This cardboard box was Jacob's "special house" where he lived for months at an animal hospital, waiting for a home. So many wonderful people pitched in make sure he survived and had a good place to stay in the hospital.
A rescue group found him as a tiny kitten abandoned on the streets, unable to use his back legs. Determined to make sure that he had access to medical care and an environment where he could "make it," they arranged for him to stay at the hospital. Everyone at the hospital showered him with love, often buying him toys and other "kitten necessities" with money out of their own pockets, and nursed him back to health. His legs still wouldn't work. No one was sure why.
A woman who worked at the hospital told us about him and asked if we'd come see him and consider adopting him. That was pretty much all it took -- meeting him. He moved into our home to join a family of special needs dogs and cats.
Jacob immediately made friends with the others and enjoys matching what he's doing to their abilities. With a dog or cat who likes to run, he'll race up and down the halls with them. But if a dog or cat can't move quickly -- Harmony, for example, has a muscle disorder, and Annie is an older dog and blind -- Jacob will just lie down close, sometimes reaching out with a paw to make contact.
Although we had a cart specially built to fit one of our cats who cannot use her back legs, Jacob has made it clear that he has no trouble getting around on his own. Using his front legs, he speeds all around the house, his body sliding easily along the wood floors.
When we took him to Tufts for an MRI and other tests, the neurologist determined that his inability to use his back half (he cannot use his legs and needs to have his bladder expressed several times a day) was caused by a trauma to his spinal cord. Someone may have stepped on him when he was a small kitten. The damage cannot be surgically repaired and is permanent.
Here's a photo of Jacob exploring.
Here he is enjoying the sunlight.
Here he is in one of his favorite places, curled up in the lion's lap.
And here's Jacob happily saying hi!
Please follow this link to the family of special needs dogs and cats who live in our home.