December 3 is “Roof Over Your Head Day” and Taco needs a permanent roof over his head. .
Some despicable person burned Taco, but despite his terrible encounter he loves people.
It’s been a rough year for Taco. He’s such a sweet boy. All he wants is a home of his own and a family to love him.
Around the middle of March Taco showed up at an Irving automotive repair garage with a massive burn on neck. The garage took the injured stray to Irving Animal Services. At first they thought it might have been an accident-perhaps from Taco rubbing up against a hot muffler-but then two more cats showed up with similar wounds. Taco’s was the most severe. One of his vets had no doubt that his injury occurred at the hand of a bad person. Trusting, affectionate Taco, loves people and would have gladly approached the attacker who burned him from the base of his skull to below his shoulder blades.
Irving Animal Services needed help with Taco. For a week those dedicated volunteers sent out desperate emails begging for a foster home to take their sweet boy. Animal Allies of Texas stepped up and took him in.
Poor Taco had to endure twice hydrotherapy treatments. He never ran from his foster mom and he stood in the kitchen sink as gracefully as a wet cat could. No fighting, no hissing, simply embarrassed resignation. For four months Taco had to wear a T-shirt to prevent him from scratching his wound. He’s the perfect companion for the lady who wants to dress up her cat.
Today Taco has completely recovered from his attack. He’s active and affectionate. He’s quick to claim an empty lap. He gets along with other cats. He even likes the family dog. This gray tabby and white, gold-eyed boy is about a year-old (born in Summer 2013). His adoption fee is only $110 and it includes:
Neuter surgery (already done)
Microchip
FVRCP and rabies vaccinations
Negative feline leukemia and FIV test.
Do you have room for brave Taco? If you are interested in adopting Taco, please go to animalalliesoftexas.org, fill out and submit our online application. He’ll be waiting!
You can support Animal Allies of Texas whenever you shop online by choosing Animal Allies of Texas as your AdoptAShelter.com charity and then going to your favorite e-store.
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Finally and appropriately on July 14, National N*u*de Day, my foster kitty Taco finally gets to go au naturel.
Our one-year old foster kitty, Taco, moved in with us on March 22, after volunteers at Irving Animal Services sent out a desperate plea for someone to take a badly injured cat. Taco, who suffered suspicious burns, hasn’t gone nekked since that day… until now.
Taco’s wound ran from the base of his skull to the between his shoulder blades. He reluctantly submitted himself to daily hydrotherapy treatments. But healing is itchy business, and Taco wouldn’t leave his burn alone. Because of the location and his very limber back legs, the wound couldn’t be fully covered with a bandage or E-collar. To protect Taco from himself, he wore an adhesive bandage around his neck and a shirt (originally made from my husband’s beloved 30-year-old athletic sock–a huge sacrifice).
After he shredded his sock, Taco graduated to puppy tshirts. Despite all the protection, he still managed to reopen his healing injury. The best protection came from his final garment, a goth Old Navy dog tshirt displaying a dog skeleton.
He also was further humiliated by having to wear pink and white French-tipped nail caps on his back claws. He managed to quickly remove them. Eventually he got used to wearing them and left them alone (most of the time. Lest you think I make him wear feminine nails caps to poke fun at his masculinity, the pink makes it easier for me to see when he’s chewed them off. But I also confess, it’s funny to see the boy’s boy cat wearing pink “polish”.
But today was a big deal for my boy. He cast off his earthy cloak. He didn’t die. He finally got to take off his bulky clothing and show off what God gave him. In celebration he streaked (both in the dashing around and the lack of clothing sense) literally and around the house for the first time since he joined our household.
Finally, my little charge’s wound has shrunk to the size of a pea. Taco is almost ready for his forever home. He’s the perfect kitty for a home with gregarious cats and dogs. If you’re a Texas resident and interested in adopting Taco, fill out an adoption application.
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.”
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.
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?”
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.
Poor Taco had to endure twice hydrotherapy treatments. He never ran from his foster mom and he stood in the kitchen sink as gracefully as a wet cat could. No fighting, no hissing, simply embarrassed resignation. For four months Taco had to wear a T-shirt to prevent him from scratching his wound. He’s the perfect companion for the lady who wants to dress up her cat.
