Rupert
This is Rupert - he's three months old and on April 26th he had an accident - we aren't sure how, but he got caught in the tires of a car. He was very badly injured and was taken to the Orange County Shelter - they took good care of him but couldn't do medically what was needed to save his life.

A "rescuer" took him out of the shelter and took him home to the San Diego area - we found out that this "rescuer" didn't have the expertise to deal with a kitten with these special needs. We got a hold of the person and they agreed to turn the kitten over to us. One of our fosters drove to San Diego and picked up the kitten from this "rescuer" who lives in a million dollar home. Our foster stated that she could smell the infection from his bandaged feet before she even held him in her arms. She rushed him back to Los Angeles and to the emergency clinic.

At the ER we took off the bandages, the right leg was infected but not horribly - the left foot was so infected it had gangrened and literally most of it came off with the bandages - it was horrendous to say the very least.

Through all of this he purred and was alert, even though he was completely dehydrated and had a temperature of 104.4 - the vet rushed him to the back and we thought for sure we'd have to euthanize him. She called us into the back and there he was having his gangrened foot cleaned off (or what was left of it) purring away and eating like a starving kitten. There was no way we could euthanize him - he had to have a chance at life. So, we gave the go ahead to do what they needed to do to save his life.

The "rescuer" in San Diego was called and told that because of their neglect, (the entire four days he was with them they gave him NO medical care, no vet visit, no anti-biotics or pain killers, nothing but food and water) that now he was in the emergency room on IV fluids, antibiotics and pain killers. They refused to take any responsibility for their neglect and refused to even donate one dime. We now face paying the large emergency room bill and months of rehabilitation and possible surgeries. With proper medical care Rupert would have recovered fully from the fractures but now faces the possibility of amputation.

We reach out to you, the animal loving public to please make a donation to help Rupert and cats like him that otherwise would die neglected, alone and scared.