Tiny kitten beats odds to survive horrific dog bite injuries and find new home
What a difference a whole load of love plus expertise can make
|
Zoey, the eight-month-old ginger kitten, came into the care of RSPCA Putney Animal Hospital in London in March after she was sadly bitten by a dog in her previous home.
She had fractures to her bottom jaw and her cheekbone as well as a bleeding eye and, as she was so young at just 12-weeks-old and the injuries so severe, the staff at the hospital didn’t know if she would make it.
It took weeks of surgery and rehabilitation, including a wire which was put in place to hold her jaw together, to get her back on her paws.
After her treatment at the hospital, she was then transferred to RSPCA Southall but poor Zoey wasn’t out of the woods yet. She had to wait for the wire in her jaw to be removed once her face had healed properly.
The kitten survivor, who was originally named Boudicca after a Roman warrior princess, was then rehomed from RSPCA Southall Cattery in April to Taig and Angila Drummond and their children Ava, 10 and Jaden, 13.
Taig, who lives in Ashford in Middlesex with his family and their cats, said: “Literally as soon as we saw Zoey, we just fell in love with her straight away. After everything she has been through, I thought she would be timid and frail but she’s the opposite. She’s very independent and completely fearless - she chases around our other cat and he’s probably about three times the size of her.
“She is a great testament to the work of the RSPCA. She was completely wrecked when she came in. It’s unbelievable the damage she had and you wouldn’t know looking at her now, you wouldn’t think anything had happened to her.”
Taig also rehomed his five-year-old cat Ronnie from RSPCA Southall previously and adopted Zoey as a friend for him, as well as for him and his family. He added: “She’s well and truly settled in now. My daughter loves her and although she chases Ronnie, they will play together and groom each other sometimes so I think they are starting to get along.”
Watch Zoey's journey
Joanne Elmes, RSPCA Putney hospital administrator, explained that Zoey showed resilience from the start. Just three weeks after coming into the hospital, she was already running around the ward as though determined to make up for the playtime she had missed out on.
“This poor kitten was close to death and in a bad way when she came into the care of the hospital. She had fractures in her bottom jaw and her cheekbone as well as a bleeding eye. She was placed in an intensive care unit cage to recover. Pretty much all of her head, face and neck were affected so she must have been in a lot of pain. After a lot of care, she finally pulled through and thankfully didn’t show any signs of long-term damage.
“We were so worried she wouldn’t make it but then all of a sudden she started to get better and she was determined to run around the ward and just be a normal kitten. It truly is amazing. She is such a special little survivor.”
To help the RSPCA continue rescuing, rehabilitating and rehoming animals in desperate need of care please visit their website.
Like Reading Articles Like This? Help Us Produce More This site remains committed to providing local community news and public interest journalism. Articles such as the one above are integral to what we do. We aim to feature as much as possible on local societies, charities based in the area, fundraising efforts by residents, community-based initiatives and even helping people find missing pets. We’ve always done that and won’t be changing, in fact we’d like to do more. However, the readership that these stories generates is often below that needed to cover the cost of producing them. Our financial resources are limited and the local media environment is intensely competitive so there is a constraint on what we can do. We are therefore asking our readers to consider offering financial support to these efforts. Any money given will help support community and public interest news and the expansion of our coverage in this area. A suggested monthly payment is £8 but we would be grateful for any amount for instance if you think this site offers the equivalent value of a subscription to a daily printed newspaper you may wish to consider £20 per month. If neither of these amounts is suitable for you then contact info@neighbournet.com and we can set up an alternative. All payments are made through a secure web site. One-off donations are also appreciated. Choose The Amount You Wish To Contribute. If you do support us in this way we’d be interested to hear what kind of articles you would like to see more of on the site – send your suggestions to the editor. For businesses we offer the chance to be a corporate sponsor of community content on the site. For £30 plus VAT per month you will be the designated sponsor of at least one article a month with your logo appearing if supplied. If there is a specific community group or initiative you’d like to support we can make sure your sponsorship is featured on related content for a one off payment of £50 plus VAT. All payments are made through a secure web site. |
August 16, 2019
