Timmy, Our 2-Legged Cat

 

 

Ken Pope

By a wonderful stroke of luck, I happened to be right by the phone when a veterinarian called to ask if we could adopt two-legged kitten she'd been asked to put down. Here's a photo of Timmy (along with 7 more below):

a little cat looks up at you from the floor

When Timmy was born, his mother recognized that he was "different" and repeatedly picked him up--grasping him by the neck in her mouth--to separate him from the rest of her litter, carried him into another room, and left him.  Asked to put him down, the vet had gotten permission to try to place him with us first.

Timmy instantly made friends with the family of special needs cats and dogs who live in our home. Although both the cats and the dogs would nuzzle Timmy and lick his head--and as he got older he would hug them and lick their heads--Dharma, a dog with an atypical seizure disorder, adopted Timmy as his special friend, spending hours playing with him and keeping watch over him as he slept.

Here's Timmy when he first came to our home as a young kitten, reaching up to touch Dharma's face:

a little kitten reaches up to touch a dog's face

Here's Dharma watching over Timmy as he slept:

A little dog keeps watch over a sleeping kitten

Timmy and Dharma loved spending time together at the window:

a little dog and cat sit at the window in the sunlight

Timmy and Dharma loved to nuzzle each other:

A little cat and dog press their heads together

Here's Timmy hanging out with Danny, a cat born with the calicivirus and chronic respiratory problems, who barely survived pneumonia shortly after he was born:

2 cats share a cat bed bed

Here's Timmy giving Danny--as he would give practically all the others--his patented hug and head lick:

a little cat grooms another cat

Timmy, who needed to be expressed several times daily because his back half did not work, seemed completely unaware that he was different in any way and was as acrobatic as any of the others.  He would zoom around the house, pulling himself along with his two strong front legs, and race to the top of the cat tree.  He also loved to swing his trunk up in the air and walk around on his front paws, his head down, as if we were a gymnast going through a routine at the Olympics. 

He was such a sweet and loving cat.  He couldn't jump into your lap but if you were sitting and failed to notice him at your feet, he would just pull himself up your pant leg, sometimes not stopping at your lap but going on up to your shoulder so that he could nuzzle you.

We miss him greatly.

a little cat looks up from the floor

 

Here's a link to the family of special needs dogs & cats who live in our home

 

 

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