Lilly, the tale of a survivor

Lilly, enjoying her favorite spot on the bed.

Meet Lilly, a seven year old spayed female cat with three legs, a drastically shortened tail and no remaining claws on her remaining front leg.

Lilly's story began as a kitten of approximately 8 weeks old, when she was mauled by a dog. During the attack, the dog actually bit off Lilly's right front leg just below the elbow. In addition, the lower part of her tail was injured in the attack and several toes on her remaining front leg were damaged.

As the right front leg was completely gone (the lower part of her leg was actually found on the ground at the location of the attack), the only remaining option was to complete the amputation by removing the damaged bone up to the elbow on Lilly's right front leg. Additionally, approximately 1/3 of her tail had to amputated to repair the damage done to it. The damaged nails were removed from her left front leg, effectively declawing her remaining front leg, due to the fact that the toes there were also injured during the attack.

In addition to all of these injuries, Lilly also suffered nerve damage to her left front leg, which was now her only remaining front leg. This damage resulted in Lilly's dragging the paw and "knuckling over" (walking on the top surface of the paw). Directly after Lilly's injuries and the resulting emergency surgical procedures, it was not known whether Lilly's nerve damage would heal and allow her to walk normally or not. If the damage did not heal, her abnormal gait was likely to cause injury to the front surface of her foot and might have eventually required amputation of that leg as well. Fortunately, Lilly's nerve damage slowly began to heal and her gait improved. By approximately 2 months following the dog attack, Lilly was able to use her left front leg normally.

Currently, Lilly resides with the author, Lorie Huston. She now leads a completely normal life and does not seem to realize that she has a handicap. She runs, jumps, plays and does all the things that a normal cat does, but she does it with three legs instead of four. She is quite graceful, even missing one leg. She interacts and plays regularly with the other cats in the household. You can see her in the photo above relaxing in her favorite spot on the bed.

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The copyright of the article Lilly, the tale of a survivor is owned by Lorie Huston. Permission to republish Lilly, the tale of a survivor in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.