A group of children were playing outside their apartments in Arizona when they came across a tiny kitten. Initially, they may have wanted to play with it, but it soon became clear that it was incapable of playing, writes kittencatpost.
They did the right thing and brought the little bundle straight to his parents who called Kathy Hamel, director of Arizona Shih Tzu and Small Breed Rescue.
Had his previously apparently broken back legs been wrapped in some fancy rough casts? As soon as Kathy arrived she knew this kitten needed to be taken to her vet to have those legs evaluated.
One of the little kids who had brought the kitten to their parents came with Kathy. She was probably 3 or 4 years old, she had named the kitten Cupcake and Kathy had promised her she would keep the name.
It’s so nice to see that these children were kind to Cupcake and helped her, some children can be cruel like these children were to this kitten.
Once they got to the vet they discovered that the casts had to be soaked in water in order to be removed.
The vet took Cupcake’s cast off and expected the worst, after all they were just covered in wooden splints and pieces of cloth. One of the casts was wrapped so tightly around the kitten’s tiny paw that it had to soak a little longer.
Even though neither the vet nor Kathy had ever seen anything like it, the rudimentary casts did the job.
Kathy said, “Aside from the strange apparatus she was dragging around, she was so incredibly small! She looked much bigger in the photo I was sent. It’s unclear who put the cast on 6-week-old Cupcake and left her outside, but it took her little time to adjust to her new human friends.
“She’s a tough little girl with a wonderful spirit,” Hamel said. “She’s been so tolerant of all the tugging and washing and prodding and needles and thermometers and being handled by countless people, all of whom are just trying to help her. She purrs and craves attention and seems to hold no grudges against humans for whatever they’ve done to her.
She now has a foster family placed and waiting to take her home.
The kitten weighed only a pound when her casts were removed, and she still needs to gain some weight before she can leave the shelter. Luckily, Cupcake already has a foster family ready to help her while she recovers.
Cupcake is getting healthier every day.
“She pushes her head against your finger so you can rub her and scratch her head,” Hamel said. “She loves to be petted but she’s so small you can only pet her with [a] finger or two and not a whole hand yet.”
