To Lift Your Spirit.

Our Miracle

Our Rescues Name

I'd like to share the story of Spirit with you..

About 18 months ago I found a black and white adolescent cat walking in circles and meowing on the street in front of my yard. He was in bad shape. My heart broke for him. He looked like he had been hit by a car and maybe had some sort of disease. To protect the other cats in our rescue, I couldn't risk bringing him inside, but I couldn't just let him roam hopelessly on the street only to die slowly or fall prey to another animal. I managed to catch him in a blanket and took him to my vet knowing that I was going to put him to sleep. He was so frail, I could feel his bones through the blanket.

I asked the vet to take a look at him before we were to put him down. I just had to ask, can he be saved? Is there anything that I can do for him? In the 10 minute car ride I was already bonding to him. I am such a sucker!

After the exam, we realized that this poor boy, estimated to be about 10 months old, was not hit by a car, but was brutally attacked. Someone hurt him and left him for dead. He had blunt force trauma on his head and face which caused injury to his eye, broken nose, missing teeth, and brain trauma. But he survived this attack and walked away. He survived it! He didn't lay there and die! He had the spirit to live. I decided that I would help him all I could. He tried so hard to find help, I wasn't going to give up on him.

For weeks, Spirit struggled. He couldn't eat on his own so I fed him using a feeding syringe every 3 to 4 hours. He had no control of his bowels or bladder.. He had moments where he was too weak to even stand on his own, but he would try and his body would shake. He had seizures, but slowly, he had breakthroughs. Little baby steps and small strides were huge monumental moments.

Specialist's didn't know how far he would come back. I was warned not to get my hopes up, but then one day while he was curled up in a towel on a chair next to me, I saw him bat at the edge of the towel. I had to take a double take. He was playing! That was his very first “kitty” moment. I knew then, in spite of all doubts, there was his fighting Spirit.

It was a long healing road for him with a mixture of amazing strides and disappointing set backs, but his spirit was undeniable. Little moments were so special. I learned early, that he enjoyed laying near a window to soak up some sun. As the days got warmer and as he got a little stronger, we would sit in the back yard together. We made it our morning “thing.” I would enjoy a cup of coffee and he would sit in my lap feeling the breeze and the warmth of being outside. Sometimes I would let him lay in the grass and I would watch him bat at a tall blade of grass. It was like watching him experience pure joy.

Spirit through his recovery has captured the hearts of many people. He would get stronger and behave more and more like a kitty and then he would fall way back. He wold have what we called “down days.” After several of these fall back episodes we found out that he had a hole in his skull behind his eye that was leaking brain fluid down through his nose. It took us a while to figure this out because he would do so well for a while, then one day be down on his back. What was happening was that fluid would leak from his brain and get trapped and build pressure and stop the flow of the leak. Then he would feel better, start acting like a kitty, and jar the pressure causing more spillage. His prognosis was not good at all. He was going to die without surgery and I didn't have the money to pay for it. So one kind surgeon and his staff donated their time and preformed the surgery that he needed to live. The surgeon went through Spirit's nose and put a mucus plug on the pin point hole and plugged the leak. I had to keep him calm for several weeks on medications, to give the plug time to seal and in time scarring would grow over it to keep it in place.

That surgery was a turning point for Spirit. He got stronger and more coordinated on his feet. He would snuggle with the other cats. He tried to play with the jingle balls, but he lost interest in that toy because the other kitties were faster and would steal it from him, all in play of course! But he was playing, and snuggling, and loving life!

Today I fondly call him my snot head. If you didn't know that he had ever suffered an attack, you would hardly be able to tell. He is sly, and he is slick, and he is my food thief. He is also my cuddle bug and my velcro kitty. He likes to be in whatever room I am in, and Lord have mercy, should he get shut behind a door. He shall not be ignored. He will meow, and meow, and play pawsies under the door. When all his cuteness fails to sway me to open the door, he starts yowling. He definitely is in charge!

Spirit will always have special needs due to the attack. He is missing teeth, his nose never completely healed on the one side, and he does have sensitivity in his eye which may cause blindness later down the road, but his special needs are not what makes him special. He is special because of his spirit!