Cat McAuliffe
When Lauren met Bug for the first time in July 2018, she was just five months old and suffering from severe facial trauma. “She was brought into the veterinary hospital I work at,” explains Lauren. “Her owners’ dog had bitten her in the face and she was in bad shape.” It wasn’t the first time one of the family’s pets had injured the little grey kitten — and they couldn’t afford the treatment required to save her — so the staff at the vet’s office convinced Bug’s owners to surrender her to them.
Despite having extensive, life-threatening wounds, Bug was delighted to be with the staff at the animal hospital, and she purred every time she saw Lauren or one of her colleagues. Amazed by her resilience and positive attitude, Lauren felt an instant connection with the injured kitten who obviously had a lot of life left in her, regardless of the trauma she’d endured. “I begged our doctor to do whatever he could to save her life or at least extend it the best we could,” remembers Lauren.
Determined to do everything in her power to help Bug, Lauren agreed to take full responsibility for her recovery, even offering to foster the little kitten at her home while she recuperated. Thanks to everyone’s incredible efforts, Bug pulled through, and at the end of August 2018, she was well enough to be discharged into Lauren’s care.
Over the course of the following weeks, Lauren continued nursing Bug back to health, cleaning her wounds, giving her daily medication, and — due to the injuries to her jaw — feeding her through a syringe.
“Naturally, after tending to and caring for a creature for a while, you start to form a connection,” says Lauren. “I could tell she truly appreciated what I was doing for her, and she never fought me to take her medication or when I fed her food.”
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While she initially had to keep Bug separated from her other pets, once the kitten’s wounds healed, Lauren was able to introduce her to her calico cat and two dogs. “I could tell she was very interested and eager to meet the creatures behind the door,” explains Lauren. “From the start, she adored everyone and ran right up to them fearlessly and made friends, and I knew I could not separate her from her new family she made.”
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Not only did Bug love Lauren’s other pets, throughout her entire recovery, she remained a sweet, affectionate, and incredibly happy girl. “She was always purring,” says Lauren. “I couldn’t recall a time when she was silent.” Convinced Bug was meant to be with her forever, Lauren officially adopted her, but it wasn’t long before an appointment with a specialist revealed she needed to have her non-functioning eye removed.
“The day I brought her in they did an internal scan of her face and found quite an extensive amount of issues,” remembers Lauren. “Her eye needed to be removed before it became infected, so they decided to keep her that day and do surgery.” Though Lauren hated being apart from Bug, the little kitten was in good hands: while Bug was recovering from the surgery, the staff, obviously smitten with the adorable little cat, kept her mom updated with lots of photos.
The day after the surgery, the staff contacted Lauren to let her know how Bug had done overnight, and they informed her they had never had a patient quite like her. “She was happy to see staff bright and early and she was purring away, ready for some pets and scratches,” says Lauren. After three days in the hospital, Bug was allowed to return home with Lauren, and while she didn’t enjoy having to wear a cone for two weeks, she was back to her old self once it was removed.
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“The second it came off she took off, running around and loving life,’ remembers Lauren. “I was worried how she would be after because that is a pretty big adjustment to work on, but it didn’t phase her.” It’s been several months since the surgery, and Bug is doing great as a one-eyed cat, and even the damage to her jaw has gotten better over time, making it possible for her to eat small amounts of dry food. However, she will need to have annual scans of her jaw, she is prone to sinus infections, her nasal passage is at risk of collapsing, and her coordination is a bit impaired due to having one eye, so Bug needs more care than the average feline.
“Her nose constantly needs to be cleaned because she gets dry discharge around it and she can’t breath,” says Lauren, “and she does run into things every once in awhile, but we work with her everyday to keep her healthy.” Thanks to Lauren’s care and attention, this one-eyed beauty is loving life, whether she’s watching birds from her window seat, playing with a ball or a piece of string, or spending time with her siblings.
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“She loves playing with her sisters,” says Lauren. “If anything, they need breaks from her because she is like a ball of energy that nobody can keep up with.” This gorgeous girl, who got her name because Lauren kept calling her “little love bug,” also adores being with her mom, the person who saw something special in Bug and begged the vet to save her life.
Several months after meeting this adorable kitten for the first time, Lauren is so thankful she got the opportunity to make Bug a member of her family. “Whatever you’re doing, she has to be there with you, trying to help,” says Lauren. “Naturally, every animal you invite into your home changes your life, but Bug has help me to enjoy things more and taught me so much spiritually.”
