Not Throwaways, and Definitely Worth the Effort

Moses, a nearly starved feral cat, was not a good candidate for survival, but lived happily to 19.

In the last few months stories of heroic efforts to save the lives of abused and critically injured cats and kittens have filled my reading and viewing list. Kitties like Bernice, who was apparently set on fire and left for dead on a sidewalk in Oshkosh, Wisconsin but lives and thrives at the veterinary hospital just being a regular cat despite her injuries; Dexter, who was beaten with a baseball bat along with his brother but survived long enough to be adopted before being overcome by his increasing seizures, and, recently, Tabitha, a kitten found in a plastic bag in a dumpster, her body crushed and in extreme pain but alive enough to call for help and is currently recovering, may have at one time been euthanized as an act of “mercy”. Instead, every effort at great expense was made to both ease their pain and heal their wounds so that they could have a chance at life.

Medical care for animals has advanced at a blinding rate in the past few years, giving animals the chance at life they didn’t have even only a few years ago.

But medical care isn’t the only thing that’s changed at a blinding rate in the past few years. Respect for animals and their needs and their sentience, as well as their relationships with we humans and ours with them, is readily accepted, even expected, when caring for animals.

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