Two cats who got the cream

Cats are said to have nine lives, but sadly at Blue Cross we know fortune doesn’t always favour those who have suffered horrific injuries. For two particular felines however, not only did miracles occur but so, too, did second chances at happiness.

Stray cat Kimovich was witnessed being hit by a car, in November 2016. Seriously injured and dazed by the impact, he was rushed to a private vet and found to have fractured his pelvis and right hip. With no one to foot the bill, the homeless cat faced euthanasia until our Victoria animal hospital stepped in. Still in a lot of pain, the ginger tom arrived in our care needing urgent surgery.

We carried out an operation called a femoral head and neck excision, which involves the tip of the thigh bone being removed from within the hip joint, with the surrounding muscles then holding the bones in place. He needed six weeks of bed rest in the pen with no obstacles to climb.

Senior vet Seb Prior, who carried out the surgery, said: ''Without our help he would certainly not have been able to use his leg well. The fracture was right through his hip joint so it's likely he would have had long term pain and very severe arthritis which could easily have led to us considering amputation in the future.''

Arabella was not so fortunate with her injury. In July 2018, at only four months old, the curious kitten fell from a third storey window and fractured her front leg so severely that amputation was our only option. Our vets and nurses treat around a hundred cats a year who have fallen from height, usually in the spring and summer months. Youngsters are particularly at risk as they explore open windows and balconies for the first time, excited by the smells and sounds of the great outdoors below.

Once they were well enough after their respective incidents, both cats were transferred to our Southampton rehoming centre in Hampshire where they got the care they needed, including from long-time volunteer Tony Davidson-Brewer, from Salisbury.

Kimovich was the first of the pair to become part of the Davidson-Brewer family in January 2017. Their home had always been full of pets, but when much-loved cat Katcha passed away at the grand age of 21, having had her and her sister Rimsky from kittens, Tony and his wife Caroline were forlorn. They planned to wait a while to allow their hearts to heal before welcoming another pet, but the house felt empty without a feline face and with Tony spending many hours each week helping homeless Blue Cross cats, it wasn’t long before Kimovich came home.

Caroline says: “I said to Tony I would come and have a look at him in order to say no. Well, that was never going to work! He looked into my eyes and I looked into his, and I thought ‘I can’t resist you’. I’d had a partial mastectomy and had to have another part of the treatment soon after we got him, and he was so lovely. He came and sat on my lap and purred and said, ‘Come on, get better’. He knew there was something. He’s very much a caring cat.”

“He is such a lovely cat, he’s so gentle and I can’t stress how affectionate he is,” Tony explains. “He has a couple of teeth missing on one side, but apart from that he hasn’t suffered any ill effects from the accident. After gradually settling he was soon relishing climbing and jumping like any normal young cat.”

The unusual names for family pets have been in place since Caroline’s younger daughter found a stray kitten and named him Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or Wam for short, followed later by Katchachurian and Rimsky Korsakov. Kimovich is so-called after Garry Kimovich Kasparov, chess grandmaster and vocal critic of Vladimir Putin.

His name nearly got him into a pickle at the height of the 2018 Salisbury Novichok investigations, when one evening he failed to return home on time.

“The whole car park next to the police station at the end of our street was taken over by the army to remove police cars for decontamination and they had put cordons in place,” Caroline remembers.

“I called ‘Kimovich, Kimovich!’ a couple of times because he wasn’t in the back garden,” Tony adds. “And then I opened the gate to find a policeman standing right outside. I had to assure him Kimovich was a cat and not a Russian spy! I said, ‘please don’t shoot him if he crosses your cordon!’”

Then, in August 2018, Arabella, a Turkish Angora then aged five months, joined the family. 

It can be tricky to find the right home for an animal with special needs, and with Arabella being deaf as well as missing a leg she would need a home with a dedicated support network and where she could be exposed to the world slowly over time to make sure she was safe in her new environment. “Naïve compassion” is what Tony says drove the couple to rehome the seemingly “poor little sweet, quiet and charming” puss. But Arabella is not one to let her disabilities hold her back. She is full of personality and has mastered climbing the trees and trellises in the garden, and she loves to play. Both cats enjoy siestas in the summer house.

Introducing the cats initially was challenging, and not helped by Arabella suffering a setback when her amputation site opened up, requiring further surgery. During recovery she had to remain as inactive as possible to allow healing to take place. For a lively youngster, this was extremely dull and her boredom led to her creating her own fun; the unfortunate recipient being Kimovich. When he would venture to the room where Arabella was confined and sniff at the pet gate, her paw would come straight through and swipe at him. Not a recipe for friendship. Tony and Caroline had already decided to call on Tasha Cole, animal behaviour coorindator at Southampton Blue Cross, for help.

When Blue Cross rehomes a pet, we offer behavioural support for the animal’s lifetime so rehomers are never on their own. It wasn’t a walk in the park, but several months, and lots of hard work integrating the two cats, they are accepting of each other and sometimes rub noses. And Arabella is living life to the full with the help of careful parameters put in place by Tony and Caroline. Tony says: “Taking on a deaf kitten, it's useful to remember that they're not startled by sound if they knock something over so are not more cautious as a result. It’s important to keep valuable things out of reach. Advantages are that they are not afraid or spooked by hoovers and appliances. Arabella likes to join in with housework but you have to be careful not to tread on her!”

Arabella wears a bell so she can be heard in the garden, and a small identity tag. Tony and Caroline have also taught her a series of hand signals to aid communication. Tony adds: “If we want to show we’re interacting with her we wiggle our fingers at her gently, and we will blow her kisses too. She sees our lips and she sees the fingers, and sometimes she’ll let out a little miaow back at us.

“Despite the responsibility and extra vigilance initially required with Arabella, she is such a lively, inquisitive, intelligent and comical little being that she keeps us thoroughly entertained and fully occupied! Both cats have retained their individual characters. Kimovich meanwhile has rediscovered his inner kitten and is much morechatty with a range of vocalisations. We joke that Arabella and Caroline are alike, both being feisty and immediate, while Kimovich and I are quieter and more measured in our approach, possibly demonstrating that pets reflect their owners’ personalities!

Blue Cross stitched Kimovich and Arabella back together, but by taking a chance on these two broken and unwanted cats, and going further still to ensure a happy and healthy life, Tony and Caroline have given them the gift of the perfect future they could only dream of when they were recovering on our hospital ward. And in return they have brought such joy to their owners. 

And as Tony says: “Cats and dogs make a house a home.”