Fruit bat

 Fruit Bat with her new mom. Fruit Bat was a bit distracted–there were kittens (hurrah, kittens!) playing in a cage in the waiting room at Noah’s Ark.

 

Fruit Bat is no longer wearing casts and she is also no longer a girl looking for a home. Dr. Kim West has adopted Miss Fruit Bat and our little chihuahua will be enjoying the good life with her sister, Tupelo, (and several kitty siblings, as well as some guinea pigs and turtles) the rest of her days. 

Fruit Bat’s legs and ankles are still a little weak after the surgeries and from being in casts. So it will just take some time for her to regain strength in them. Her back ankles will always be a bit weaker than her front ones. However, if Dr. West never lets her walk anywhere (yes, she is spoiled, but she has the right to be) and transports her in the Baby Bjorn where her feet never touch the ground, it might take a bit longer for those ankles to fully recover. But our girl can walk and that is what is most important.

Fruit Bat and Dr. West would both like to thank everyone for all the love, donations, and healing thoughts that were sent their way. They were overwhelmed by the fact that so many people cared and wanted to help. 

Do you promise to love me forever? Of course, you do!

In case you didn’t hear, our little Fruit Bat is a starlet! She was featured on Channel 6 News last night with Mona from Colony Cats and Ferrell Santacroce, who rescued her from the side of West Broad Street and saved her life.

No, autographs, please, it has been a long day. But powder my nose. I think I have a bit of a shine.

Here is the link to the story on the “ABC 6 On Your Side” web site: Fruit Bat’s Story on Channel 6

They did not post the video, but if anyone does find a copy of the video online, let us know and we’ll share the link.

Our girl is recovering from surgery and wearing bandages with hearts on them because she is loved.

Miss Fruit Bat had her surgeries just over a week ago and is recovering well from them. She had pins put in both ankles to provide stability from the bones that were shattered. The pins were very small and it required a specialist to do the intense surgeries. Thus, Fruit Bat’s stay at Ohio State to get her legs fixed.

We have joked that she will not be able to go through airport security in a purse, like Paris Hilton’s little dogs, because she’d set off the security systems with her artificial, bionic legs. 

We are happy to say that our girl is now hopping around in her casts. The staff at Noah’s Ark says she sometimes bounces around as if she is walking on something hot. But she is all sweetness, rushing to greet everyone who comes to the front counter from her safe spot in the back. Fruit Bat does have some problems on slick surfaces, but other than that, she is doing amazingly well for having had such difficult repairs done to her tiny toothpick legs.

Still smiling and happy even after all she has been through and getting a helping hand from Christy as she stands on the slick counter for a photo op.

 

Fruit Bat goes home each night with Dr. West and comes to Noah’s Ark for doggie daycare with her friends each day. Dr. West reports that Fruit Bat likes to burrow under the covers at night to sleep (which her cats do not like), and perhaps she has some “mole” tendencies as well as her batty ones.

Still Standing..and walking and playing. Our Fruit Bat is a survivor.

 

We have had around $300 in donations come into our PayPal account. Dr. West has also collected some checks. We are planning to do a mailer and Colony Cats is also collecting donations, so we should be able to pay off the surgery debt very soon. In fact, the good news is that OSU ended up only charging around $1200 for the surgeries!! Thank you to OSU.

We’ll keep everyone posted as Miss Fruit Bat continues her journey to good health and, eventually, a new home and life.

I've got lots of friends supporting me.

Fruit Bat needs both of her ankles repaired. They were fractured from her sad adventures on a busy highway.

Fruit Bat was found lying in the median of a very busy road. No one slowed down to check on the little dog as she cowered in pain, back legs unable to move, on the hot pavement. Cars whizzed by for twelve hours before a good samaritan from Colony Cats stopped to investigate and found the tiny chihuahua. The kind hearted volunteer quickly rushed Fruit Bat to Noah’s Ark Vet Hospital in Dublin, where Dr. Kim West proceeded to do a physical exam.

Fruit Bat’s back ankles were both fractured, causing the little dog’s immobility. Other than that, however, the chihuahua with the big eyes and perpetual smile, was in good shape. Dr. West discovered that Fruit Bat was only two years old and had not been spayed. On further investigation, it also became clear that Fruit Bat had an old fracture to the bone of her front leg, a fracture which had healed without medical care. Wherever this sweet girl came from, it was not the best place.

Forever smiling--even in pain, Fruit Bat has a happy face. Who couldn't love her?

It was Dr. West who named Fruit Bat and, to be honest, she does look like a bat with her big ears and skinny face. But looking like a bat is not a bad thing when you are that cute!

Because the volunteer who found Fruit Bat was with Colony Cats, the group was more than willing to help the little girl. Only there was one problem. A problem that often occurs in rescue–the little problem of money. Fruit Bat’s surgeries to repair her broken ankle bones must be done at Ohio State–Dr. West cannot do that herself. And so, the cost for Fruit Bat to walk again is between $1500-2000 and Colony Cats just cannot afford to pay that much.

Please help me get my legs fixed.

Dr. West took it upon herself to raise the money for Fruit Bat’s surgeries and she asked us if we would help.  Dr. West is also going to act as Fruit Bat’s foster after the surgeries, taking care of her dressings and helping her with rehabilitative therapy.

And so all of us, Black and Orange Cat Foundation, Colony Cats, The Forgotten Persian Rescue and Friends, which is Renee Kelly’s charitable group (Renee is the owner of Noah’s Ark), are going to work together with Dr. West to help Fruit Bat.

Big things can happen when lots of people work together! Big things for a little dog.

That is where we need your help. If you would like to help Fruit Bat walk again, please mail your tax deductible donation to Noah’s Ark Veterinary Hospital, 6001 Memorial Drive, Dublin, Ohio 43017. Please put, “Attention: Dr. Kim West, Fruit Bat’s Fund” on the front of the envelope. You can contact Noah’s Ark for more information by calling 614-761-8400. You can also learn more at their web site: http://noahsarkvethosp.com/

Checks can be made out to Colony Cats. You can also make credit card donations at their web site: http://www.colonycats.org/donate.htm

Please make sure to indicate that this donation is for Fruit Bat’s Fund.

Additionally, Black and Orange Cat Foundation is also accepting donations for Fruit Bat. You can mail a donation to us at P. O. Box 126, Plain City, Ohio 43064. Please make sure to write on the check that this is for Fruit Bat’s Fund. You can also donate through our PayPal link on our web site: www.bandocats.org

Please email us if you do make a PayPal donation and let us know that the funds are for Fruit Bat. Unfortunately, our PayPal site does not have a memo section set up to allow us to write what the donation is for.

All of the organizations involved are 501 (c) 3 charities, so any donation you make for Fruit Bat is tax deductible.

Dr. West and Fruit Bat--we will get this girl walking again.

Just as soon as Fruit Bat has her surgeries, she will also need a forever home, so if you are interested in adopting the sweetest chihuahua north of Mexico, contact us or Noah’s Ark. Fruit Bat does well with other dogs and with cats and she LOVES people.

The only other solution for Fruit Bat if she cannot have these surgeries is euthanasia and none of us will allow that to happen!!

Where would I be without my friends? Probably still stretched out on the road! You can't see it, but I am shivering just thinking about that!

Dr. Kim West with Fruit Bat, who had a fractured foot, after being dumped on a busy highway.

 

Over the weekend, Joe and I stopped at a quaint village in northeast Ohio called Zoar. This town was started in the early 1800’s by German separatists who came to Ohio to escape religious persecution in their home country. The name Zoar literally means “a refuge” and references the name of the city Lot escaped to in Biblical accounts. 

One of the stories that the tour guide recounted while we were walking around the buildings of Zoar made me think about a quote attributed to Mahatma Gandhi: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

In Zoar in the 1800’s, the dairy cows were considered to be “spoiled” by the milk maids who tended them. They were treated with the utmost care and all one hundred were given names. Outsiders said that the Zoar residents treated the cows so well that they even taught them to read. This joke resulted because, at the end of the day when the cows were brought back to the barn from sun filled days in the pasture, each cow would go to the stall that had their name above it. Surely, the cows must have been able to read their name to find their stall! 

The people of Zoar believed that the better the cows were treated, the better their milk. Happy cows produced delicious milk and cheese and butter. 

I was thinking about this not only in the context of factory farms, which are the complete antithesis of how Zoar residents treated their animals, but also in the context of several things that happened over the past few days and weeks with animals being tossed from cars.

Who could throw a living creature out of a moving vehicle?

Don't throw me away! I'm not a piece of trash!

 

The first “throw away” animal was Fruit Bat, a 2-year-old chihuahua, who was found lying in the middle of a busy road, unable to move. The little dog was taken to Noah’s Ark by a good samaritan from Colony Cats. They estimated that the poor dog had been lying on the road for around twelve hours before someone decided to stop and help her. This sweet girl had a fractured foot and could not walk at first, but is now getting around in a cast. Despite all that she has been through, she still loves people and is happy and friendly.

God don't make no junk!

 

The second set of “toss aways” were two kittens, Stephanie and Hamilton, who were found along Hamilton Road. One of our volunteers, Kristin, was alerted when the branch manager of the bank she works with discovered the kittens. Workers at the bank are required to pick up trash off the property twice a day. While they were scooping up cigarette butts and other litter, they came across these two kittens, who are only 4-6 weeks old. 

Just a few moments ago, Kristin was called because a van slowed down and dumped another kitten in the same location.

I am reminded of a t-shirt my dad wears. It shows a mother cat and kittens and says, “Don’t Litter. Spay and Neuter.” In this case, a litter of kittens was treated like actual litter. 

And this is what got me to thinking about Gandhi’s quote and the folks at Zoar in the first place. What kind of world do we live in when living creatures are thrown on to roads like unwanted trash? I can only hope that rescuers and animal lovers are creating a refuge, a “Zoar,” for these babies and changing the world so that one day, these types of things will no longer occur.

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