Dignified Moon Pies: Our Sweet Puddin

Anyone who is on my Facebook or Instagram have probably heard the story. But just shy of 3 weeks ago, I went out on the porch to find one of our kittens laying near a stack of pavers that we had for a yard project. At first inspection, I noticed her tail had been seriously bitten. I ran inside to get Vetricyn as Rheba rounded the porch. Rheba went to pick her up to spray her with it and realized that she was missing her front leg. She had been attacked by two stray dogs that had been roaming the neighborhood (who later went on to attack a neighbor’s calf and donkey).

Honestly, going to the vet, I wasn’t sure what to expect. After an exam by Dr. Renaud, one of the sweetest vets alive, he assured her that our sweet baby would be just fine. In fact, we waited to have the surgery that next Monday…to give Puddin time to calm down from such a traumatic event.

Monday came, and Mom, Rheba and I sat on pins and needles. After all, that’s a LOT for a seven-week-old kitten to go through. Her surgery wound up being the very last of the day. They amputated her tail with no issue, but the surgery on her arm wound up being more extensive than they had expected. If you can imagine, her arm had been torn off at what would be our elbow. But some of the bone in the lower part of the arm had come bent around and gone back up into the upper arm during the struggle apparently. They ended up amputating it at the shoulder.

We fed her with an eye dropper until she was able to eat cat food again. We held her nearly constantly until my sister, the nurse, “forced” her into rehab. And I’m not going lie…the first few days, she’d make a lap around our living room and dining room…and then she’d have to nap for a bit. It had been several days since she’d really had to be active. But she quickly got into the swing of things.

I am happy to say that my sweet Puddin is doing AMAZINGLY. She gets around so well! She runs, she plays, she climbs…she is a very active little girl.

Some of her favorite things currently are: Andy Griffith…it’s kind of “our time” every night. We lay on my bed and watch it. She loves jumping over and under our TV trays in the living room. She isn’t quite sure of Karter just yet…but she loves running up to her and stopping just short of her. And she LOVES her toys…which honestly, seem to be really helping her coordination.