Bobs Story: I found Bob at PetSmart - he was there as part of an adoption event for a local rescue called Pet Refuge. This was around Labor Day of 2011, and I had been missing having a Maine Coon since my previous Maine Coon (Conrad) passed away suddenly due to HCM on April 21st of 2011. His story was that someone had dumped him, but it wasnt just a matter of dropping him off. They taped him up in a shoe box and left him on the front step one night. No food, no water, nothing to keep him warm - just darkness, abandonment, and fear. I cant imagine how terrifying that was for him. I fell in love with him instantly, but didnt have the time to fill out paperwork on him that day because I had to get back to work. I asked them if they could hold him for me, and they said yes. The next day I filled out an application for him and was approved, and brought him home the day after that. His shelter name was Everton and I found that WAY too formal for him, as he is your typical male Maine Coon - basically a great bog dork in a fur coat. I decided that he looked like a Bob and was going to call him Bob until I thought of something better. I never did, and am glad, because the name suits him perfectly. Unfortunately, his happy ending had a pretty major hiccup about 2 weeks after I got him home. One morning I got up and didnt see Bob around, which worried me, because he normally followed me around the house and chirped at me and headbutted me while I got ready. it bothered me enough that I decided to look for him. I found him hiding under my dresser, and I couldnt coax him out. At this point, I knew something was wrong, so I called into work and told them I was going to be late. I had to reach under the dresser and pull him out, and he YOWLED when I did it. I noticed immediately that he was not putting any weight on his back right leg. I called the vet and told them what was going on and brought him in immediately. It turns out that Bob had somehow managed to break his rotator bone on his leg that sat in the hip socket - I to this day dont know hoe he did it - my guess is that he decided to try to jump up on my half wall that have the stairs to the basement behind it, and he overbalanced and fell down and hit funny on the stairs. The vet said we had 3 options - 1) we could try to let it heal on its own, which may or may not happen, and I would have to keep him locked inside a carrier for 8-12 weeks to see if he healed, then re-evaluate from there. 2) we could do surgery and pin and screw the hip back together. and 3) we could grind the rotator on his leg off and leave it alone. The vet suggested option 3, because it wouldnt cause him arthritis later on in life like pinning would, and it was also less invasive and less expensive than pinning it. Option 1 was NOT an option for me, since I felt that putting him in a small enclosed space for 3 months after what he had been through would just be cruel. I had the hip bone ground off, and from there I had to keep him in a dog crate for about 6 weeks while everything healed. The vet wanted me to do this because they didnt want him running around and didnt want to risk any of the other cats getting hold of his sutures. To make him less scared of being enclosed, I bought an extra large crate. They said it was for dogs, but I cant imagine how big a dog would be to fill this thing up. I often got in the crate with him and closed the door, and there was still plenty of room for me, him, his food and water, his litter box, and his tunnel toy that he loves. After 7 weeks (I wanted to wait another week just to be safe) I was able to let him out and let him be a cat again. He, as you might expect, quickly went back to his job of ruling the roost. He also follows me around every morning and sings to me and tries to trip me. Hes a great cat and a great fit here. He has his quirts though - he often thinks that the camera is a death ray that I am going to use to, I dunno, make him hungry or something...and he also yowls his head off when he has his toy in his mouth. its odd, but its still a sound that makes me super happy.
Posted on: Mon, 26 Jan 2015 14:20:50 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015