Sadly, thousands of animals are killed in traps each year – many of them are unintentional. Thankfully, a lucky cat named Bear was spared by such a horrible fate.
Often times, traps are set up for wild animals like coyotes and wolves to help prevent them from eating livestock, but of course – the traps do not discriminate. On one fateful day, a beautiful gray kitty named Bear found his leg caught in one.
Gisela and her daughter Danaya were about to head out for dinner one evening when they noticed something odd in the road. When they got closer, they realized it was a cat, but something seemed strange about it.
“I was like, ‘Here kitty kitty kitty,’ and he was just staring at me,” Gisela told The Dodo. “I went to step toward him, and I saw something that looked like a snake — I thought he had a snake and I was like, ‘Ew.'”
Thinking the cat was eating a snake, Gisela was about to leave, but her daughter went even closer and realized the terrible truth.
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“She was like, ‘It’s a trap.’ The terror in her face was horrible,” Gisela said. “She was like, ‘We’ve gotta get it I give her all the credit for saving him.”
Danaya and Gisela ran back inside to grab some towels to wrap around the trapped kitty and called the police for help. Transferring them to animal control, the mother and daughter waited for help, contemplating if poor Bear would even survive.
Wrapping the horribly injured cat in a towel, they brought him to their car to keep him warm.
Finally, after 25 long minutes, animal control arrived. However, things were looking quite grim for the gray cat.
“It was really looking pretty dismal for poor Bear. He was terrified and likely in so much pain,” K.C. York, founder and president of Trap Free Montana Public Lands(TFMPL), told The Dodo. “We offered to pay for his medical bills so that would in no way be the deciding factor for his fate after the required holding period.”
Rushing Bear to the emergency animal clinic, the veterinary staff was unable to save his leg, but thankfully – they were able to save his life.
Although he only has three legs now, Bear is no longer in pain. He is even showing the City of Great Falls Animal Shelter that he couldn’t be happier for everyone’s help in saving his life. They say that he is just the most loving cat ever and affection is his specialty.
Bear has a lot of healing to do, so the shelter staff isn’t sure when he’ll be ready for adoption – they are taking it slow. He currently has lots of stitches and is on antibiotics – the shelter says that they think he’ll let them know when he’s ready to find his forever home.
Although he’s still in recovery, Gisela and Danaya have already put in their adoption application. Their fingers are crossed that they get approved to bring him into their family.
Meanwhile, York is advocating for stricter policies when it comes to using these types of wildlife traps.
“Traps are secreted, baited and left unattended for any innocent unsuspecting creature,” York said. “We have to work all the harder to show the ugly hidden cruelty inherent in trapping.”
We see a bright future ahead for Bear and if you want to help prevent this from happening to other animals, please support TFMPL.
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