If cats have nine lives, this one has used up at least one of them.
Dubs, the latest arrival at the Flin Flon, Creighton and Area SPCA animal shelter, arrives from hundreds of kilometres away – and with a painful past.
Shelter manager Carmen Ward recently stopped at an A&W restaurant near Oyen, Alberta, when a rough-looking white and grey cat approached her and her husband.
“His tail was straight up, he had purpose in his eye and he had a story to tell us,” says Ward.
Some cat food solved the feline’s obvious hunger, but questions remained around the gaping hole in one shoulder and the large abscess in the other.
No one around seemed to know or care much about the cat, so Ward called the Saskatoon SPCA, which agreed to take in the feline because he was injured.
When Ward later arrived in Saskatoon, she handed Dubs over to the SPCA. Unfortunately, a worker said the cat’s chances of being adopted were slim with so many other cats – healthy cats – staying at the shelter.
Ward decided to take the cat back to the Flin Flon animal shelter, where he would be nursed back to health and, hopefully, find a permanent home.
When she later took Dubs to the veterinarian, it was suggested he had been shot, likely with a BB gun. Surgery revealed it was no pellet, but rather a .22 bullet.
“Someone really didn’t want Dubs around and did their best to get rid of him,” says Ward. “Lucky for Dubs, the bullet missed all his vital organs and it never shattered his shoulder blades. He is one lucky cat.”
Ward believes forces were at work to bring Dubs to Flin Flon. She discovered that friend and local SPCA volunteer Barb Petrie had come across the same cat while in Oyen a few weeks earlier.
“Barb tried to coax him to come to her but he wasn’t having anything to do with her,” Ward said. “He was scared and just too spooked to come to her. Barb and I think he may have been shot near this time and was in pain.”
While the Flin Flon shelter is at full capacity for cats, Ward simply couldn’t leave Dubs behind.
She hopes someone will want to adopt Dubs – named after the W in A&W – and give him the home and love he has been lacking. Information is available by calling 204-687-8744.
Editor’s note: This article was sourced from a Facebook post written by Carmen Ward. It was printed with her permission.
