Anna's Story

It's -24 degrees out as I write this with wind chills somewhere in the -50's, needless to say it's cold and miserable out. Five years ago last night we had the same type of weather and my husband and I were coming home from our neighbor's house when I saw a kitty running down the road. We stopped the car and me being the cat lady that I am got out to try and catch her so I could get her inside. Unfortunately she ran through some brush and up a tree so I wasn't able to get to her. I felt terrible leaving her out there but had hope that she would find her way to our cat house.
 (For those of you that haven't been here or haven't heard my kitty stories we have a remodeled Grainery that was to be used for a type of mother in law suite but I have since converted it to being the cat house. It is heated, has electricity, plumbing, furniture, and a  "cat door, " etc. so that all of our rescues and strays have a safe place to stay. Since we have moved here we have caught, tamed, spayed/neutered, vaccinated, fed/watered and cared for dozens of previously feral cats. Most of them are so thankful to have a loving place to call home that they never leave which is totally fine with me.)
Anyways, the stray kitty was in a tree not too far from the cat house so I hoped that she'd make it inside before she got too cold.
The next morning I got up to do chores and when I walked inside the cat house there she was, this tiny Calico cat with ears so frost bitten they had literally died and were flopped over, her tail was half frozen and she kept rotating which paws to stand on because they too were frost bitten and cracked open. I immediately called the vet and rushed her to the clinic where they removed the dead tissue from her ears, removed part of her tail, and gave her laser therapy on the pads of her paws to help heal the cracks.

It took some time for the damage to heal but she made it and that day I think she realized that she could love and trust me. We named her Anna, got her nice and friendly, vaccinated her, spayed her, gave her lots of love and she's still here to this day. This morning when I walked into the cat house to check on everyone she was curled up on the couch on top of her favorite blanket safe and warm like every animal should be. 

The reason why I am telling you this is because frostbite is not a joke, it can happen fast, do a lot of damage and be deadly. Please keep your animals inside when it is super cold outside. Please check on your friends and neighbors who have pets to see if they need any help and do not hesitate to report someone who leaves their pets outside and unattended to in the cold. 

Stay safe and warm everyone!