Family gives cat a second chance at life

  • Breaking
  • 19/08/2010

By Juliet Speedy

If a cat has nine lives, it's safe to say Blacky has used up one of them.

“He's proved he doesn't want to give up, he's a fighter,” says Blacky’s owner Louise Broomhall.

Blacky was hit by a speeding car in Timaru, he suffered terrible injuries that crippled his back legs and left him incontinent.

But his family wouldn't give up and rigged up a feline wheelchair in the hope he'd eventually recover.

“We've sort of questioned ourselves, ‘are we doing the right thing?’ But then he'll come through with a miracle at night, he'll move his foot or something,” says Ms Broomhall.

Blacky lost an eye years ago and this latest setback has left him fairly unsteady but the family ignored advice to have him put him down. They believe he's still a happy cat.

“Would you put your kids to sleep when they're healed? Because to me it's no different,” says Ms Broomhall.

The family never leave the cat at home alone now and Ms Broomhall has averaged three hours sleep a night staying up looking after him.

The vet who patched him up says many people would have had the cat put down.

“If he will make a full recovery it's obviously to be seen, he might not because often these spinal injuries don't make a good prognosis, but at the end of the day only time will tell,” says vet Dr Dries Meyer.

But the Broomhalls say Blacky's a fighter and his progress so far has already proved he's got at least eight or is that seven lives left.

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source: newshub archive