Ralph came to us through the Cats’ protection league in early August 2024, after having his leg accidentally caught in a car door. Three of the little bones in his left front paw were broken and one of his toes was dislocated.
For most animals in this position - very few options exist other than amputation of the leg. In this case, since Ralph was a young healthy 3 year old cat - the team was determined to try and save his leg against the odds!
Ralph was set to stay with his family, under strict crate rest with a splinted bandage while he healed up.
Unfortunately during this time his owner’s 2 year old daughter became very unwell with asthma, and Ralph’s family found out that one of the major triggers was cat hair. They made the very difficult decision to surrender Ralph to the Cats’ protection league during this time.
Because Ralph required numerous bandage changes and progress x-rays we decided to have Ralph stay with us for the duration of his recovery. He became part of the family and even on occasion went home with Dr Ebeneze’s family (their cat Riley was not impressed with the visitor).
Over the course of 4 months at Takurua Vets, Ralph had numerous bandage changes, x-rays, laser therapy and rehab sessions with Dr Karen Valu - who also very generously offered up her time to help Ralph. His wee bones healed up and he was able to start wandering around without his bandage. He immediately became more playful and interactive. It was amazing to see him use his injured paw to bat toys around, run around and use a cat scratcher.
He is loving life as a 4 legged cat and he is getting more confident walking and running on his healed paw every day!!
Ralph is currently in the process of being adopted to a new forever home through the Cats’ protection league.
