Ginger cat Charlie has had a stressful time in lockdown – but it’s all turned out alright in the end.
Last month, animal welfare officers at Mayhew Animal Home were contacted by a concerned member of the public, who had spotted a cat with a sore-looking face hanging around her neighbourhood.
The tom cat had been visiting them for 10 days, and each day his wound seemed to be getting worse.
Due to the severity of the described injury and the person’s worries over whether the cat had an owner, Mayhew decided to admit the cat to their centre for a full health check.
Cat bites, wounds, and abscesses poses a risk to life if left untreated, as they can quickly foster infection – hence Mayhew’s decision to bring Charlie in, with the member of the public who found him doing a socially distanced handover in the shelter’s reception area.
They also put up posters in the local area to try to track down Charlie’s owner.
Although Charlie was clearly in a lot of pain when he arrived, he was a friendly boy and appeared domesticated. Head vet Justin checked him over and gently cleaned the wound, before giving Charlie a long-acting antibiotic injection and prescribing him a course of anti-inflammatory painkillers.
Charlie did not have a microchip, so staff settled him down in the cattery to heal and waited to see if anybody came forward to claim him.
As days went by, and no owner stepped forward to claim Charlie, staff prepared to put the cat up for adoption.
But then, two weeks later, they got the call they were hoping for. It turned out Charlie did have a loving owner, but had gone missing when his owner was isolating indoors with coronavirus symptoms, leaving him unable to search for his cat or see the posters.
Luckily, as soon as the owner had passed his mandatory 14 day isolation period, he set about looking around his local area, and soon noticed a couple of the posters out and about. He’d visited his vets before having to isolate to get Charlie some antibiotics for his wound, but when Charlie then didn’t come home one day, he’d feared that his condition had deteriorated, preventing him from finding his way back.
Now, after weeks part, Charlie and his owner are back together – with the cat now neutered and microchipped so if he ever gets lost again his owners’ details will be easily found.
Charlie’s story highlights the importance of having your pets microchipped, especially during a pandemic, when there are simultaneously less people out to notice an injured animal, less emergency response workers on the front line, and a high chance of you yourself becoming unwell and being forced into isolation.
Charlie’s story has a happy ending, but not every kitty is so lucky. Make sure to microchip your pets so that if they do venture far away, it’s not too tricky to bring them back into your care.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2020/06/18/cat-rescued-lockdown-gets-reunited-owner-who-isolating-due-coronavirus-symptoms-12871871/
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