Tripod Jack proves that love
can travel on three legs just as well as four!
With Three Strikes, Jack Hits a Home Run
Picasso Veterinary Fund in Action! (May 2008)
Talk about bad luck: At only six months of age,
Jack had a fractured leg from a too-close encounter with a car,
a heart murmur, and an undescended testicle. That's the condition
the jet-black kitten was in when he was brought into the Animal
Care & Control (AC&C) Care Center on 110th Street in Manhattan
in April. But despite his abysmal physical condition, shelter staff
recognized a gem in the rough, and called the Mayor's Alliance for
assistance.
Jack was a classic candidate for medical assistance
paid for by the Picasso Veterinary Fund
of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals. He was a youngster who
probably would have been euthanized were it not for the fund, which
helps pay for extraordinary medical care for sick and injured animals
that arrive on AC&C's doorstep.
Jack enjoys playing with toys
and teasing his new "big brother" Buzzy.
So Jack was taken for treatment to Fifth
Avenue Veterinary Specialists (FAVS), a specialty hospital in
Chelsea that treats many Mayor's Alliance/Picasso animals. Because
of the nature of the fracture, it was in Jack's best interest for
the leg to be amputated. A FAVS surgeon performed the delicate operation,
and Jack was moved to ABC
Animal Hospital on Avenue B in Manhattan to recuperate. While
he was there, an ABC veterinarian corrected the testicle problem.
As for the heart murmur, Jack will live with it, with the possibility
that it will disappear as he grows older.
While Jack was undergoing his ordeal, Alison and
Phil, a Manhattan couple, were dealing with theirs: the loss of
their 11-year-old cat Ginger, who died of a heart attack and who,
like Jack, was a "tripod" (three-legger). They decided
they wanted to bring a new cat into their family, and, as luck would
have it, happened upon the Picasso Veterinary Fund web site, where
they saw Jack's posting.
When they met Jack face to face at the veterinary
hospital, Alison and Phil knew right away that Jack was the perfect
one. "After Ginger died, we didn't think about adopting another
tripod," says Alison. "We just wanted to fill the place
she had left empty. We wanted a cat who was right for us. And for
us, a cat with three legs is every bit as good as a cat with four."
And so, Jack's home run landed him in the care of
Alison and Phil, where daily he brings joy to his nurturing family.
Jack is a lucky boy indeed, and knows it — Alison says he
does somersaults when he plays with his toys, and leaps on one back
leg to tackle their other cat, 14-year-old Buzzy, an orange tabby,
with his two front paws. It just goes to show that extra special
cats like Jack can assimilate well into households with other cats.
Thanks to help from the Picasso
Veterinary Fund, Jack is healthy and happy in his new
Manhattan home.
Jack can thank the Picasso Veterinary Fund for his
good fortune, as can hundreds of other cats and dogs who, over the
past four years, have gotten a second chance at a good life as a
result of the medical care they received, paid for by the fund.
If you'd like to meet some of our former Picasso Veterinary Fund
recipients, click here.
And if you'd like to become a part of our growing
Picasso family by donating to the fund, we invite you to make
a tax-deductible donation online. Or, if you'd prefer, mail
your check, payable to "Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals"
with "Picasso Veterinary Fund" in the memo, to Mayor's
Alliance for NYC's Animals, Attn: Picasso Veterinary Fund, 244 Fifth
Avenue, Suite R290, New York, NY 10001. Please include your e-mail
address with your check.
If Jack could tell you, he'd say it's a wise investment
indeed!
