for snuffy

gray cat cuddles up

purring loud, nuzzles my ear

saved broken tiger

This is Snuffy who was once a stray cat that would eat the food I’d leave on the front porch but would never allow me to pet him. Then, one cold winter day in late January, he ran onto the porch while I was putting out the dishes of food and he was bleeding, meowing insistently, and not altogether sure which front leg to favor while limping. I reached for him and he ran away. The next night, which was even colder and snowier, he staggered/limped up on the porch while I was out there, meowed once, and laid on my feet. I ran in the house, put the dog out back, locked up my other cats, ran back out to the porch, and carried him to the bathroom for seclusion till I could get him to the vet first thing Monday (this was on a Saturday afternoon). The tally of wounds? A broken jaw, luckily not broken front legs (1 bone may have been cracked but had healed enough since the attack that it didn’t show up clear enough and he had  numerous bites on both front legs), 2 large bite wounds on his chest (one of which punctured his lung), and a few bite marks and scratches on his hind quarters. Bite marks were too big to be a raccoon…so it’s possible it was a dog. While his prognosis was relatively good from the start, the only concern with any sort of surgery was that he was anemic, so wounds were left to rather heal on their own. Which they have. And, for a once truly feral cat, he now smiles, a bit crooked with that broken jaw line, but he does have that little kitty grin.

tough guy, wounded boy

a bit of a bruiser,

now domestic