Oscar is a sweet black cat who loves hanging out with his owners, Mike Nolan and Kate Allan. He also enjoys exploring his home, the Channel Island of Jersey.
In 2009, when Oscar was two years old, he wandered into a cornfield near his owner’s house. Oscar curled up in the field and went to sleep. Unfortunately, the farmer who owned the field didn’t realize Oscar was there.
The farmer ran Oscar over with his combine harvester, cutting Oscar’s back legs off.
A few hours later, a cyclist found Oscar. The cyclist knocked on Mike and Kate’s door and asked if they owned a black cat. The couple was shocked when they saw their beloved cat. He was covered in blood, and Kate worried they would have to put him down.
Mike and Kate rushed Oscar over to their local veterinarian, Peter Haworth. Peter quickly cleaned and bandaged Oscar’s wounds. To Mike and Kate’s relief, Peter said Oscar would survive.
Peter then suggested that Mike and Kate talk to Noel Fitzpatrick, a veterinarian in Surrey who was working on creating prosthetics for cats. Peter explained that Oscar would be the first cat in history to receive prosthetic legs.
Peter, Noel, Kate, and Mike began emailing each other, discussing the surgery. Peter sent x-rays to Noel, and Noel decided that Oscar would be a good patient. Since he was so young, he would bounce back from the surgery very quickly.
A few weeks after Oscar lost his legs, he and his owners flew up to Surrey for the surgery.
In Surrey, Oscar received two metal implants in his back legs. Then, Noel attached the prosthetic legs to the implants. Kate and Mike were nervous the whole time Oscar was receiving his implants.
“It was the uncertainty, nobody knew what the outcome would be because it had never been done before, we were in the hands of the surgeons. Right the way along they said ‘we’d do everything we can but we’ve never done it before’, there were no guarantees We really trusted Noel for the work he was doing and we went with it,” Kate told the BBC.
Thankfully, the surgery was a success! Oscar loved his new legs, and he was so excited to walk around again.
Oscar quickly learned how to walk on his new legs. Noel was surprised to see how fast Oscar adapted to them.
Minutes after the surgery, Oscar was walking around the vet’s office. He even started climbing different objects in the room, which shocked Noel. He hadn’t expected him to be able to climb for weeks!
Once Oscar recovered from the surgery, he headed home with his loving owners. They were so happy that Oscar was able to walk around and explore again. They did say that they’ll watch him more carefully from now on, though.
“I think he will be more restricted when he comes back. The feet don’t have sensitivity in them but we will be able to take him outside and for walks and so on,” Kate said.
Oscar is an incredible animal who proved how resilient cats are! If you want to learn more about Oscar and see him walk for the first time, check out the video below.
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