Organization, community rally to provide surgery for injured cat in Winslow

WINSLOW, Maine (WABI) - Less than two weeks before Christmas, a family was gifted a miracle when hope seemed lost to help their injured cat.

On the morning of December 14th, Ashley Whitman of Winslow started getting frantic phone calls.

“So I was at work at 8 o’clock,” said Ashley Whitman, Missy’s owner. “My phone started going off, so I answered it real quick, and it was my fiancé who was home at the time with my mom. He said Missy just came home. She’s bleeding all over the place and her front leg is mangled.”

They believe Missy got caught in something and hurt herself trying to get out.

Unfortunately, Ashley’s local vet was already in surgery and couldn’t help.

So she started calling other vets in the area.

“No one could see her, no one could help us,” said Whitman. “The only place that could even look at her was all the way in Westbrook.”

An emergency animal hospital, they said Missy’s leg would need to be amputated which would cost $5,000, a price she could not afford.

So she called back her original vet.

“Our vet goes, we can’t do something that big until the 17th of January, but if you want to come in tomorrow morning, we can put her down for you,” said Whitman.

All of her roads lead her to one last option.

Hart of Maine in Portland.

“Their organization found a vet in Saco that would do Missy’s operation for $1,700,” said Whitman. “I was like, I only have a grand, so let me try and come up with the other $700. And he was like, if you can put your $1,000 down today when you drop her off, we’ll start a fundraiser and raise the rest of the money for you.”

Hart of Maine offers support like this to any cat in need.

“The best part about it is that complete strangers overnight when he created this Facebook post for a fundraiser for her had donated over $1,000 just overnight,” said Whitman. “That was like our Christmas miracle. I was in tears, happy tears at that point.”

So Missy had her procedure and is now back home recovering.

“They had said that in a couple of weeks she will be back up to jumping on counters and running around, but the little bit that she moves in her crate, it’s like she still has four legs,” said Whitman.

The fundraiser actually totaled about $2,700.

The extra proceeds will go toward helping other injured cats.

If you’d like to learn more about the work at Hart of Maine animal shelter, you can visit their website.

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