As this 4th Annual WyoGives Day winds down, I wanted to share a story with you about a cat that was with us only a few days yet still managed to leave a lasting impression. Animals are so good at that, aren’t they?
Stray cats are a huge problem in this community and BDAR has a lot of stray cats in its neighborhood. We tend to recognize the cats around here, but we’d never seen this particular one before. Until one day, a couple of months ago, when he showed up at our door. He was matted and emaciated, like someone told him this is where he needed to come to be saved.
During our bi-weekly staff meeting someone spotted him through the window, yelled “Cat!” and the rest is history. There stood the cat we would soon call Eddie. I opened the door, expecting him to take off. But, he didn’t. I knelt down, put out my hands and this sweet creature walked right up to me asking to be held. I picked him up and brought him inside. We all fawned over him, gave him as much food as he wanted (which was a lot!) and marveled at the fact that he showed up seemingly out of nowhere begging to be rescued. We scanned him for a microchip, but the search turned up empty. He was neutered though, so maybe he was loved by someone at some point? We got him settled in an enclosure and he ate and ate and slept and slept some more.
He clearly needed to see a vet so we scheduled an appointment for a few days later. Blood work was first on the agenda. It usually reveals all we need to know. This time was no different. Eddie was old. Like, old old. 18 maybe? He was in the end stage of FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus), a virus common among, mostly stray, cats. His platelets were as low as they could get and without a blood transfusion he wouldn’t survive. We’re a realistic bunch and we knew we couldn’t use our limited resources to give a stray, 18 year old cat a blood transfusion on the off chance he would survive. So, at our vet's recommendation, we chose to humanely euthanize him.
Part of this job is choosing euthanasia as an animal’s best option. It’s not the glamorous part and it doesn’t have to happen very often, thankfully. But, it does have to happen sometimes. I’ve made this decision enough to know that it was the right thing to do. Even still, I cried over Eddie. It took me a couple days to reconcile his death even. A stray cat I knew for barely a moment. I finally decided he came to us because he knew we would help him and Eddie needed us to help him not live anymore. He knew that we would do what was best for him. We still have no idea where he came from or where he’d been and, like nearly every animal we help, we wish we would have known him sooner. While I long for this story to have had a happier ending, I am comforted knowing that for a few short days, Eddie had a name and was loved and fed and comfortable. And, honestly, most of all, I am happy that we were able to take his hunger, exhaustion, and pain away. Sometimes we get so busy with the day-to-day work that we forget that everything we do here matters in some way. Eddie reminded all of us that BDAR is here for a reason. He came to us for help. And we helped him.
I have held onto this story for a while. So long in fact, I moved “Eddie’s story” from one weekly to-do list to the next. But, I am glad to finally be sharing it with those of you that mean the most to our organization.
Without our facility, staff, and access to quality veterinary care what would the last few weeks of this sweet boy’s life have looked like? I am glad we will never have to know.
Thank you all for a really wonderful WyoGives Day. Our hearts are full. - Emilee
