On very expensive, purring things found in my front yard..

So this morning, around noon, I headed out the door to go to church, hit the gym, and possibly early vote. That's when I heard a rustling in the hideous little ornamental garden that's outside my front basement window - and was rather surprised to see a pair of cat eyes looking back at me. I walked towards the cat, and he ran away - if you can use the word "run" for a cat who can't use his back legs.

He scampered under another bush in my neighbor's yard. I put out some food, grabbed Nibbler's cat carrier, but had no luck getting him to come out. Luckily, one of my neighbors who has cats came home, and I grabbed him and got him to help me catch the cat and took him to a 24 hour emergency vet.

When we got him out of the carrier, it was pretty obvious what was wrong - his one leg pretty much had the bones poking out. He was hit by a car. Vet basically said it would probably make sense to euthanize, but they could do some tests and x-rays. I didn't want to make the call to kill him without giving him a chance, so I said to go ahead with the bloodwork. Bloodwork came back OK, so they did x-rays. Verdict was that he will need a leg amputated, the other one bandaged, at a cost of several thousand. I wasn't really ready to commit to that, but I didn't want to have him put to sleep without giving him a shot. So the vet suggested bandaging him up, and having me take him to a normal vet tomorrow. So I decided to that.

So now I have one bandaged stray cat locked in my second bathroom. He's currently mostly in the carrier, presumably wacked out on the pain meds they gave him. Nibbler, my cat, seems freaked out by the other cat's presence.

The other concern is the weather - we're about to get hit by Hurricane Sandy. My work is already closed for tomorrow. I'm hoping I can find a vet that is open tomorrow that morning that can do the surgery, or at least change the bandages.

So why am I doing this? I feel like I need to do something - I guess I'm hoping that he picked my yard to hide in for a reason, and that it's meant to be. Which is probably a stupid idea - when I was in college, I had a faculty member who made fun of "touchdown Jesus" - the idea that, if there is a God, he actually cares if your team wins the game. I find the idea of a micro-managing God unlikely.

But I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't do everything within reason to help him. I have quite a bit of money in savings - I have a decent job, I live frugally, so I've saved enough that I can spend a few thousand dollars. It's mostly a question if I should, but it looks like I'm on the path to do that. I figure some people like to spend their extra money on travel, or motorcycles, or home improvement projects - none of which particularly interest me. I don't have a spouse or kids depending on me, so I can be free-er with how I spend my money.

So hopefully he'll pull through, hopefully he'll get along with Nibbler, hopefully I'll be able to get him to a vet tomorrow. As I said, I'm not always sure if there is a God, let alone if He cares about cats, but if you do the praying thing feel free to keep him and me in your prayers - or at least grant me some wisdom

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