Jake’s Story
Jake Three
Legs was a hard-bitten, streetwise, un-neutered Tom cat, who lived life fast and
rough in a suburban district of Sheffield.
Until the day
he was almost killed by a car.
That cost Jake
one of his hind legs, and when we first met him, he was in a sorry state. Thin,
newly neutered and with a bald patch where the muscle had been stretched back
over the missing leg joint, he was visibly depressed. Jake couldn’t get
used to the fact that he only had one back leg, and for several months he
continued to roll off things and fall downstairs. Then, slowly, he began to put
on weight and come out of hiding to let us fuss and stroke him. He lost his
depressed attitude, and perked up, realising that life was so much easier as an
indoor cat who didn’t have to hunt and starve!
Jake’s
predicament was caused by careless owners who didn’t have him neutered as a
kitten. When they moved house, he strayed back to his former territory, as his
hormones told him that this was his duty in life. Hence, he lived as a stray for
a year before the accident, scrounging titbits off an old lady who lived nearby,
and hunting birds and squirrels. Straight after his accident, the same old lady
who’d fed him immediately contacted a local cat charity, who came to collect
the severely injured Jake, who lay dying underneath a wrecked car. The lady who
rescued him told me that she and her husband had to LIFT the car out of the way
to get to Jake underneath! Shortly after his operation, Jake came to live with
us. That was in 1999.
Jake is
extremely loveable and trusting, spending hours at a time laid on his back with
his three paws in the air. His most amusing trait is that he still tries to
scratch his ear with his missing leg. His worst habit is that he occasionally
forgets that he isn’t going to starve to death, and gorges on biscuits so much
that he makes himself sick!
Persephonies
Korats
