Living with a twisted jaw doesn’t stop one cat called Duchess from being the queen of her territory.
After being hit by a car, a stray cat came to the Adobe Animal Hospital and Clinic in Texas in the fall of 2015. After the incident, a good Samaritan drove her to the clinic.
“Most places would’ve simply euthanized her,” Crystal Tate, an employee at the Adobe Animal Hospital, told The Dodo.
Duchess, a flame point Siamese, was given a chance by the hospital team, and her horribly damaged jaw was repaired.
But Duchess’ adventure was far from over: she had to stay at the clinic for a month following her operation to heal, during which she had to eat through a feeding tube and take a variety of medicines. Her odds of surviving were close to none.
Duchess, on the other hand, was a sassy woman. She survived the worst, but was left with a misaligned jaw, a mouth that wouldn’t open or enable her to chew, and only a few teeth.
Tate, on the other hand, couldn’t help but fall for her.
“I met her the first day I went to the clinic,” Tate explained. “Her lips was just starting to heal, she’d just had her feeding tube withdrawn, and she was quite skinny.” The lowest meow drew my attention because her eyes were sorrowful, but her purrs were full of love and optimism.”
Tate spent every day caressing and talking with Duchess. Tate claimed she felt the two of them were meant to be in each other’s life when physicians inquired whether she would be interested in bringing her home permanently.
“I’d never cared for a special needs kitten before, and she’d never experienced life as a special needs kitty,” Tate explained.
Duchess, who is 3 years old, now lives with her older brother Joshua, a Siberian husky; Peaches, a bichon; and Oliver, her feline brother.
“She’s been a member of our family since November, and she walks around like she owns the place,” Tate said, adding that Duchess has a fiery personality and prefers knocking things down as part of her playful routine.
Duchess can only consume canned food that has been combined with water and pureed into a soup-like consistency, which she then laps up with her tongue.
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