Kang-Kang was rescued along with her Mum and 2 siblings from a back garden in Cathays in September 2006. The couple living at the property had been feeding the Mummy cat - who they called Niu-Niu (meaning petite girl) - and her kittens. They wanted to adopt the whole little family but were in rented accommodation and were not allowed to have pets. They were also very concerned for the little black kitten - there seemed to be something wrong with her front legs and she would walk around standing upright on her hind legs frequently.
As you can see from the photo, Kang-Kang's front legs are deformed. The whole length of the lower part of her front legs lies flat on the ground, bearing her weight. The lower leg is nearly at a right angle to the upper part of the leg. She was unable to straighten her front legs and bear her weight properly through her paws. Nonetheless, Kang-Kang was bright, eating well and seemed happy enough.
When we took Kang-Kang for a checkup at our vets, we felt fairly confident that they would tell us that yes, she has a deformity but that she would be ok, that she would cope. We thought that we might have difficulty finding her a home and were preparing to adopt her as a fully fledged resident of SHUA. But we were so wrong. Our vet felt sure that Kang-Kang had been born without a vital bone in the lower part of her front legs and took x-rays which confirmed this. Tragically, Kang-Kang would never "adapt" to life with such a deformity; it would only cause increasing levels of pain and eventually she would not be able to bear any weight at all on her front legs. If it had just been one front leg, we could have amputated and she would have been ok. But with both front legs like this, there was only one option which was kind for Kang-Kang. She must have been in quite a lot of discomfort - or maybe even pain - already and yet she stoically just got on with living. And that's what made it so very difficult. Putting a seemingly vibrant, happy, normal weight kitten to sleep just feels so wrong. But it was the kind thing to do, to spare her any more suffering.
Kang-Kang was born without a chance in life and that just seems so wrong. Nature can be so cruel sometimes. Better luck next time, little one.
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