The second Adoptions Director Kendall Schulz laid eyes on the emaciated cat that stretched before her, she knew his survival was on the line. The grey-brown tabby had been found abandoned in northern San Diego county. He lacked energy. Skin draped over his hefty frame. Schulz suspected his previous owners had not only abandoned the famished feline, but neglected him too. She made the call that Helen Woodward Animal Center needed to rescue him.
An emaciated Stevie the day he came to Helen Woodward Animal Center.
The first thing we did was perform an intake exam. Medical Director Dr. Alexis Siler wanted to make sure there were no possible infections causing his almost skeletal appearance. During the exam, she reported being able to feel the gaunt cat’s kidneys. The medical team gave Stevie emergency fluids and sent him off to foster care where he could gain weight in a calm, loving home.
“If we hadn’t taken him in and given him fluids,” Siler said, “he wouldn’t have made it another day.”
The road to recovery in foster care wasn’t linear. In those first few weeks, Stevie’s health troubles continued. The foster family reported he wasn’t eating. He had bouts of diarrhea and experienced pain when swallowing. The medical team performed another exam and ran some tests. They discovered his body was in overdrive fighting off infection. Dr. Siler prescribed Stevie painkillers to help him get food down, and an antibiotic to fight the infection.
Four days later, at his next checkup, Stevie seemed like a different cat. The foster reported the tabby was eating again! He wasn’t vomiting, and he had even started to gain weight. It became clear that Stevie was thriving in his foster home. With every Veterinary check up, he looked more and more like a happy and healthy kitty.
The adoptions team elected to keep him in foster care until the beginning of April. He had a few run ins with various diseases, and they wanted to make sure he was 100% healthy before sending him out to find his forever family. Finally, during the second week of April, Dr. Siler cleared Stevie to start the search for his permanent people.
Only, the search didn’t last long — because Stevie had already found them.
The day the adoptions staff made Stevie available, his foster family lined up in front of the Center’s doors to take him home. They couldn’t bear life without the radiant grey-brown tabby, and the adoptions staff were quick to get Stevie home. An hour later, the family was reunited, where they’ve been living happily ever after since.
