by Lorraine Monfils
Last Friday when I left for work it was a blistering minus-16 degrees. I remember warming up my car and thinking it was way too cold to even be outside. I knew that the weather was going to continue to be quite cold but never thought any thing about.
I came to work and went about my usual routine, it was now 4:30 p.m. and I was getting ready to go home. The phone rang and someone had just found a kitten and it wasn’t in very good shape and it was very cold and hungry.
I said I would wait for her to go ahead and bring the kitten in. At 5:10 p.m. the kitten arrived scared, cold and sick. She kept hissing at us so we were very careful when handling her.
We put her on a heating pad, got her situated and then began cleaning her up. She had an upper respiratory and bad eyes and she also had frostbite. We got her set up on antibiotics and eye ointment.
The frostbite on her ears and tail was something that couldn’t be changed. The damage was done. The vet said not to be surprised to come in one morning and see that part of her ears had fallen off. How sad, that this tiny little girl had to go through being so cold and then to loose part of her ears.
The tip of her tail fell off this morning. It made me very angry to think that she should never have been out there in the first place.
That night I packed her up and took her home with me, so I could monitor her. I was very careful thinking that she would try and bite me, but once she was in my lap wrapped up in an electric blanket she started purring. I scratched her head and she started head butting me and kneading.
Clearly, this kitten had been someone’s cat. The place where she was found is a popular drop off point for stray cats. She had been seen with a sibling, but we never did find the other one.
We named this little buff colored ball of fluff Ameilia. She is approximately four months old and very loveable.
She is on the road to recovery and is doing very well. Her eyes have cleared up and she is putting on weight.
Ameilia will wear her battle scars proudly, knowing that she is a survivor. Frostbite is a painful thing. No animals should be left outside in below zero weather. Please do the right thing and bring your animals inside in extreme weather.
There are so many unwanted animals out there with no place to go, make a difference, give them shelter. A Styrofoam cooler taped together with a small hole large enough for a cat to get in works wonderfully and is a very inexpensive way to help.
Ameilia will officially be up for adoption when she gets a clean bill of health from the vet. If you are interested in giving her a fur ever home please contact Lorraine at the Hollywood Pet Salon 532-7387. Please join us at The Horn restaurant on Jan. 22 and a portion of the night’s proceeds will be donated to assist our continuing care of the animals.
Thank you so much to everyone at Town & Country for raising $1,100 with the wrap it up program all of the proceeds will go to buy food and litter for all of the animals in our care.
Thank you for your continued support and as always thank you for reading our column.
