Fluffy Friday #5

After a horrific accident nine months ago, beautiful Oscar (who looks just like Dusty) lost both his back paws after a run in with a combine harvester. Two year old Osacr is the first cat in the world to have the operation to attach new feet. Groundbreaking Veterinary Surgeon Noel Fitzpatrick operated on Oscar using cutting edge technology.

As both his back paws were severed it was unlikely Oscar would be able to have a good quality of life with just two front paws so Noel devised a way of attatching the prosthetic paws to Oscar's ankles. The operation was three hours long and used cutting edge implants which were developed by the University College London.

The implants enable Oscar to do all the things that cats love... walk, climb and run but unfortunately they are not suitable for outdoor life so he will be staying indoors for now.

See Oscar on the first episode of a new BBC show called The Bionic Vet.

It's been two years.

This time two years ago Dusty and Rusty were introduced into my world. On May Day Bank Holiday 2008, Mum and Dad came home wielding a box containing two wriggly, curious and absolutely beautiful kittens. I have never owned a cat before so this past two years has been a real learning curve for the whole family, and we are still learning.
Two became one on the 21st January this year when our beloved Dusty was mysteriously found dead. She had been out of the house about an hour that morning and had run into some trouble, we will never know how she met her untimely end and that is probably for the best. After three months still feel a sense of shock and deep loss. I worry an awful lot about Rusty as she seems lonely, she wanders around the house meowing and for the first few weeks after we lost Dusty she would sit in the kitchen at night staring out of the window (we used this window to let the cats in and out) as if waiting for Dusty to come back.
Dusty always used to be very clingy and liked to know where we were at all times, she seemed to prefer being indoors to outside, Rusty was the opposite and although she still loves the great outdoors she has become more clingy. I have done some research on pet bereavement and found a few interesting organisations and also this very good article by Sarah Hartwell about cats mourning the loss of others.

Animal Samaritans
Association of Pet Loss and Bereavement