D.W. arrives on Tripawds

My furry feline friend is happy to join this site. She is my first tripod pet and it has been a journey learning about her unique attributes, watching her grow, and loving the heck out of her.

She was born to a very young mother (my daughter Raeghan’s cat), one of five kittens, born on me and my wife’s bed. D.W.’s left front leg was attached via the umbilical to another kitten. The cord was so tightly wrapped that it had molded onto her leg and hardened almost completely severing the paw, which dangled uselessly. I held the newborn kitten as my wife cut away the umbilical and removed the kittens from each other. Sarah is quite handy that way. I named the newborn kitten D.W. after the canine character, Dirty White, from John Irving’s novel “Avenue of Mysteries”, for no real reason other than I loved the book and had the name going through my head at the moment, and the kitten needed a name. We have called her D.W. ever since. A day later the paw was completely detached. Two of the kittens in the litter died within the first 48 hours, but D.W. was a fighter.

After a week, however, the skin and fur receded, leaving a portion of bone protruding. The veterinarian went in and removed the bone up to about D.W.’s knee. I grew up on a farm and was used to all sorts of animal issues from cattle to cats, but this something new to me and very tough. We cleaned her wound daily and gave her antibotic for a couple weeks and watched her grow. She’s now 13 months old and a huge part of the family. There have been worries along the way, primarily a stretch several months back when she began yowling, in great pain, kicking out her stubby leg so viciously that it flipped her over completely. My concern led me to the tripawds.com page where I found a number of entries on the subject and began treating D-Dub for this phantom leg pain. It had happened a couple of times over a short period of time, but has not happened again in the past five months.

In the past few days she has developed a scab over her stub, possibly from wrestling around with another one of my daughter’s cats. We’ve treated it over the past few days but it hasn’t seemed to get better. If it doesn’t get better by tomorrow, I’m afraid a trip to the vet will be in order for Super Meow (the super hero nickname given her by my daughter). Hoping for the best. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.