Amy's Incredible Will To Survive
When Amy was just two years old, someone shot her in the spine with a BB gun and she was instantly paralyzed. She
dragged herself home by her front paws and was rushed to an emergency vet by the local animal control officer.
Amy has always loved and trusted people, but less so now. In particular, if a child on a bicycle approaches, she
starts to shake and bolts into the house. If you have a child, please don't allow them to have a BB gun.
From the emergency vet, Amy was rushed to Angell Memorial Hospital, where Dr. Sisson, a neurosurgeon, performed
surgery on Amy and removed the bullet from her spine. Amy was in the intensive care unit for several days.
We brought Amy home, and then began the wait to see if she would recover partial or full ability to walk again. We
felt guilty watching her drag herself around by her front paws, but we'd been instructed to let her do this so she
could work on recovering, if possible, the use of her hind legs. We knew that, if she recovered no ability to walk
at all, we would get her little wheels.
Watching her struggle along was really hard. Even worse though, was wondering if she was going to want to survive.
My happy, outgoing cat, was so traumatized she would hide in the small dark corner of my bedside table, with huge
saucer eyes, terrified. When it was time for me to leave for work in the morning, she would clasp her two good paws
tightly around my wrist, as if she were hanging on for dear life. When I would try to gently remove my arm, she'd
hold me even tighter.
One day, I had placed Amy up in the window sill, and I saw one of her little back toes wiggle. We called Dr. Sisson
and he said it didn't mean anything, but from that point, we knew she was going to walk. We would take her in the
back yard, where we knew she'd make a real effort to get around - she was quite a hunter - and we would count how
many steps she could take, two, then maybe four, before she'd fall down. And we would praise her like crazy!
Today, Amy can walk, although she does not have much power in her back legs. She can just get them up, then power
herself along with her front legs. When she runs, it is this sort of hopping, she propels her front legs forward and
the back legs follow. When she runs real fast the back of her body swings back and forth in a sort of zig zag and
she gets this crooked mohawk in the fur along her back. Sometimes when she sits down, her back paws stick straight
out underneath her in big V. If her back legs get wet, she has spasms and falls down, not a pleasant experience for
her in rain or snow. If she needs to pass over a wet spot, she'll ask me to pick her up. She doesn't like to use
ramps, and if she tries to jump up to the bed and falls down, she just tries again.
Cats keep their balance by using their tail. Amy no longer has full control of her tail (but I'll never forget when
it first wagged again!), so sometimes when she's trying to do something if I just gently lift her tail, that gives
her the balance she needs to climb, etc. She is a well-loved cat and leads a very happy life. I couldn't have
imagined, when she was first hurt, that she would ever be this happy. She is not the same cat she was, she's no
longer totally trusting of people, and she can't do all the things she'd like to do. But the same spirit that made
her a cat who loved the outdoors, hunting, and being way up high, is the spirit that allowed her not just to survive,
but to thrive. If she ever heard the word “disabled” applied to her, she'd be really mad. We don't think of her as
disabled, we think of her as our sweet Amy who was so brave and taught herself to walk again.
Please take a moment to visit Amy's site - Two Paws,
and learn more about this very brave little girl.
Reprinted with permission
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