Taco at Irving AC Taco2-2014-Mar-15

This is the plea the Irving shelter volunteers sent out. Could you resist that face?

Nobody knows exactly what happened to Taco. This adorable little brown tabby and white stray was found in an auto repair garage with a burn that extended from the base of his skull to the bottom of his shoulder blades. Maybe he arched up against a hot muffler or rubbed against something coated with a caustic chemical. Those noble volunteers at Irving animal control put out a call for a foster home. I saw the photos. Poor little guy. The burn looked so painful. Surely someone will take him, I thought. But almost a week passed and no one came forward. Volunteers begging for his rescue described him as, “a very nice guy”, a “purr machine” and “sweet as sugar” “ a mere baby.”

Taco at Irving AC DSC_6674

One the less gruesome photos of Taco’s burn.

Finally, Kim Innes, Animal Allies of Texas cat chair emailed me his photo. “You want to take him?” Kim knows I find the trauma cases especially rewarding (mostly because most people shy away from them.) Six days after the first plea, I surrendered and pulled Taco from the shelter.

Immediately we trekked to the Animal Hospital on Teasley Lane in Denton, where the amazing staff worked me in. Taco waited patiently for his appointment. What a suck up. Despite the fact we’d met only 45 minutes earlier, the little cutie passed the time by weaving in and out of my legs, head butting me and filling the room with purrs, oblivious to the enormous burn on the back of his neck.

Taco at vet1

Only minutes after leaving the shelter, Taco waits patiently to see the vet.

In minutes we were on our way home. The treatment regimen includes oral antibiotics, hydrotherapy for 10 minutes twice a day, ointment and dressing the wound. I figured I should have a tourniquet handy when Taco sliced and diced my veins after I unleashed the water on his wound. It took almost as to regulate the water temperature and pressure and it did to irrigate the wound. But instead of slash claws and canines, Taco looked up at me with his big yellow eyes as if to say, “Why are you tormenting me?”

Taco burn water temperature test IMG_3090

Believe it or not, three hours after pulling him from the shelter, he stood calmly allowing me to give him hydrotherapy. I did not lose one drop of blood.

After 10 minutes of aquatic vexation, instead of hiding behind the toilet he once again began head bumping me with a soggy forehead. Oh no. I’m falling in love.

Look at this face. How can anyone turn away? Okay. I admit it I did. For six days week I looked at that picture and thought someone else will take him. Day after day they didn’t.

Nobody knows exactly what happened to Taco. This adorable little brown tabby and white stray was found in an auto repair garage with a burn that extended from the base of his skull to the bottom of his shoulder blades. Maybe he arched up against a hot muffler or rubbed against something coated with a caustic chemical. Those noble volunteers at Irving animal control put out a call for a foster home. I saw the photos. Poor little guy. The burn looked so painful. Surely someone will take him, I thought. But almost a week passed and no one came forward. Volunteers begging for his rescue described him as, “a very nice guy”, a “purr machine” and “sweet as sugar” “ a mere baby.”

Finally, Kim Innes, Animal Allies of Texas cat chair emailed me his photo. “You want to take him?” Kim knows I find the trauma cases especially rewarding (mostly because most people shy away from them.) Six days after the first plea, I surrendered and pulled Taco from the shelter.

Immediately we trekked to the Animal Hospital on Teasley Lane in Denton, where the amazing staff worked me in. Taco waited patiently for his appointment. What a suck up. Despite the fact we’d met only 45 minutes earlier, the little cutie passed the time by weaving in and out of my legs, head butting me and filling the room with purrs, oblivious to the enormous burn on the back of his neck.

In minutes we were on our way home. The treatment regimen includes oral antibiotics, hydrotherapy for 10 minutes twice a day, ointment and dressing the wound. I figured I should have a tourniquet handy when Taco sliced and diced my veins after I unleashed the water on his wound. It took almost as to regulate the water temperature and pressure and it did to irrigate the wound. But instead of slash claws and canines, Taco looked up at me with his big yellow eyes as if to say, “Why are you tormenting me?”

After 10 minutes of aquatic vexation, instead of hiding behind the toilet he once again began head bumping me with a soggy forehead. Oh no. I’m falling in love.

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