Okay, it’s originally from the Daily Mail, but the story checks out at HuffPo. Caffrey, a gray Persian in England, was run over by a car at the age of three. They amputated his left rear leg, and he did well until four months ago, when a malignancy on his left front leg (which had also been damaged) necessitated a second amputation on the same side. The vets balked:
His owner Sue Greaves, 58, couldn’t bear to have him put down or put him through the pain of chemotherapy with no guarantee of success.
So she pleaded [sic] Paul Harris reports ‘He doesn’t seem bothered at all’ for option three – amputating the leg, leaving him with only two, both on the right side.
When her vet sought opinions from four colleagues, all said it shouldn’t be done. They insisted he would be unable to walk and his life would not be worth living.
Well, Caffrey, take a bow. And a run around the garden.
And just for good measure, try a ballet-style pirouette.
Although he was expected to spend weeks recovering at home in Woking, Surrey, within days he had achieved near perfect balance – helped by next door neighbour Ashleigh Tyler, eight, who joined the campaign to nurse him back to health.
And less than two months after the £4,000 operation, he is skipping along like a cat on a hot tin roof.
‘Everyone who sees him is astonished at what he can do,’ Mrs Greaves said. ‘He doesn’t seem bothered at all by having only two legs.’
And here is Caffrey in action:
Would it be gauche of me to say that Caffrey is all right now? (Not as gauche as HuffPo, which put this story in the “Comedy” section!)
And meet Simhasana, a lovely tabby who was, like Caffrey, hit by a car, and somehow managed to live several months as a stray with dislocated legs. Taken in by a shelter, she seemed to make a spontaneous recovery, and now she can walk, though not perfectly. I hope someone adopts her. She is at the Best Friends Animal Society in Los Angeles. Any L.A. readers here?
Two great stories! That Caffrey is something else. Both cute cats too.
Yup. Extremely cute. Caffrey needs a brush-brush, though.
Really heart-warming!
“Would it be gauche of me to say that Caffrey is all right now?” — Oh, very adroit!
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One could argue for maladroit…
Oh, and also–grrroaan!
😉
I thought that better left unsaid…
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Right you are!
It beats saying something sinister?
“Okay, it’s originally from the Daily Mail, but the story checks out at HuffPo.”
Oh, it must be true then! You don’t believe Mr Nixon? Well, ask Mr McCarthy!
(But I believe it because I’ve seen it. Impressive! How many crashed cars have been rebuilt as motorbikes?)
What an idea. I know just the welder and car nut to whom I am not going to mention that idea. I have to share roads with his “creations.”
“http://news.yahoo.com/photos/injured-animals-keep-moving-with-prosthetics-slideshow/”>animals with prosthetics
That’s great that all those disabled animals are being helped. Thanks for the link!
I’ll try to make the link clickable for others if they want.
Looks like the html coding you used was very close although I’m not sure exactly what it looked like before it was processed, I’ll try this code for the link that follows (in case you are interested):
<a href=”http://news.yahoo.com/photos/injured-animals-keep-moving-with-prosthetics-slideshow/”>animals with prosthetics</a>
Hopefully this will then provide a properly clickable link:
animals with prosthetics
the “&” “gt” at the end of the coding should be “>”
Hopefully this will be correct:
<a href=”http://news.yahoo.com/photos/injured-animals-keep-moving-with-prosthetics-slideshow/”>animals with prosthetics</a>
Sorry about the messed-up link. 🙁
Are any of them aspiring nicturating literary critics? I like the cat’s attitude: who needs 4 legs – even those silly humans can do with 2.
If you look more closely (at the stills … I can’t do video at the moment), you’ll see a convergent evolution (ouch, sorry in several senses) in limb structure with humans. If you look at human pelvis and knees, you’ll see that the width of the pelvis is accommodated by an outward angle of the knee-femur fused joint (valvular angle? volvar angle? Something like that. Network is busy ATM.) and a corresponding inward angle at the top (“head”) of the femur. Similarly on the dexterous moggie, you can see that he’s achieving a similar effect by bowing and twisting of the spine.
“Nicturating”? Is that one micturation in the nictitating membrane for spelling “legal eagles”?
Incredible that Caffrey can (a) balance and (b) locomote with just one leg at each end. That video is remarkable. (I imagine the problems facing a cat with diagonally opposite legs would be very similar).
I would have thought that if tandem bipedalism was a practical proposition then evolution would have thrown up examples, but every biped I can think of (essentially monkeys/apes and birds) is a parallel biped.
Some caterpillars have a very “tandem bipedalism” -like gait, but they’re much squatter and effectively have a foot that is nearly the same width as their body.
I’d anticipate that Caffrey (a fine pint too!) will have feet that are broadening as the tendons get unusual stresses. Other skeleto-muscular issues looming too. But it’s better than being worm-food.
Oh , I should have put the micturations above into the context of a snurdled gruntfuggly. But watch those large intestines!
“I’d anticipate that Caffrey (a fine pint too!) will have feet that are broadening as the tendons get unusual stresses. Other skeleto-muscular issues looming too. But it’s better than being worm-food.”
Yes, that occurred to me, watching him. I’m probably rather sensitive to noticing such since I buggered a tendon a couple of years ago, it’s obviously putting extra stresses on the other ankle – and other bits. Oddly, I seem to alternate on different days between walking nearly normally and limping, not entirely under my control, which is weird.
But Mrs ii hasn’t threatened to have me put down, yet.
First time I’ve driven more than a couple of hundred miles in a day-and-a-bit for some time … and it feels horribly like what I’ve been told carpal tunnel syndrome feels like.
If God is responsible for the perfection of my body, would he please meet me round the back of the garden shed, and to bring my shillelagh with him.
I think there’s a lot of people who frequent this website would join you!
Personally, I blame Evolution, which designed me for a reliable working life (with reasonable safety margin/load factors) of maybe 30-40 years, ever since which I’ve been running on the safety margins like an old DC-3.
Much as Caffrey is, in fact…