Penny

An intact male, black and white tuxedo was found in the bushes of a client's driveway in Oakland on 12/22/07, starved and injured. Assuming the very friendly cat, who was wearing a harness and torn leash, had been hit by a car they wanted to ensure that he would recover. Anne and Jenn, who found him, called Animal Control who would not come and pick him up as it was a Saturday. They were told to call the Police Department to come down and "take care of him."

Anne and Jenn, nixed that idea and instead called us to see if Dr. Thompson could help. Within two hours the kitty now named "Penny" for the street he was found on, was in at Nine Lives for treatment. He had not been hit by a car. Our best guess based on his wounds and the signs of old wounds was that Penny had been tortured. We suspect he'd been starved and had scalding liquid of some kind poured on him while he was tied to something with his leash.

Below are some photos taken within minutes of his arrival. Clearly these injuries had happened several days before he was found as the wounds are beginning to heal. I've reduced the size of the images to minimize the gore. Needless to say, it was a horrific sight to see. Dr. Thompson spent nearly an hour debriding his wounds and cleaning Penny up.
Two weeks later Penny is an entirely new cat. He's gained nearly 3lbs and is quickly becoming a very handsome kitty. His injuries are healing and despite his shaved look, he's quite a looker. Penny purrs the moment you open his cage, especially if you come bearing food. ;) Penny is proof once again, that animals are amazingly resilient creatures. After all he's been through he still trusts humans to care for and love him. We promise, we won't let him down. He's got nothing but good things to look forward to. He's one penny who deserves some good luck.

Tragic news for Penny.

Penny was doing very well until Wednesday of last week when he developed unusual facial swelling similar to anaphylactic shock. He stopped eating and took a turn for the worse. Dr. T treated and monitored him and took him home each night but at 3am on Friday morning he went into cardiac arrest and was not able to be resuscitated. It's possible, although the necropsy was inconclusive, that he went into septic shock from the burns. We'll never know for sure what happened. We're focusing instead on the fact that he was warm, had food and love and wasn't afraid when he left us.

Rest in Peace sweet boy.

Written by: LH

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Poor Penny! But she's very very lucky to have such caring folks looking after her. How anyone could treat another living being in such a cruel manner is something I can not fathom.

Shelly said...

My heart goes out to this little one.
I am so grateful Penny is now being cared for.
In Gratitude to all the people at Nine Lives.

Anonymous said...

This just breaks my heart to read. No animal should have to go through this! Thankfully this sweet girl now has a safe place to stay and wonderful people looking over her. Thank you for taking her in and caring for her. Her future will be wonderful from this point on thanks to you!