Everyone needs a little help sometimes. Nature can be unforgiving and mankind can be unspeakably cruel. Cats are often abandoned and left to fend for themselves. When the going gets tough, a little care and compassion can go a long way to bring out the survivor in a kitty.
4 Paws 1 Heart
4 Paws 1 Heart is an organization in Metro Detroit that helps to support the local animal rescues. They do not provide a shelter or fostering themselves, but they do provide funding for the medical treatment of homeless cats and dogs . Their mission statement is as follows: “Our mission is to reduce the number of homeless cats & dogs by paying for needed medical treatment and assisting with the permanent placement of these animals through our partnerships with local rescue groups.” They are local heros who have come alongside brave cats and dogs in their darkest of hours.
I had the honor of doing a phone interview with, Diana, one of the founders of 4 Paws 1 Heart. She gave me the stories several of the survivor cats that 4 Paws 1 Heart has helped to rescue over the last few years. These stories are both heart breaking and heart warming at the same time. I promise that they all have a happy ending, but some of the “before” photos may be a bit graphic.
5 Pawsome Survivor Cats
Survivor #1: Izzy
Izzy was rescued just in time. One night this past January (2015), when it was below 0ºF (-18ºC), a woman found Izzy shivering under her porch and made a call to 4 Paws 1 Heart. He was suffering from a severe upper respiratory infection. His eyes were so crusted over that the rescuers thought he was missing an eye! The drainage from his eyes and nose had frozen to his face and left his face red and raw. His mouth was full of ulcers that made it difficult for him to eat.
Izzy was rushed to the Animal Urgent and Critical Care where he received the best of care from 4 Paws 1 Heart’s other founder, Gina. He required IV fluids/meds, nebulizing treatments, syringe feeding, medications, and more. After about a week in the hospital he was able to be transferred to a foster home.
On March 3, 2015 Izzy found his forever home! He loves getting attention and, of course, food. It turns out that he’s a total lap cat!
Survivor #2: Minnow
Little Minnow was found in Novi, Michigan this past October wrapped in fishing line and with a fishing hook caught in her belly. The good samaritan that found her was kind enough to drive her all of the way to Animal Urgent and Critical Care (about an hour long drive). The veterinarians were able to successfully remove the fishing hook. It just missed her vital organs! Due to trauma and bacteria from the fishing hook, she had to loose a little skin.
After almost 3 weeks in the hospital, Minnow was released to a foster home. There is potential that the family fostering her will adopt her, but there has not been an official decision as of yet. She is an absolute cutie pie!
Survivor #3: Keller
Keller was only 10 weeks old when a woman heard him crying outside. He had an abnormality in both eyes and was very scared. The woman called 4 Paws 1 Heart and met with Gina in a parking lot to deliver the kitten. As it turned out, Keller had been born with a congenital abnormality in both eyes where the eyes were too small and the eye lids formed abnormally. Surgery had to be done to remove the eyes because one had ruptured and the other was destined to do the same. There was a high risk of aggressive cancer later in life if the eyes were not removed.
The great people of 4 Paws 1 Heart went to work raising the money for Keller’s $2,000 surgery. In about a week, Keller was on the surgery schedule. Keller had a little bit of a bad reaction to the surgery, but there was no permanent damage and it was otherwise successful.
Keller was in a foster home before he had his eye surgery. The family loved him so much, that they decided to adopt him themselves! Keller is a curious, playful, attention loving cat – and I hear he’s a good mouser too. He just loves his new doggy brother, Taz. Blindness does not slow this guy down at all!
Survivor #4: Soup
There is a reason that this survivor cat is named Soup. A woman found him on a lawn with a soup can stuck on his head. The woman brought him to Animal Urgent and Critical Care to be freed from the can. After Soup was placed under anesthesia, the soup can was carefully removed and he was neutered. On further investigation, veterinarians discovered that Soup was in more trouble than they had thought. He must have been attacked by another animal while the can was on his head. Soup’s tail had puncture wounds, his pelvis was shattered, and his femur was dislocated. He needed to see an orthopedic specialist. Soup’s recovery was slow, but steady.
Soup spent a little over a year in foster care before being adopted. He is a sweet kitty that loves belly rubs! His relationship with is new kitty sister, Whiskers, is coming along slowly but surely too.
How You Can Be a Kitty’s Hero
There are a number of ways you can be a hero to the survivor cats in your neighborhood:
- Adopt a cat from a rescue or shelter.
- Become a foster parent for homeless cats while they are looking for a forever home. There is a great need for fosters right now!
- Volunteer at your local rescue or shelter. Any time or talent that you might have is helpful.
- Donate money or participate in fundraisers for your local rescue or shelter.
- Participate in your local law making practices and be a voice for pets.
- Educate others about the needs of your local companion animal population.
- Start a group like 4 Paws 1 Heart in your area and help fund what local rescues can’t.
If you are interested in learning more about or donating to 4 Paws 1 Heart, use the links below. They spent $84,000 last year alone on medical expenses for the homeless cats and dogs of Metro Detroit. Everything they do is volunteer. No one is on payroll and there is only 1 phone bill paid out of the donations received -everything else goes to the animals.
- 4 Paws 1 Heart’s main website and blog
- 4 Paws 1 Heart on Facebook
- Donate to 4 Paws 1 Heart
- 4 Paws 1 Heart’s Fundraisers
- Friends of 4 Paws 1 Heart – Find adoptable pets that were helped by 4 Paws 1 Heart
- Friends of 4 Paws 1 Heart on Facebook
N continmewed best fishes two everee one…high paws N headbonx two ewe izzy, minnow, keller & soup ♥♥♥
& inn deed we due noe a survivor cat…..butter lover boomer, R veree own… chef oh trout towne ♥♥♥
I’m glad that Boomer survived his ordeal! Troute Towne wouldn’t be the same without him 🙂 I will pass your message along to Izzy, Minnow, Keller, and Soup.
I was crying the whole time reading this – hurting for what the kitties went through, and then crying with joy at their happy-ever-after stories! Nothing makes me happier than these kinds of stories – thank you SO much for spreading the word!
You’re welcome! It broke my heart to hear what these kitties had gone through too. It is a wonderful feeling to know that they have had happy endings to their stories.
I love it when there is a happy ending,xx Rachel
So do I! Happy endings are the best. 🙂
Great stories of survival. Sharing.
Thank you so much for sharing this post! These stories might just inspire people to start helping cats and dogs the way that 4 Paws 1 Heart does. 🙂
Those were sure great stories! Thanks for sharing the smiles with us.
You’re welcome! I’m glad that 4 Paws 1 Heart was there to help these kitties so I could write about stories with happy endings. 🙂
Wow, those are such great stories. That was a great post. It is so good to hear about happy endings and all those kitties were so lucky to have someone find them. This is a great blog and good to meet you. Thanks too, for visiting our blog of many rescued cats.
Thank you for all of the compliments! It’s great to meet you too. These kitties are very lucky! They all have happy endings, which is pretty amazing if you ask me.
Good to see happy endings! Ellie
I agree! Not every kitty is so lucky.
My cat was a stray that we took in after he nearly died under the porch. The vet could never figure out what was wrong with him,but he seems to have some permanent neurological damage.
Awww. Poor kitty. I’m glad that you took him in and gave him a good life. That’s the best a kitty could hope for.
Wonderful post. The stories could have such different endings without this organization and others like it. If only every kitty could have a happy ending!
Thank you and I agree. The compassion shown by 4 Paws 1 Heart is amazing. Maybe more organizations like this will pop up and help even more distressed kitties.
Wow, thank goodness for places like 4 Paws 1 Heart. Thank you for sharing about them and the important work they do!
You’re welcome. It is an honor to be able to share about 4 Paws 1 Heart. You don’t run across such incredible organizations every day. There are a lot of cats and dogs that have had their lives changed.
What a great organization – and these kitties-in-need were so fortunate to get care from them.
I agree! These kitties could not have been in better hands in their time of need.
What touching stories. We’re so glad there are places like this who will help kitties in need.
I’m really glad that organizations like 4 Paws 1 Heart exist too. It’s amazing what a little compassion can do.
All amazing stories! It’s awesome to see such wonderful recoveries. And goodness… when you said hook, I was thinking a single one… but a treble hook? Poor girl. That thing is almost as big as her stomach!
I was shocked when I saw that photo of that hook too! That poor little kitty was really in a pickle there. I would have been so horrified if I had been the person who found her like that. Thank goodness she was able to get good help!
Those poor kitties, I am glad they all had a happy ending thanks to such a great group.
I’m glad they had happy endings too. It is so refreshing to see people love animals enough to go that far out of their way for them. 🙂
The befores breas out heart. TW hates reading these stories but was happy each had a happy ending. 4 Paws 1 Heart is a wonderful organization.
The befores break my heart too. It is so hard to see any kitty suffer. I am beyond grateful for the effort of compassionate people and organizations like 4 Paws 1 Heart.
Animals are so amazing with their resilience and adaptability. I so appreciate the angels that help and adopt those with special needs.
I agree. It really restores my faith in humanity when I find people like the ones at 4 Paws 1 Heart. It isn’t easy to help some of these precious furbabies.
This tugged at my heart strings!
Every animal deserves a happy ending but more importantly every animals deserves to not go through such horror!
<3
I agree with you! It is horrible to see what some animals go through. At least in these stories it doesn’t seem there was any intentional human cruelty. Unfortunately, there is a lot of it out there though.
Thanks for sharing these heart warming stories! I love a happy ending! 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂 I love a happy ending too.
Inspiring and incredible stories of kitty resilience and kindhearted people. Those four cats are truly fortunate – so heartbreaking to see where they all started. Thank you for supporting this rescue; I know they are so grateful. P.S. I just adopted my most recent foster cat, Frances, who was so terrified at the shelter, she wouldn’t move (only eating and stuff in the dark of night). Such a love bug she turned out to be. 🙂
Thank you so much! These kitties and this organization are really awesome. I’m glad to hear that you adopted a kitty and that she is doing well in your care. Thank you for caring for her the way you do! Shelters are really not an ideal situation for cats.
I had to hand Mommy a tissue for this story. I’m a survivor kitty, but I was lucky compared to these kitties. I donate 10% of the proceeds from my book to rescues andI’m going to make a donation to this organization!
Love,
I’m so glad that you survived your ordeal. Is the link to your book on your site? I would love to give it a social media share at the very least.Thank you for making a donation to 4 Paws 1 Heart. They are doing a lot of good in Metro Detroit.
That’s so nice of you! Here is the link to Amazonhttp://www.amazon.com/Lola-Diary-Rescued-Dawn-White/dp/0983155259/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8
Those are some pretty serious survivor stories! So glad they are safe and on their way to a a much happier life.
So great to get a new lease on life.
So thankful for the happy endings for these kitties.
I love happy endings!!! Rescue people are heroes.
These break and melt my heart at the same time. I’ll never forget when I saw my Joey at the PetSmart adoption center. The first thing I noticed were his paws. They were severely deformed. I told myself that if he was still there a week later, I’d adopt him. Well, he was still there a week later. No one wanted a disabled cat. He had been in foster care for a year after being picked up by a good Samaritan when he was being chased by a dog on the street. More than 3 years later, I’m so happy that I adopted him. He’s an incredible cat!
Aw, poor kitties. What wonderful stories. I love happy endings!
Thx for getting the word out about pets in need – there are so many that need homes.
Loved reading these stories of survival! These kitties deserve the world! <3
I love reading about the work rescues do to save pets. I love the happy endings that are so needed for these precious pets..
I absolutely love this group; I heard about them a year or two ago when one of their rescue stories ended up on my FB feed and I’ve been a huge supporter ever since. What makes them so amazing is the connection that have with the community – they share the rescue stories and get people rooting for all the great work they do. I remember after I started following them how amazing their team work is – one afternoon they received a call about an abandoned dog with mange on the 75 overpass in Detroit.. They got her safe and it was so wonderful watching them get her back into great health and adopted. Thanks for sharing their wonderful work.
We like happy endings! Minnow reminded me of our old Ginger boy many years ago – the local boys used to fish in the creek behind our house and he came home with a fish hook stuck through his mouth and face one time…
Love a good rescue story. Glad these kitties are strong survivors!
These stories are amazing! What an awesome organization!
I agree! I am so glad that they are in my area. Metro Detroit is struggling in a lot of ways. It is great to see that we have a thriving sense of compassion.
How awesome! We need more stories like these! As well as organizations who are wiling to take care of the medically needy!
I agree! It is so hard to be able to get medical care for shelter cats. Sometimes a little bit of TLC can make them perfectly adoptable pets. Hopefully we will see more organizations like 4 Paws 1 Heart popping up around the country.