I've had several emails asking who Wayne is, and why he needed surgery. So I have posted some of the original injury photos (sorry for them being fuzzy, they were taken with a cell phone camera).
Wayne is still in the healing stages. My daughters and I would really, really love to get a hold of the bastard that hurt him. There are pictures that show his injuries under "Wayne". Below is our original post (now lost due to the Domain Direct change to BlogID accounts):
My daughters found this little kitten at the Walgreens parking lot. He has multiple slicing injuries--five or six long cuts from two to three inches long, most of them large gashes all the way through his skin. In addition, someone hit him violently in the head and he has facial and eye nerve damage. He is also nothing but skin and bones; a person could fit him in their cupped hands and he only weighs 1 pound 12 ounces. Even the fleas would not stay on him--he had lost too much blood. (Notice the wounds are pale pink, almost white; he lost a lot of blood.) Yet he wants to live, he wants to play (even with all the gaping holes in him), he purrs when we scratch him behind the ears, and curls up next to my daughters to sleep. For him to have been tortured and yet still love people is amazing.
We took him to an emergency vet clinic; they said the two to three inch slices were too old (24 to 48 hours old) to suture in a regular fashion. The vet put in loose stitches any way because the little tom's skin was just flopping around. The first bill was $300 but the clinic halved it because we promised to give the kitten a good home. He will have to go back into the vet's office in two weeks--and may have to have surgery at that time.
My husband has a decent job, but my medical bills from last year were three times what he made during the year. (I am a diabetic with an extremely bad heart.) I never thought I would ask for help in this way, but if anyone could find it in their hearts to send even just a dollar to help the kitty, I would appreciate it. Every penny that comes through will go to helping the kitty with his medical bills.
If you wish to donate, but don't use PayPal or Amazon, please contact me for the address.
Please note: This kitten (who was appx 8 weeks old when this happened) DID NOT get hurt in an engine. His injuries were inflicted over a period of days; starting around Halloween--the last injury was about 8 hours old when my daughters found him on November 2nd. The person who did this tortured him for two days, then hit him in the head with a hammer or something probably to kill him--but Wayne survived. Even sliced up and half starved to death, he wanted to play. His love of people despite the torture is remarkable and he is a real character. Wayne is one heck of a survivor; in one week he went from 1 lb 12 ounces to 3 lbs 3 ounces (he hasn't been weighed since, but he is definitely fatter).
He still may have to have surgery on his abdomen due to the peritonitis he developed. He has had surgery to remove dead tissue from one side where the oldest slice was (the tissue died to his ribs) and to close the large belly slice.
His vet bills have run over $500, and we are extremely grateful for the donations we have received (about $220). Every penny we received went right to paying his vet bills.
