The Cats Part 5: Icy

In January 2007 a terrible ice storm hit the Springfield area. The clinic I work at spent 11 days without power. Towards the end of the first week someone showed up with a cat they had found-they reported she had not ate, drank, or moved since they picked her up the day before. They had no money to take care of her and if we didn't take her they said they would just put her back where whey found her. We couldn't let her be put back in the cold to suffer and die so we decided even if we had to put her to sleep we would take her. Since the week had been so miserable already the staff asked if we could please try to help her instead of put her down-I agreed we would try to save her. It didn't hurt that she looked oddly similar to Squall but with long hair. The stray cat had a broken jaw, broken teeth, missing teeth and something clearly wrong with her pelvis but since we could not take an x-ray we didn't know how bad it was. She also had fleas and intestinal parasites and was dehydrated. So we started with what needed to be done first. We put her under anesthesia and since the afternoon light was fading I wired her jaw back together by flashlight. We started her on pain medication and antibiotics, treated her for parasites and gave her some fluids. "Broken Kitty" started purring over the next few days as we carried her around in litter box we had made into a bed. Even though she found it very hard to walk she only failed to drag herself in and out of her actual litter box one time!

When the power came back on we found that her pelvis was fractured in 3 places but in such a way that didn't need surgery-just rest. So for 4 weeks the broken kitty-now "Icy" lived confined in our bathroom. Every time we went in to check on her you could hear her start to purr and she would hobble over and sit in my lap. It didn't take long to get attached to her but she was very afraid of dogs. We worried that she would not fit in here but in time she learned not to be afraid-of anything!

Icy made a full recovery and even had her broken tooth root canaled! She goes everywhere she wants in the house-including places we would rather she not go and places Jelly has never dreamed of going. She gets into a lot of stuff she shouldn't and has broken a few things. She is not afraid of the dogs or the vacuum or anything else, even if she should be. She does not appear to be a particularly smart cat (she sleeps on the edge of everything, has fallen off several pieces of furniture trying to do stuff she shouldn't, and will fall asleep sitting up) but makes up for it with sweetness (she's very loveable and cuddly) and cuteness. We just blame her "specialness" on her head trauma!

Icy loves to pose for pictures, get in the way when we are doing stuff, harass Jelly, and snuggle. She likes everybody but is mostly "my" cat. We never let her outside-she has survived so much already. She and Jelly are our house cat princesses.

We don't know if she was separated from her family during the ice storm or if she had already been a stray cat but no one ever came looking for her. I probably would not have given her back anyway!