Cat McAuliffe
When Rose Mary Millan learned about Scooter, a paralyzed kitten who had been rescued near the trash cans in a market close to her home in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and taken to an animal clinic, she wanted to help the young feline. “I stopped by the vet clinic to meet him, give him a kiss, and leave a donation toward his vet bills,” remembers Rose Mary. “It was December 22nd, 2018.”
While speaking with Scooter’s rescuer, Rose Mary discovered he would be spending the holidays at the clinic, and a veterinary technician would be stopping by twice a day to care for the cute three-month-old Siamese cat.
At the time, the apartment Rose Mary was living in strictly forbade pets, and yet she impulsively offered to foster Scooter until he found his forever home. “I couldn’t handle the thought of Scooter staying in a cage for who knows how long,” explains Rose Mary.
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Plus, Rose Mary had experience caring for people with disabilities, including her friend Shannon, a woman who is paralyzed from the neck down, so she felt confident she would be able to tend to Scooter’s special needs. “It never ceases to amaze — and horrify — me to see people with disabilities treated differently; often condescendingly and sometimes even cruelly,” says Rose Mary. “So when I came across Scooter and held him, I felt an indescribable wave of love and wanted nothing more than to help him heal.”
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Just three days before Christmas 2018, Rose Mary brought Scooter home with her, intending to foster him until he got adopted, but it wasn’t long before she was smitten with the paralyzed kitten and decided to keep him forever.
Nearly two years later, Scooter is doing great, and while he’s not a good candidate for surgery because he suffered a complete spinal fracture and also has an enlarged heart, making anesthesia extremely risky, he is a good candidate for stem cell therapy. “Eventually we hope to be able to afford such treatment and give him some mobility in his legs and possibly even the ability to walk again,” says Rose Mary.
Despite being unable to walk, Scooter is still able to enjoy an incredibly happy and active life, and he is able to move so quickly, only the kittens Rose Mary fosters are able to keep up with him.
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“He scoots around like a little motor scooter,” says Rose Mary, and he loves chasing bugs, playing with other cats, and bird watching. “We often wonder if his neck is sore from endlessly staring at them in the trees!”
However, Scooter has had some health problems over the past two years, including issues with his urinary tract that required veterinary care. “They decided to flush his bladder, but the vet seriously injured his urethra while doing so,” explains Rose Mary. “Then in a desperate attempt to cover up their mistake and keep me from running out to get a second opinion — and find out what they had done to him — they insisted on euthanizing him!”
Fortunately, Rose Mary refused to have Scooter put to sleep, and while he endured pain and urinated blood following the botched procedure, this handsome special needs cat has fully recovered from the incident. Sadly, Rose Mary still occasionally encounters individuals who recommend euthanizing Scooter, including complete strangers, which she believes is because they’re simply projecting how they think they would feel if they were paralyzed and incontinent like this special boy.
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“Animals experience pain, discomfort, or whatever it might be; however, they do not think of themselves as less for having a disability as humans would do,” says Rose Mary, who now has years of experience caring for both people and animals with special needs. “They don’t feel sorry for themselves. They don’t add emotional pain to their physical shortcomings.”
Instead, Rose Mary has found Scooter, and other special needs animals, don’t focus on their limitations. Unlike a lot of people, they live in the moment, appreciating everything their bodies and minds allow them to do, which makes paralyzed cats like Scooter incredibly inspiring.
“He enjoys life so much, he very often reminds us what life is all about: living the present moment deeply and earnestly without dwelling on the past or fearing what the future might bring,” says Rose Mary.
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While it’s impossible to say what the future holds for Scooter, it’s much brighter than it would have been without Rose Mary and her husband. After all, when Rose Mary met Scooter for the first time, he’d recently been found near trash cans, injured and alone, and now he’s safe, happy, and surrounded by love.
Without a doubt, Rose Mary has had a tremendous impact on Scooter’s quality of life, but the effect he has had on her life is arguably just as significant. “What does Scooter mean to me?” asks Rose Mary. “A lot of things come to mind, but unconditional love stands out.”
To learn more about this handsome cat, you can follow Scooter on Instagram.
