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From Ellee Neilands...

Just 2-1/2 days and I miss him. Who is Skippy? He was a sweet, loving, orange cat that came into my life unexpectantly. I have been doing rescue work most of my life. The past 8 yrs it has been mostly dogs. However, my roots were kitten rescue from the local barns. I would catch, tame and rehome. I was just a kid with a knack of catching feral kittens. Flash forward to Saturday, September 3, 2011. I am on my morning walk with my Golden Retrievers, one yipes with excitement and I realize they have found a very scared cat. One of the dogs playfully swats it. He kisses, spits, growls and paws fly. I rush the dogs back home. I go down to get him. He is too scared to pick up. I notice he is thin and can not move well. I came prepared with my only emergency can of cat food. I talk to him to calm him. He tries not to hiss at me. I leave him with the open can to give him time to stop being so scared. I go back down a few hours later. Empty can is what I find and a calmer cat. I take one look at him and he looks at me with curiosity. I reach down and gently touch the paw that is extended, and he curls his toes gently around my finger. I knew there was a chance...

I pet him for a few minutes’ walk back to the house, and come back down in the car and a towel. Mom came with me. She is shocked at his condition and the fact he still is so loving. I gently pick him up in the towel. He purrs. So light in my arms. I move him wrong he hisses. I shift ever so gently, he snuggles in.

I had set up a dog crate in my office. He doesn’t seem to want the food or water. Later I realize he can’t move right to eat out of them. So, I put food right in front of his pink nose. He gobbles the food. Later a syringe with water is introduced, he laps up the water. He eats regularly. I finally get a chance to give him a good look. He looks like he is wearing a corset. Tail is lifeless. Sad it is such a long tail one you would enjoy watching dance with emotion. His back legs won’t work right. He allows me to touch him even though he has spasms of pain. When he is done them he mews for love.

Skippy loved his face being rubbed, chin rubbed, chest rubbed, and his paws played with. I would check on him overnight, happy mews greeted me. I found myself checking on him just to hear those mews. Of course this being a holiday weekend I would have had to take him to the local emergency hospital. I didn’t want to stress him with the long drive.

Today is Tuesday and first thing I do is call the vets office, make arrangements to drop him off. Don’t want to stress him with a regular appointment. The office staff falls for the little guy quickly by his sweet mews and requests for attention. I ask to be called before any medical procedures are done. On my way to town to do the weeks errands, I check my phone; slip it in my purse and a voice mail pops up. It is the vet himself. This alerts me it is not good news.

Since I would be near the office in 5 minutes I stop in. The look on the staffs face is all I need to see. They are not their usual happy selves. First thing out of the nurses mouth is … he is so sweet.

His diagnosis: severely malnourished, infested with parasites (internal), and possible spine damage. All I want to do is find the heartless people who dumped him and give them a piece of my mind. I made the ONLY loving choice…. Send him to the rainbow bridge. My only solace is he knew love, compassion, had a full tummy and had a name. Sitting here writing this my office seems so empty without his sweet mews. Let anyone tell you it is just a cat, send them my way. Good bye my little buddy Skippy. I will never forget those two and a half days we shared.