I’m creating a special collection of little cat planters, and 100% of the proceeds will go toward surgery for my daughter’s beloved rescue cat. I’ll be donating all the clay, glazes, and my time, so every dollar raised from these handmade planters goes directly to this sweet cat’s surgery - and supports a daughter who’s working so hard to give her pets the best care possible.
She’s a young, single healthcare worker who has already faced the emotional and financial challenge of helping both of her fur babies through two major surgeries—and now, a third is needed.
Here is the story of Cape.
Cape was rescued around the age of 2 from a cat hoarding situation with around 100 cats. The rescue told my daughter that Cape was one of the most anxious and scared cats they had ever come across. It took many months of hard work and love from the foster for her to start opening up to people and even then, it wasn't until 2 weeks after being adopted that Cape finally let my daughter pet her. No one had any idea why was so anxious and coming from the situation she did, there were an endless amount of possibilities.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, about 4 years later, Cape was undergoing what was expected to be a routine dental extraction. To everyone's surprise, the x-rays revealed a broken jaw showing that she was likely shot in the face prior to being rescued. This means she's been living with a broken jaw for about 5 years and has been in pain since then. The mystery of her anxiety and fear has been solved, and now, she’s heading to Vancouver for a complex jaw surgery to finally relieve her pain.
Over the past 4 years, there's been more and more healing for her and yet, she remains an anxious young girl. While she was receiving post-operative pain medications from the tooth extraction, she shared a whole new sassy side to her personality. She even started to boss her sister Meadow (calico cat) around. She's always been an incredibly curious girl, watching the birds out the window, and playing with her favourite cat worm toys. Repairing her jaw should bring relief to the pain she's been feeling for 5 years, and hopefully bring out a whole new side of this sweet girl.
Capes surgery story:
On Monday afternoon we had a long drive out to Vancouver. She had some gabapentin to help with her anxiety, but was understandably still terrified. She spent most of the time under her bed, watching out the window. Once we got to the hotel, she was curious but incredibly scared about this new place. She immediately tried to find every nook and cranny to hide in and ended up spending most of the night under my blankets with me.
The surgery itself was wild and I have such an appreciation for vets and the intricate work they can do. Cape saw Dr Legendre (I think he should be called Dr Legendary) at West Coast Veterinary Dental. He said that the bone had attempted to repair itself and grow over since the original break (like 5 years ago), but it hadn't been able to solidify the fracture, meaning the 2 broken bone pieces were rubbing against each other. This is where it would be incredibly painful every time she chewed as the bone would move slightly along the other piece of bone. The operation that he completed included opening the area, removing metal shrapnel pieces as best as possible, and shaving down some of the overgrown bone that had attempted to repair it. He then used a wire and fibrin clot to repair the fracture in a way that will allow positive bone regeneration, and make her jaw "almost as good as new". She has a check up in about a week and another set of X-rays in a couple months to confirm it's all healing as we want it to, but he said it went super well and was a successful surgery.
After a couple hours of observation, I was able to bring her home. The ride home was a lot more relaxed as she was still coming down from the anaesthesia and other good meds she got while she was there, and I think she actually managed to get some sleep along the way.
Since being home, she initially showed a lot of pain once the operations meds seemed to wear off and was quite swollen in the beginning, but she's feeling better already and already acting more like herself. I'm confident she'll heal well and be so so happy.
Thank you to everyone who supported the fundraiser, sent me kind messages, and gave well wishes for this little kitty. I am so incredibly grateful and don't know how to thank people enough. Not everyone believes cats deserve this kind of medical care but I will do everything I can for my animals. I also want to note that I consider myself incredibly fortunate to be in a financial position that was I able to afford this surgery her. If circumstances were different, it may not have been possible, and there are many people who are faced with hard decisions when their pets have medical concerns, and thank goodness I didn't need to do that. Lastly, a huge thank you to Dr Johnson at South Mission Animal Hospital for doing her initial tooth extraction and finding this. We had so many conversations along this process and I am very grateful for her support. And the biggest thank you to Dr Legendre at West Coast Veterinary Dental for fixing her jaw, it was incredible work.
Cape says thank you too, well, she meowed.
