Tomato Foster Club: Emergency Medical Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

This grant helped our organization provide life-altering care to one of our most difficult cases to date by covering a portion of the costs of the multiple surgeries it took to give a broken kitten a life free from pain and discomfort.

How many pets did this grant help?

1

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Sami is a little kitten who was found dragging her broken body around the streets of Saudi Arabia. Her back legs were shattered and atrophied to the point of being not just useless, but a source of immense pain.

She was soiled and matted and had infected sores and ulcers all along her legs and genitals. Her paralysis made it impossible for her to extend her legs without immense pain, so she kept them tucked tightly to her body. Both legs adhered so tightly to her body that any attempt to move them caused immeasurable distress. She learned to move around in the world with caution and fear.

By nothing short of a miracle, we received Sami’s plea and were able to give her refuge. Once she arrived, we knew that if Sami were to have any chance at a pain-free life, it meant she would require a double leg and tail amputation — and quickly.

Due to Sami’s size (she’s a small fry), these procedures needed to be broken up into two surgeries to minimize the risks associated with time under anesthesia for a kitten so small.

Sami completed her second and final surgery and nearly instantaneously became an unstoppable scooty kitty, zooming wherever she pleased and proving that kitties who look different and move differently are no less deserving of second chances than any others.

It stills seems wild that this little club could do anything for a broken kitten halfway around the world, but we did, and it wouldn’t have been possible without a whole lot of help from a whole lot of wonderfully kindhearted people, and the Petfinder Foundation, which awarded our organization an Emergency Medical Grant to help offset the costs of Sami’s medical care.

This work takes a village and sometimes that village spans states, countries and even continents. Thank you for making a fluffy dragon’s dreams come true, including finding her forever family where she’ll be loved all the days of her life.