Bounce's Broken Leg

I didn't want the kitten when my husband brought him home. This is the kind of thing we usually discuss before it is done, but my husband just brought this cat home without even talking to me about it. I am allergic to cats, and we already had one, which I thought was more than enough. "He is just going to be a barn cat," my husband said. "He can kill mice out in the barn." Yep, except that this cat couldn't hunt worth beans.

The kitten was skittish, and literally bounced from one place to another, especially when frightened by anything. This is how he earned his name: Bounce. Bounce eventually got used to our family, and worked his way into my heart and into the house. He was such a good cat, and so loving to those he decided to trust.

One day, Bounce came in with a very visibly broken leg. We had no idea what had happened to him, but we knew he needed to be taken to the vet immediately. When the x-rays were done, the vet gave us the bad news. Bounce's leg was so terribly broken, it was just barely hanging onto his body by a thread of tissue.

My husband and I had made a previous agreement about how much we were willing to spend on pets in regards to emergency health care. The projected $1200 for his surgery was way out of the ballpark, and the vet couldn't even guarantee that it would work. The chances were slim that the leg could be repaired, and it may cause him more pain in the end.

I told my husband to bring Bounce back home so we could say good-bye to him there instead of at the vets. When Bounce came home, he was dragging his leg behind him, but I noticed that he didn't seem to be in any pain at all. We decided to wait to have him put to sleep, thinking that we could take him in immediately if he seemed to be in any pain. We decided we would pray for him to get better on his own. Days went by, and he still never gave any indication of pain. Then weeks went by, and he started walking on the leg. During this time, we received a sympathy card from the vet expressing their sorrow over the loss of our beloved pet. We chuckled. Bounce walked as if he never had a broken leg.

Several months later, I called to make an appointment for Bounce to have his vaccinations. The lady at the other end of the phone sounded a little confused. "Did you say you needed to make an appointment for Bounce? Is this a different Bounce?" No, it was the same Bounce, as fit as a fiddle and back to bouncing from place to place.