I first saw bones asleep under our truck on the day before we were supposed to leave for vacation. The temperatures were in the 100s that day, with a heatwave forecast for the entire time we were to be gone, so I gave the poor, starving cat some food and water.
Then I called animal control to come get him. They take cats to a nearby no-kill shelter and I felt that was the cat's only chance to survive the heatwave. By the time they got here, he had vanished.
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He's so thin that I can hardly stand to pet him, except for on his head and his tail. He's literally just skin and bones. As far as we can tell, though, he is just malnourished.
He's missing large clumps of fur and seems to have an injury in his mouth, but there are no other bruises, cuts, or lesions of any kind. His eyes are bright and the fur he does still have is soft, shiny and not matted. He is the most loving cat I've known in a long, long time, and not fearful of us in the least. He was obviously a pet until just recently, as he has no front claws and has been neutered. We suspect someone moved and left him behind, either because they couldn't find him or couldn't take him with them for some reason.
He stays in our front yard and sleeps in the storm drain when he's not eating or being petted by us. We are careful to wash our hands thoroughly after we are done petting him. We don't plan to bring him inside with our other cats, but will be glad to have him as another outside cat. We will eventually have him checked out by a vet to assess his health. We don't want to do so just yet, because we are afraid the vet will want to put him down. We don't think that's going to be necessary, though.
Stay tuned for more pics as Bones (hopefully) puts on some weight and becomes a healthy cat again.
