despite having several open and covered trays scattered throughout the house they all tend to use the same one – (why do cats rush in crosslegged to pee on the tray when they could just as easily water the shrubbery?)
Hi there,
it’s so interesting to hear everyone elses slightly different stories on here. I thought l’d leave an update on how Megan got on. After a bold start to her recovery (running out into the garden and climbing a huge stairway) Megan kind of fell into a bit of a depression for a few weeks. She wouldn’t leave her bed, except to do her business and eat, and couldn’t be tempted to come to bed or sit on anyone’s lap for more than a few minutes. She would just find a way to slip off and go back to her bed by the radiator and sit there quietly.
After a few weeks of this l moved her food bowls out of the room, forcing her to walk a bit further to eat and drink. This seemed to snap her out of it a bit and she’s gradually been becoming more like her old self again – waking me at four in the morning to say “Hi” and jumping up on the sofa as soon as l sit on it. 🙂
I think she just suddenly realised that things weren’t going to be quite the way they were before and had to take some time to maybe accept that. She doesn’t seem to want to go out into the garden anymore, though she will sit on the step and just watch what’s going on out there. On the plus side, she’s alot more cheerful and vocal again and will now happily lay on my bed all day long. 🙂
My mum also made her a huge catnip cushion to lay on and that made her reaallly happy. 🙂
Hope all the other pussy-cats are all recovering well.
It’s good to be reminded that it will generally be two steps forward and one back – no pun intended! I am expecting depression to set in once JJ realises he may not be gallivanting over the rooftops ever again. Actually it might be good if JJ slowed down a bit and became more of a watcher than an adventurer.
I got JJ home today complete with plastic collar as he was chewing his stitches and two lots of antibiotics as he had anaerobic bacteria in his original wound. I let him out of his crate once he’d settled back home and he went to the back door mat for a good scratch, falling over in the process. He then had a wander round the living room to check it was still there. Put him back in the crate so he doesn’t get too much excitement. I’ve put a blanket by the crate and tied a rawhide chew to a ribbon and dangled it inside his pen. Jaspurr my Havana oriental is entertaining him by batting at it through the bars so he has company. And a new catnip mouse. At present the back door is open and he can watch the birds in the garden and the rain!
Hi Anne & All,
Just got back from the Vet with Tequila for her first check. The good news.. the scar is healing nicely and Tequila seems to cope well. The bad news.. the tests came back, Tequila has got Lymphoma and the cancer has spread beyond the amputated leg. The vet can’t tell me how much longer Tequila has, a friend of mine hinted at 4-6 weeks. What a bummer :o( The last alternative would be to do Chemotherapy but I have been there before and don’t want to put Tequila through this hell, she has really been through enough. So we decided to ignore the bad news and make the most of her time left with us with cuddles, minced meat treats and loads of TLC.
A very sad Me & Tequila aka Tripod
Oh no! That’s an absolute b*mmer if you’ll pardon the English vernacular.
You’ve both been through so much already and now back on the roller-coaster ride.Tequila won’t know what is going to happen so just keep on with the loving kindness. There will come a time when she will tell you herself that she’s ready to go. And I am sure there are folk here that will be there for you for your own support.
What rotten bad luck…
Oh Manuela, I’m so sorry to hear that! That really is very bad luck. I know you’ll make the most of your time with Tequila, but however long we have our cats for, it’s never enough is it?