Checkmate

This is our cat Toby Montana.
I am proud to say Toby is the one and only animal I have brought home since managing the local animal hospital in town. I've worked there for about 1 1/2 years.

Toby only has three legs. From what I understand, he was caught in a trap at his home in Montana, and the owners wouldn't bring him in for treatment. The neighbors finally did and the leg was so infected by that time, that it needed to be amputated.

Toby lived at the clinic for quite a while, because we knew he would need a special home because of his three legged status.

Even though we already had 4 cats, something about Toby tugged at my heart. I talked it over with PKR, and Toby came home with us.

When you want Toby to come to you, just call his name, and he comes a running, and jumps up on your lap to be petted. I have never seen Toby scratch or bite any human on purpose. He is very gentle.

Of our five cats, Toby is the nicest and gentlest cat, but is scared of nothing. When my brother Raymond Pert arrived for a visit tonight with his dog Snug, Toby just hissed and was ready to attack when Snug started barking at him. NO FEAR!

But yet, when Sadie, our little Pommerenian, wants to jump over and bite and play with Toby, he is all for it. He plays and rolls and has a great time, and, when he has had enough, he does it little swipe at Sadie, and they are done.

And his three legs don 't stop him. If he is outside, he can still jump up on our 6 foot fence. He has compensated well since losing his limb. Sometimes he forgets, though. Last fall, he was trying to cover up some of his droppings in some soft dirt in the backyard, and had his good paw on the ground, and was moving his shoulder where his limb should have been. Just part of that feline instinct.

Tonight he came and sat on our chess board that we have on an end table in the living room. Now Toby is a pretty wide cat, but he sat down between both rows of chess pieces, and didn't move one of them. They didn't move when he laid down. They didn't move when he got up and moved off the board.

Toby, thy name is GRACE.