# rescuing silvester



## madcamel (Jan 19, 2005)

When i had first moved in to my old apartment, there was this HUGE cat that just wandered right in the front door like he owned the place. His markings were exactly like silvester (from loony toons) so that became his name. He was very friendly and very dominant, the largest and strongest cat I have ever seen, he stood almost to my knees and I am 6'3'. 

Silvester would just come and go as he pleased and spend most of his time outside, though he knew he was welcome in the house. It wasn't uncommon for him to dissapear for a week or so at a time, he was apparently welcome in several of the neighbors houses too due to his charming attitude and good manners, though nobody officially owned him (how can you own a n independant animal such as that?)

Last summer, he was gone for almost 3 weeks. i didn't really think anything of it, assuming that he found a nice cushy house to stay at for the duration, but that was appatrently not the case. he eventually showed up at the front door looking very rough, he had lost about 8 pounds, his fur was all matted, and the worst part was his eye. I'll spare all the gory details but his eyeball had popped out and had quite the maggot infestation in the socket. He was pleading for help and barely alive.

it being the weekend and the fact that we live in the middle of nowhere, we were unable to get in touch with a vet that was open on the weekends and close enough for us to get to, not having a car.. We went to the local vet's house to no avail, we later found out she was on a trip for the weekend.

We took care of him as best we could for the weekend and cleaned out his eye socket as best we could., which wasn't very well. He wasn't interested in food but he had lots of clean water to drink. We wern't at all sure he was going to make it, his condition was getting worse by the hour.

Come early Monday morning we rushed him to the vet's office, we had no money whatsoever, but this cat needed help. She took one look at him, and agreed to take care of him, even though she knew we had no money. Monday is surgery day and she did him first, bumping the rest of the schedule up by a few hours. She cleaned out the eye socket, sewed it up, ran tests, did stuff, put him on an IV and kept him for 3 days, nursing him back to health. While this was going on, Bill one of my roomates contacted the church he is a member of and collected some money to pay for this. When it was time to pick silvester up, bill explained the situation, and gave her the money he had managed to collect (Around $200 I think). She smiled, and let silvester come home with us.

He recovered fully, minus an eye. Watching him learn how to wobble his head to get deapth perception was rather entertaining. I played with him a lot to help him with the depth perception issue, in a month or so he was pouncing on objects with 100% accuracy. He was a joy to have around the house, but insisted on going outside for at least 6 hours a day, and believe me there was no stopping him!

Since then me and Bill have gone our seperate ways, and Silvester has been found a new home, way out in the country. He now spends all of his time outside or in a warm heated basement, and seems happier for it. He has plenty of food, and plenty of other cats to boss around.

I have to plug the vet for being so good: Dr. Lilian Ramos of Affordable Vet. Svcs in Hornell, NY. If you live in this area, she is the vet to go to. Now that I have some money to work with, she gets all my buisness, and all my friends buisness too.


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## mynee (Nov 18, 2004)

You are truly a kind soul for giving all that you had and more to care and provide for a needy cat. There are so many homeless and unloved cats and dogs, and for you to provide the funds to make just one more healthy and happy helps to renew my faith in people. Thank you for the kindness you showed Silvester, I know that he thanks you too!

-mynee


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## Kittenofyourheart (Feb 20, 2005)

THat is so sad to hear about any cat getting hurt or having to endure any type of pain. I am glad he had someone that had a heart and took him in and made sure he was taken care f especially with his injury. It takes a person with a big heart to do something like that.


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