True Cat Rescue Stories from the Files of Touched By A Paw, Inc.

It was about 9:00 P.M. on Christmas Eve. My husband and I had just sat down to enjoy a hot apple cider together while we waited for two apple pies to bake for Christmas dinner the following day. This was the first time in years that we were not going out to someone's house or having people over. Except for the Midnight church service, we had looked forward to a quiet evening at home.

The ring of the telephone interrupted our conversation. "I'll get it", I told my husband, assuming that it was one of my children. Instead, it was a woman I knew from the shelter. She was on her way home and saw a cat get run over by a car right in front of her. It had been snowing all day and the cat was quite visible against the white snow. She said it was still alive and had crawled up on the snow bank on the side of the street. The woman was close to her residence so she went home and got a cat carrier. She returned to the cat which had not moved.

The cat was hissing and growling but she managed to slide it into the carrier. She said she called all over and every shelter was closed for Christmas and she was on her way up North for Christmas. She asked me if I would take the cat and see if I could help it. "Of course, I will take it", I replied. I asked her where she was and she told me that she was in Whitewater. I told her that I would meet her halfway (I live in Walworth).

I hung up the phone and quickly briefed my husband on my plans while I warmed some blankets in the clothes dryer. "I'll drive", he said as he looked outside. It was still snowing hard, and the roads were bad. We left immediately. It took both vehicles longer than planned to get to our meeting point, however, we pulled into the parking lot at the same time. We spoke briefly. She related that the cat was still alive but very quiet on the drive down. She also felt that the cat had survived because the snow was so deep in the road that it acted like a mattress under her, absorbing some of the tire weight.

I placed the warm blankets over the cat. I covered the carrier with a large blanket and placed it carefully on the rear van seat and put the seat belt around it and buckled it in. We said quick good-byes and wished each other Christmas blessings. We headed South to our home and the kind woman headed North. On the drive home, we decided to name the cat Noelle which is the French word for Christmas.

The first Christmas was a time of the greatest miracle on Earth and Noelle needed a miracle right now.

We arrived home and I immediately took her to a quiet room where I examined her. She was alert and hissing, but was cooperative enough. I knew her left rear leg was twisted and broken. The car went over her rear area. I figured her pelvis was probably broken as well. I gave her fluids, placed her on a heating pad, and gave her some pain medicine. I gently wrapped her broken leg to keep it as immobile as possible until she could be seen by a Vet. It was now 1 AM. She appeared to be comfortable and even drank some warm milk.

She fell asleep. I decided that she was stable for the night and would get her to our Vet in the morning. The Vet's diagnosis was as I had thought. She had a broken leg, which would need to be amputated, and a broken pelvis. Everything else appeared normal. The pelvis would heal on its own, but she lost her leg.

I brought her home to foster her while she healed. I gave her a cookie sheet for a litter pan so she wouldn't have to struggle over the edge of a litter box. She would now have to learn how to walk on three legs. Her right rear leg was bruised from the accident and was not strong enough to carry her rear end yet. She was eating well and getting less scared. Then I noticed that she was not urinating. I called our Vet and he said that she probably had nerve damage from being crushed. I would have to express her bladder for her. I brought her in that day and they showed me how to find her bladder and squeeze it from rear to front and empty it for her. They explained that I could buy her some time for the damage to heal. If it didn't heal, and she couldn't urinate on her own, she would then have to be euthanized. I asked how long it would take. The Vet did not know.

So I went to a store and bought a screen door guard rack that fit perfectly across my bathtub. I placed a clean litter pan underneath, got a measuring cup, blanket, and a paper and pen to chart her output. Then I had a talk with Noelle. I pet her and told her that she had survived and come this far and that I would not give up on her. I would endure if she would. Than I had a talk (prayer) with God and said that Noelle and I would not give up, but that we needed one of his miracles.

The first few days were the hardest on both of us. I would lay Noelle across the rack and sometimes it went well and other times there was no urine. Sometimes I felt like giving up. I felt like I was torturing her. But then I thought her life is in my hands. She will die if I don't try. It was stressful for both of us. She wasn't cooperative, and I felt that I would squeeze her guts out trying. Each day got better. She knew what was up, and I got better at it. I really felt she figured out that she felt more comfortable after I expressed her and she quit fighting it. Two weeks went by and then three. I saw no sign of her going by herself. I called the Vet. He said it didn't sound hopeful. I told him that I would try longer. I hung up the phone and prayed. Two more weeks went by and nothing. I continued for another two weeks. Then one morning as I was changing her blanket, I noticed that it appeared to be damp. Could it be? I smelled the blanket. YES! It was urine. I couldn't have been more excited than a kid on Christmas morning. I put the litter box back and later that evening it was damp in two places. I just cried and hugged Noelle so hard she probably thought that I was expressing her.

Over the past seven weeks of expressing Noelle, I had also been working to strengthen her one rear leg. She no longer dragged or scooted. She stood tall and straight and balanced well.

Noelle continued to urinate on her own. She got her miracle. People who knew about her asked me how many weeks I would have expressed her before giving up. I answered, "As many as God needed to heal her." My faith never let me doubt that he would not heal her. "Ask and you shall receive."

Noelle's Vet was amazed and pleased. I kept her three more weeks to be sure all was OK. She was completely healed. Besides her missing leg, one would never guess what she had been through.

Now it was time for her to move on. She had been confined to a cage all these weeks of healing, but now she needed to learn how to climb stairs, to jump, and to run. I could not give her that kind of space at my house. So I called my dear friend Ellen.
Ellen had fostered many cats and kittens from TBAP. She said that she would take Noelle and work with her on the rest of her healing journey. I packed her up and said a tearful good-bye as Ellen took her home.

It has been two years now this coming Christmas Eve since Noelle was injured. She is still with Ellen. Yes, Ellen adopted Noelle. Noelle and Ellen bonded so close during her latter healing days that they could not part with one another. And Noelle, the former homeless, semi-feral stray cat is now a healthy, happy, loving house cat who spends her evenings on Ellen's lap.