By Sharon Wylie, Crash’s Landing
Each week WKTV features an adoptable pet—or few—from an area shelter. This week’s beauty is from Crash’s Landing. Crash’s Landing and Big Sid’s Sanctuary rescue organizations were founded by Jennifer Denyes, DVM (Dr. Jen), who is on staff at Clyde Park Veterinary Clinic (4245 Clyde Park Ave SW).
On Friday the 13th of July 2018, a kind-hearted, cat-trappin’ citizen contacted Dr. Jen about a pair of friendly brothers that she had on a waiting list for another local shelter. Back in June the duo was brought in to Focus on Ferals after having been taken from a large population of stray cats roaming around on the Northeast side of town; they were neutered, tested and started on vaccines in hopes of eventually going into their adoption program.
But one of the boys (born in early 2016) had evidently suffered a trauma so severe to his side that his body wall ruptured, leaving him with a huge herniation that continued to grow over time; in fact it had been present for so long (probably over two years) that the repair attempt by his initial vet was ineffective. So when Dr. Jen was asked to give a second opinion on the case, she offered to take the brothers in to our program and set out to fix that humongous hernia (in the words of his rescuer).
As it turns out, not only was Hamish’s intra-abdominal fat pooching out underneath the skin through the tear in his body wall, but his poor spleen had become adherent to the opening, so it had to be surgically removed in order to close the defect. However, we are thrilled to report that with layers of sutures, cage rest and many crossed fingers, Hamish’s hernia is a thing of the past.
Hamish was nicknamed ‘The Handful’ as he can be as bratty as he is cute. He is a door diver, likes to rile the other cats up by picking fights or causing them to go after him due to his over-exuberance—he is constantly in motion. We can imagine that it feels downright awesome to be able to move around without having an internal organ squish out your side, so we do give the guy a bit of a break on this.
He LOVES people, but when he has had enough, he will swipe or swat to let you know that your services are no longer needed. He could live with other cats as long as he can be the dominant one, but small kids we feel are out of the picture; we do however suspect a dog might be right up his alley.
For safety measures, his owner will need a two-door entry and exit system as he is constantly darting out into our lobby (we have a triple door system. We have had quite a bit of success with taming the wild beast running wild by squirting him with a short burst of water from our ‘naughty kitty’ bottle; slowly but surely he IS learning to play nice with the others.
Overall we feel he is somewhat of an overgrown kitten and is just now getting to live the life he had always wanted: crazy, carefree and with reckless abandon (versus abandonment).
And he is STINKIN’ CUTE!
More about Hamish:
- Large
- Domestic Short Hair — Tabby (Tiger-striped)
- Adult
- Male
- House-trained
- Vaccinations up to date
- Neutered
- Not declawed
- Good in a home with other cats; older children
Want to adopt Hamish? Learn about the adoption process here. Fill out a pre-adoption form here.
Interested in volunteering at one of the cat shelters? Email volunteer@crashslanding.org.
Can’t adopt, but still want to help? Find out how you can sponsor a cat!
Crash’s Landing and Big Sid’s Sanctuary have a common mission: To take at-risk stray cats off the streets of the Greater Grand Rapids area, provide them with veterinary care and house them in free-roaming, no-kill facilities until dedicated, loving, permanent homes can be found.
