By Elisa Black-Taylor
Nafas was only a year old when he was found last October, curled up under a car on a busy street in Tehran. A good Samaritan rescued the filthy cat, who had an infected mass and was very emaciated. X-rays showed the cat had been living on pebbles and sticks to stay alive.
An Iranian veterinarian had to remove Nafas nose and upped lip to get the infection under control and save his life. Nafas was permanently scarred. Unfortunately, he couldn’t breathe or eat, due to the nature of the operation, which had left his nasal cavity open and exposed.
So Nafas was brought to the United States by Iranian-American animal rights activist Yasie Saadat. In the U.S., head surgeon of the MSPCA’s Angell Animal Medical Center Dr. Mike Pavletic, did reconstructive surgery on the cat.
In January, Nafas was evaluated by Dr. Plavetic on whether a procedure where he used adjacent facial tissue would work. He had previously done many surgeries of this type, even going so far as to reconstruct a cat’s face after it was torn off by a car fan blade.
Dr. Pavletic used a surgical technique he had developed years ago, and the three hour operation is considered successful. The vet said in an interview with Life With Cats
“I’m very pleased with the outcome and am confident Nafas will enjoy a long and healthy life. He certainly deserves that after all he’s undergone.”
Nafas is currently in foster care, but is looking for a forever home. Anyone interested in adopting him can email adopt.nafas@gmail.com or by filling out an online application here. You’ll have to download the form, complete it and scan it, it seems to me.
For those of you who want to follow his story, a Facebook page has been set up.
Elisa
Source: lifewithcats.tv
It may be a cultural thing. The cat was found in Iran, if you’ll note. Iran is predominately Islamic and Muhammad is said to have cherished his cat so highly that once when it was time to go to prayers and he found that his cat had gone to sleep on the sleeve of his robe, he cut that sleeve off rather than wake his cat. Many followers of Islam look upon cats fondly simply because Muhammad did.