Teddy’s Cat Tail

It’s late August and I received a phone call early one morning. It’s a developer I know who calls occasionally because he knows RTR rescues. He tells me that there’s an abandoned house of his and the owners have left a cat and a dog. He’s wanting to know if I can go by and check. ‘Of course’, I told him. It’s too hot during the day now to set up and leave the traps open so I head over that afternoon to set up the live traps, hoping we will catch them overnight. TA Da, there’s an animal in the trap! …..Sometimes you never know what you’re going to get!

See that, it’s a little possum..

The little guy does not want to leave but finally goes his own way and I reset the trap that evening. Next AM I roll up to find I am the proud owner of a white and brown-ish cat! How do you spell success, hmm? White and brown-ish? He’s scared but friendly. We go directly to the vet to drop him off. He tests negative for feline aids and leukemia and we are a-go for a neuter later that morning.

I return home and brew a cup of Sumatra and get to work on the computer. It’s about 11:30 and a call comes in. The screen says ‘Lake City Animal Hospital’. Not good I’m thinking knowing that they start surgery at 11:00. But When I answer the vet is animated and excited. ‘Guess what he says?’ Oh no, I’m thinking, but then again he sounds excited? I just say ’What? Which seems like the appropriate response. ‘Well’, he says I did the neuter and all went great and then just when he should have been waking up he went into distress……

After the animated conversation, with lots of questions (by me), it turned out that the little guy did not have a diaphragm! You are going to need to look that up. The vet ended up rearranging some organs and “built” the little feline a new diaphragm. Really, they can do that. Your’e asking why? that happened to him, right? Vet thinks trauma as a kitten most likely….. A short while later meet Teddy in his new home.