Literally a Warm and Fuzzy Story

Nancy from Minneapolis is a fierce user of technology. She is often posting interesting stories on Facebook. Her post on Friday was one I felt I had to write about.

On June 2 somewhere in Japan a 210 gram (7.5 ounce) kitten was attacked by a crow. In addition to having a fractured upper jaw, hole in its throat and split tongue it also had fleas. A kindly passerby by the name of Jessie shooed the crow away and took the kitten to a vet. After the visit Jessie took the now named kitten, Wasabi-chan, home.

Because of the injury to her jaw, Wasabi-chan was not able to eat properly and without eating she wasn't going to make it. As anyone who owns a cat knows, placing a feeding tube into its mouth can be a trying enterprise so wrapping the cat up helps all involved. As Wasabi-chan was an extra squirmy kitten, this is even more difficult. So Jessie with the help of her grandmother had a few purritos (a happy purring cat wrapped up in a blanket or rug). The purritos are crocheted using the typical amigurami style of single crochet. I am quite sure they were not very time-consuming to whip up and especially like the mushroom model.

Here's a drawing done by a Twitter follower outlining the entire process to recovery. It needs to be read from right to left.

And how about some actual photos of Wasabi-chan in her recovery mode:

Pretty in Pink

A mushroom purrito with a mushroom on the side

As you might expect there was on Twitter concern about animal cruelty by confining the kitten this way but I get it. Somehow Wasabi-chan had to eat and this confinement was the best way to accomplish the task. Without a way to restrict her movement the kitten would not have eaten or not eaten enough. The purritos were necessary and these are so cute. Even she doesn't seem to mind wearing them (well perhaps doesn't mind wearing them too much).

Good news is Wasabi-chan is doing very well, by last report she weighed well over 350 grams or about 12.4 ounces. Here's a recent photo of her so you can gauge her recovery for yourself. Doesn't she look like a healthy kitten playing here among her other woolly friends? All's well that ends well. If you need more information about this story, click here.

Wasabi-chan and friends

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