We can rebuild him, we can make him more spoiled …
Sometime back, I blogged about extracting a set of kittens from the dumpster out back of Rancho LawDog.
If you click on the photo in that article, you will see that there is a young gentlecat in a tuxedo in the very front of the pile.
Little while ago, Chris found said tux-wearing hairball out by the driveway — with a hernia and an oddly-shaped leg.
Seems he managed to break his back leg fairly spectacularly — right under the growth plate, I’m (professionally) told — before dragging himself back here.
*sigh*
Six hundred bucks for two titanium pins, installation and shots.
And that would be my bed he is currently overtaking and securing for use by friendly forces.
*sigh*
He’s never going to have full use of that leg again.
The dogs are not — I say again my last: not — happy about this.
Considering it’s another hundred to tutor the little maniac, I’m right there with the dogs.
*sigh*
LawDog
You’re a good person.
Just thought I’d say that.
Just be careful he doesn’t get a liking for Sweet Iced Tea like my cat. you’ll never get a chance to drink your own tea. 🙂
Damn, that cat looks amazingly like one I had years ago. If he turns out the same, you won’t regret it. That beast guarded the place better than many dogs could, and a friend once referred to him as a ‘biological hand grenade: shake once and throw at a burglar’.
Yup. You are a good person. Not many people would take care of an injury like that on a cat they didn’t own.
I guess, by the looks of the comfort level on your bed, there is some form of ownership taking place now. 😉
You ole softee.
Hell I would have done the same thing.
Got an animal of the feline persuasion myself. Little thing showed up on the rock wall around the yard in early January two years ago. She thinks she now owns the house, and fusses incessantly if she doesn’t get her way.
Heh. Things would be pretty boring without that pest.
I have a crippled cat much the same condition as this one. She has, for the last fourteen years stolen my heart like no woman ever has. The day she was born she got mangled by a dog and healed up on her own with a busted pelvis. I rescued her from a stables where she was pretty much starving to death as she could not fight her way to the food dish besides the other cats. She walks like a comic version of a runway model when she can get her legs under her. Otherwise she has developed a set of forearms like popeye to drag herself around. In the scheme of things she has realised in her own feline way that she owes her life to the wife and I and has been our faithful little friend. If you decide you dont want the cat you have just repaired I’ll take him off your hands gladly. I like a animal with a little history or if you will ‘provenance’ as far as it’s path down life’s road. Joe
I also own a crippled cat and am willing to take this little guy off your hands. My girlie was chewed up the day she was born by a dog and we rescued her and she is the best darn little friend ever for the last fourteen years. Joe
I agree with other comments. You’re a good person. The little cat must feel safe with you and views you as his protector. Why else would he drag himself back to your place? You’ve probably got a winner there.
CaribbeanJoe
I shall have to regale you with pictures of our very own Thousand Dollar Cat (Scamp) who developed an infection following being spayed.
Multiple trips to the vet, days at a time on IV fluids, hand feeding, hand “cleaning” (that’s a major ‘yuck’ there). She finally started putting on weight, but her matabolism was never right again.
She’s still with us. She has put on a whale of a lot more weight, and it’s really only a matter of time before her metabolism gives up.
We count every year she’s with us as a gift. So far that gift has amortized to $200 per year. She lives another five years and I will consider the $100/year victory complete.
Mr. ‘Dog, welcome to the legions of men with more heart than sense.
You’re in good company.
~~ ArfinGreebly
Hammer, you stole my line!
I volunteer at a cat rescue and, believe me, most people would ignore a cat in such shape. Some might haul it to a vet and have it euthanized. Very few would pay to save it’s life. Bless you.
Dana
That looks like a turkey leg, poor beast.
My Grandma told me that during the depression, there was some sort of mark the hobos put on her fence to let other hobos know this was a kindly house where someone would spare a humble meal. She never knew what the mark was, but they’d always come and sit quietly and politely at the side of the house and gratefully eat whatever was offered. Suspect cats have marked your place in some way. In a rough world, they seem to remember a kindness. How genteel of you to help the little guy.
Six hundred dollars? Cheap at the price!
Our Shadowcat developed an eye problem – we spend one Christmas break giving him eye drops every FOUR hours in the hopes of NOT having to have his eye removed surgically. To the veterinary opthalmic surgeon’s amazement (and who even knew that there WAS such a specialty???), his eye responded to the treatment.
Now, I “only” have to give him an eye drop in his right eye EVERY MORNING AND NIGHT… along with lysine in his food every day.
We do NOT track his cost – how can you put a price on the love that the little furball lavishes on us every day?
It’s only money… you can’t take it with you… and you’ll just have to go make some more…
Those million dollar animals just wiggle their way in, don’t they?
LBC
Aw. What a cute widdle fuzzy-wuzzy.
You’re going straight to Heaven, ‘Dog.
About five years ago, some critter tossed a little white kitten into our yard. Poor little thing had a sprained paw and was scared and skinny. Now, she is my loyal friend and I am her loyal servant. She sees me off to work every day, meets me when I come home in the evening and stays up for me when I have to work late. Pets are the best.
You are a good man Mr. Dog.
Dawg, I sure hope the vet copped that boy’s “gear” when they had him under anesthesia! Otherwise you may not want your bed back!
You are a good soul, Dawg!
Matthew 25:34-46
–Vic303
Everybody else already said this, but it bears repeating – you’re a good man, Mr. Dog.
You’re done. Owned. Pwned. Committed to a life of servitude to a member of the feline persuasion
And you’ll be paid back twenty-fold. Heh. Wait ’til he drools on you out of sheer happiness.
You’ve a good heart, Mr. Dog.
LawDog, I LOVE YOU!!
Semper Fi’
DM
You realize that kindness to stray animals is total chick magnetry, right? 😉
And it will take me the better part of a year to pay off the $719 Ittycat put on my 22.9% interest credit card.
That’s after we had his sister, Psychocat ‘fixed.’ Psychocat is a beautiful critter who inhabits the barnwood benches in the front yard. She’ll allow us to pet her, but that’s about as far as it goes.
Considering that our Anatolian thinks that anything under about 40 pounds that doesn’t smell like a dog is fair game, we are tap-dancing like mad between him, Ittycat and Psychocat.
Not only that, Boo, Dawg’s sister, is violently (as in emergency room) allergic to cats.
How do we get in these situations?
LawMom
How do we get in these situations?
There’s a large “S” (stands for sucker) on your foreheads that only animals can see?
I’ve got it too.
Good people get good pets.
and Dawg
it sounds like you are the type of person that your dog things you are. and good for you.
That $100 for ‘tutoring’ is where you teach the cat how to not procreate, right?
Lawdog, the vet should have offered to harvest the mountain oysters while the cat was unconscious and saved you the cost of anesthesia.
‘Dawg, you’ve a good two-thousand bucks go to to catch up to my Harley.
Hell, he even once had athlete’s *foot* paws! Which took six months of twice daily ointment to whip.
Even now, he needs an annual cortizone shot to suppress his ‘itchy skin’, so he doesn’t lick raw, red hot-spot sores into his striped yellow hide.
But, he’s 14lbs of pure love. Thirteen years old, and still thinks he’s a kitten, too.
Oh, and let me join the chorus here.
You are a good man.
But, we already knew that.
Jim
Sloop New Dawn
Galveston, TX
All of you are kinder than me. I like cats, willing to own and care for one. I like dogs, too, and that can be expensive. In either species , I am not willing to pay hundreds to pin the leg in a stray.
It’s ok that all of you are. Your money, your choice. See, I’m better than Hillary, who will want to decide for you what to do with your money. But for me, there are healthy animals being put to sleep every day, and I can rescue one of them if I need another cat hair machine.
asm826-I’m so glad it’s ok with you for us to spend our money on Ittycat. Since it really is our business, why did you bother to write if not to try to put us and others on a guilt trip?
LM
Ahhh, makes you even more special:-)
You are such a good man, LD. You’ve got a heart of gold. 🙂
The kitty’s beautiful. I’m sure he’ll be very content in your happy home.
Gary is correct.
Hell, Lawdog, a lot of other folks on THR would suggest just shooting the cat or having the vet put him down, but you’re actually helping him?
Damned good guy.
A few years back we had a 130 lb. rottie, that looked like this cat’s twin. (‘cept he didn’t have any white on him). Grif had a torn anterior crutiate. It took nearly a year for him to fully recover after the surgery.
Any man who was that kind to a cat used to go right to the top of my check list points. Men who ‘hate’ cats wouldn’t have gotten along with my independent streak any better.
The only regrettable thing about pets of any stripe is they don’t hang out with us long enough.
That and the canine proclivity for diving head-first into cow patties.
Aw, you big ol’ softie, you! LawDog, you are THE best! You do realize, of course, that now that dapper little dude OWNS you? By the time he gets healed up enough to leave, you won’t be able to get him to go. You have been HAD. Wlecome to the ranks of people owned by cats.
Anonymous,
If it’s just your business, why didn’t you tell that to all the other folks that posted their comments of support?
If Lawdog puts it here, I make the assumption he’s making it public, this being the internet and all. He allows comments. I made one, simply saying I would not have made the same decision. I could see it was a minority opinion, but I post and read his blog enough that I felt comfortable that he would be able to withstand the shock of one person saying that they would not have made the same choice.
It takes a special person to do something like that. God bless you. The world needs more animal lovers in it.
My daughter brought home a stray that liked coffee. She’d stick her paw in my cup and lick off the coffee until it cooled to where she could just lap it up. I finally had to get her her own cup when I got mine so I didn’t have to drink so much damn cat hair. She had to have it in a cup, wouldn’t drink it out of a bowl.
Gerry N.
You are one heck of a soft touch, you know.
Bless you.
assm826
You chose your pseudonym well, considering the sarcasm with which your ‘opinion’ was presented. You did not ‘simply say’ that you wouldn’t have made the same decision.
Good for you, Lawdog. Almost all our dogs and cats started out as strays, some injured, some not. My cat showed up one evening lame in the right rear, so I took him to the Vet emergency care office. $500 to put him right, they told me. What can you do? I paid up, and he’s worth every penny.
Another one to join the chorus here
You’re a good man
I’m also owned by two little fluffballs… one of which could have been that ones twin
“It doesn’t matter if you’re 6 foot 4 and broad of shoulder, if a cat looks at you as the mother figure, YOU”RE IT!!!”
Guess I’m the only one who looked at the header and thought:
Audio FX (boop…boop…boop…boop…)
Audio FX (timpani): poom poom poom poom poom poom poom poom poom POOM poom) (repeats)
NARRATOR: We can rebuild him. Music: waa waa WAA WAA, waa-waa-waa waa waaa waa waaaaaaa…)
Okay, maybe I’m the only one who will type it out loud.
Oh, and I’ll willingly say what others have said:
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga ‘Dawg.
*sigh*
I have 2 of them Dawg. Get used to the high mindedness of the feline race. It has adopted you and deigns to allow you to care for it.
How they seem to be able to do exactly as they wish and get me to go along with it is still a mystery to me.
As for the bed? be happy you don’t have 2 of them! for me, its a chore to get up and go to the bathroom at night since I have one on my feet, one on my chest(left side armpit) and a wife on the right side (armpit)…I have to sleep with the pistol on the nightstand in case of an intruder..I figure by the time he gets to the bedroom I can clear leather and get him…
Still, all in all, they enrich your life so much more when you learn about them on a personal level…cats are folks to, I reckon.
You’re a good man, LawDog. There is a special spot in Heaven for you. (Not that there wasn’t one for you there already!)
Well, anonymous, you started by over-reacting to my comment, taking a fairly light hearted comment to a post way too seriously. I tried to be polite and defuse it, and you came back now deliberately mistyping my name making it an insult. I assure I am neither an ass nor overly opinionated about pet ownership.
Just wait…in about three years that little sucker will have a urinary blockage on a friday night:
Cat unblockage : $300.00
Price to reinsert tube when cat manages to yank it out: $185.00
Weekend stay at the emergency vet clinic: $225.00
Meds, fluids, what-have-you’s: $285.00
Then it’ll be a life’s worth of expensive perscription cat food…
Gotta love ’em.