Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/rescue-story-gaia/
In August 2009, I saw a tiny, injured kitten where I work. One leg was very swollen and she smelled of the dumpster she lived near. Little did I know, the smell was from more than the dumpster. But when I picked up this tiny, colorful bag of skin and bones, she was purring like mad. I couldn’t leave her to die.
When I left work, I had a little box holding a tiny kitten sitting up and looking around at her world. Off to the vet to find the one pound, six week old kitten had a dislocated elbow that was terribly infected.
The infection had eaten away the skin on most of one leg and half of her chest. She was not a pretty picture, but still… she purred.
The vet knew she was a stray and asked what I wanted to do. I said her name is Gaia Rose and she’s mine. He smiled and said we’ll do it. The journey began.
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Eight months of twice a month vet visits, sometimes more, creams, compresses, antibiotics, and preparation led to surgery in February of 2010 to remove the leg. The skin would never fully grow back and the muscles were damaged. An entire kitten-hood lived in a cage due to her condition.
After a bout of ringworm brought on by the stress of the surgery, and almost losing her in recovery, she was on her way to enjoying life as a “real” cat instead of a caged one.
In July 2014, this little bundle of love and energy will be five years old. She still acts like a kitten and, due to her rough start, she’ll always be kitten-sized at barely six pounds.
She runs on par with all her four legged siblings and can give the boys twice her size a run for their money. She’ll snuggle under the blanket with me, or in my shirt if there’s nothing else, to sleep and she’ll sleep as long as I do most of the time.
Gaia is my tiny miracle and she still purrs like crazy.
Story submitted by Amy B. of Kershaw, South Carolina.
Gaia’s story was originally shared on theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com. Share your very own rescue story here!
Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog
