He has a classic unaltered male domestic cat face with those jowls. His face also has the harshness of the Québec winter etched all over it. In February, in Québec City, the high temperature is a high of -4°C and the low as -13°C. It’s exceedingly cold and this boy survived it. We don’t know how long but it must have been a long time and it hurt him because he became sick. He decided that he had had enough and that he wanted to come in from the cold so he tapped on the window of a house on Valentine’s day last year.
The homeowner, a woman, responded in a kind way by calling a local cat shelter. Marie Simard of Un Chat à la Fois (One Cat at a Time) moved quickly. It broke her heart, she said to see him in the state that he was in. Within a very short time he was at the local veterinary clinic.
He’s a very accepting and compliant cat because he walked into the cat carrier. He behaved himself in the vet’s consulting room. It was discovered that he was not microchip and neither had he been neutered. They aren’t sure whether he was ever a proper domestic cat. Marie said that a lot of people leave their cats behind when they move which may have been the case with this ginger tabby. They called him Aslan after the lion in the Chronicles of Narnia.
He was suffering from frostbite, a bite wound, worms, fleas, diabetes, a skin allergy and rotten teeth. It doesn’t get much worse than that. His blood work turned out very bad as well and so he was hospitalised before we went into a foster home. He wouldn’t have made it through this winter if he hadn’t asked and received help.
His lovable and friendly nature has warmed people’s hearts. He has to be on a special diet for his diabetes but his foster carers loved him so much that they could not give him up for adoption. He had in fact made friends with two other rescue cats living with the foster carer, Cleo and Yasmin. He had bonded with them which was another good reason why he should stay in the foster home.
Aslan has come in from the cold much too late in the day but he’s made it and has a good life for the rest of his life.
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