Tuesday, July 14, 2009



Meet Edwina. (I promise I won't post anymore gruesome pix. These photos are posted courtesy of Melody Hamilton.©2009.)

It seems that every human Edwina that came in contact with let her down. The seven-month-old kitten had obviously once belonged to people. They never bothered to spay her, and it’s believed that they moved away, leaving her and several other kitties behind in an east Dallas neighborhood. Still, little Edwina loved people and attention. Her trust in humans turned out to be her Achilles’ heel. Despite the fact that sympathetic neighbors put food out, poor Edwina was starving. Still only a kitten herself, she had a belly full of babies. So, every bite of kibble went to nourish them. In her condition, she needed humans all the more.

Then someone, probably a man, called her to him. She came. She was hungry and the stranger meant she might get a good meal. But this gentle white and gray Turkish Van-wannabe didn’t get a meal. He grabbed her, held her down and took a hunting knife to her. I won’t go into the details, but he skinned her, or at least a three by three-inch chunk of skin. She fought back and managed to get away. (People of the Casa View area of east Dallas, be on the lookout for someone who showed up just before July 4th with serious cat bites or scratches on his face or hands. The police need to talk to him.)

Who knows what she did for the next day or two? One can only imagine. Saturday night, July 4th, while the rest of America was celebrating its independence, Edwina was simply celebrating survival. She found herself under a couple’s wood deck, where she cried all night long. Fearing she was stuck, the couple tossed kitty kibble down to her until they could eyeball her the next morning. First thing in the a.m., they pried apart a section of the deck and pulled out the bloody kitten. The couple wrapped her in a towel and placed her in a dry bathtub with a bowl of Meow Mix and some water, which she devoured. They sent for Melody Hamilton, a neighbor involved in pet rescue. Despite her shock at the horrific sight, Melody moved to action, notifying the police and taking “Kitten” to VCA Hospital in Irving, TX. Before Melody left for the vet’s office, another neighbor on a fixed income handed Melody a check to cover the kitten’s urgent care, saying, “My house is paid for, and I could stand to lose a few pounds.” Finally, the rest of the world is on the little kitten’s bandwagon.

At VCA, the vet determined the massive wound wasn’t the result of a car or an animal attack. I’m not going to get more graphic. You get the picture. Kitten’s reconstructive surgery took two hours and required 14 stitches.

Melody, who is highly allergic to cats, put out the word among the Dallas-area rescue community asking for a foster home and a rescue group willing to take “Kitten.” How could I turn her down? I met them both Melody and the kitten when they returned to VCA for her recheck. Even though the kitten had never seen me before, and she was wearing a lampshade to keep her from tampering with her stitches, she found my hand and head-bumped it. I just ached! How could anyone mutilate any creature, let alone one so gentle, and so trusting? While we waited for the vet, Melody and I gave Kitten the official name, “Edwina” after her generous neighbor.

This morning Eddi is in my little infirmary, recovering. Even after everything she’s been through she lives for head scratches, and she loves her food. The rescue group I work with, Animal Allies of Texas, is taking financial responsibility for her future treatments. If you’d like to make a paypal donation toward her care and the care of countless other abandoned animals, go to: www.animalalliesoftexas.org.

I’ll keep you updated on Edwina’s progress, but right now she’s waiting for her breakfast.

Purrs,

Dusty Rainbolt
Member of Cat Writers Association & International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants
Author of Cat Wrangling Made Easy, Kittens For Dummies, Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits, All The Marbles
www.dustyrainbolt.com