So what if I look different? 

      Five little kittens busily nursing on their proud mother.  She is purring and kneading her paws, watching over her precious babies carefully.  She grooms them and keeps them clean, patiently lets them play with her tail and ears and makes sure they are safe.  This sight always evokes a smile, the happy kittens growing and playing together with their doting mother.

      But wait, when the kittens all get up and start to play, one is left behind.  He limps forward, trying to catch up to his siblings, but there is obviously something wrong.  His right front leg is crooked and can’t support his weight.  It doesn’t seem to be painful, he gamely joins in the play as he can.

      When Ellie and her 5 kittens came to us for adoption, we noticed immediately that something was wrong with one kitten’s leg.  It would have been easy to turn the 5-week old kitten away.  Maybe the leg would require extensive surgery, maybe it would make the little black kitten hard to adopt, maybe he would be more difficult to care for.   But those considerations did not enter in to the discussion that went on about the kitten.  Our questions were whether he was in pain, what would we need to do to determine if he needed surgery and how we could best care for him until he could be adopted into his forever home.  He needed our help just like his siblings. We named him Elliot and prepared to do what we needed to make him a healthy, happy kitten.

      A few days later, we did x-rays and discovered that his right leg was missing the radius, the weight bearing bone.  So that was why it was bent and couldn’t support his weight.  By then we had determined that he was not in pain and the leg did not slow him down much at all.

      He was sent to foster with his siblings and they were raised with love and care.  He learned how to get around with his leg and adapted very well.  Jumping and running with his brothers and sisters, sometimes the foster didn’t even notice that he was different from his family.  Soon the little kittens were big enough to be altered and go available and little Elliot was put in one of the front kennels.  He jumped from level to level with no problem and played with his toys.

      He was adopted by his forever family shortly after being made available and is now part of their happy home.