Blog the Change for Animals: Giving Nolan a Second Chance #BtC4A

I had something completely different planned for this month's Blog the Change, but it all got sidelined when this little guy showed up in my Facebook news feed:

Meet Nolan. Share Nolan.

Can you imagine living on the street as a cat with only half of your limbs? Visualize trying to hobble through the Wyoming snow, barely able to hold yourself up with your one front leg and one back leg. You can’t chase prey; you can’t even jump up into a dumpster in a desperate attempt to find some old moldy scraps thrown out by humans. You can’t run away from danger, or climb to safety. Every day, you get hungrier and hungrier, thinner and thinner, until you barely have the energy to move. Your body begins to shut down. You have given up on life.

And then, finally, someone finds you. They take you to a shelter, and they send you to a rescue. People give you food. They hold you. They tell you everything will be okay. And as you look up their faces, purring, more grateful than you have ever been in your whole life, you start to believe them. Because this is Second Chance, and now you will know what life should be like: filled with love; filled with hope.

Please donate to Nolan today – he needs your help! All donations are tax-deductible. If you can’t donate, please SHARE his story!

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2C66QQFY6N9PW

I could not get this little angel out of my head and started going through subsequent posts on the Second Chance Sheridan Cat Rescue's Facebook page. Here is what I learned:

Nolan was found with only two legs, and he had cuts and bruises covering his entire body, making it look like “he climbed up into an old car hood for warmth and was chopped up by something like a fan belt when the owner started the car.” He had severe frostbite on his ears and tail; the tip of his tail fell off after his bath because the tissue was dead. He also tested positive for FIV.

Then came the worst news of all. The lady who found him and took him to the shelter had just witnessed him being tossed out of a car. His legs had already been cut off. They believe that one leg was cut off about three months ago, and the other leg was cut off a month ago. He is terrified of men.

He has been stabilized and currently Nolan is scheduled for surgery tomorrow, April 16th. The vet will pull the extra skin over his front stump so it's not so exposed and remove his broken tooth. He also has a hernia, but they are leaving that alone for now because it's not causing him pain and cutting open his tummy would be too traumatic to his system right now.

I'm not going to spend time questioning what kind of a monster could do such a thing because it makes me too angry to coherently put words together. Such a "human being" shouldn't even be alive as far as I'm concerned. The most important thing we can do is make sure that Nolan lives the rest of his life knowing nothing but love, joy, and happiness. 

If you’d like to donate to the Rescue to help Nolan, you can do so on Paypal. They also have an Amazon wish list. He recently received a cosmic catnip toy which the shelter called "the most amazing thing that has ever happened to him." (Check out their Facebook page for amazing video of him.) At the top of their wish list right now is Whiskas Purrfectly Fish, the only wet food he'll eat. He loves belly rubs and head bops.

Please share Nolan's story wherever you can. Thank you.