Success Stories

Gracie

Gracie, a female tiger-striped cat, arrived in a box this past spring. She was injured, and needed help. Gracie had gotten twisted up in the engine of a truck, and a gentleman from Jim Hazel’s Automotive pulled her out and brought her to us in hopes there was something we could do.

Gracie’s leg was badly broken, a part of her tail was torn off and she had suffered terrible burns and tears in her flesh. Still, she physically reached out her paw to staff members,imploring them to pet her and comfort her. Instead of being scared, she was so brave.

Our cat vet, Dr. Ruth Tenbroek, was at the shelter performing spay and neuter surgeries that day, and looked Gracie over. Dr. Ruth called her husband, Dr. Mark Atma, out at Pennfield Animal Hospital, to see what could be done. He said that he would look at Gracie. We packed her up and sent her off.

Dr. Atma didn’t have high hopes, and was expecting to euthanize her that next morning. But then, he met our Gracie and she once again reached out for human contact. Gracie’s quiet way of imploring people to help her made everyone realize that she is a special little cat.

Since that day, Gracie went through three separate surgeries – one to repair her broken leg, and two to remove and stitch up her flesh wounds as her skin has died around the injuries. Pennfield Animal Hospital was incredible, performing most of their care at no cost to us because they found something special about that small, brave cat. The rest of the funds to help Gracie came from the Bryan Thomas Memorial Fund for sick and injured animals.

Bryan Thomas was born and raised in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was a kennel technician at the shelter. He had an incredible love for animals, and was dedicated to their comfort and care. Bryan lost his life in a roadside explosion on September 4, 2008 in Baghdad, Iraq. A fund was created in his honor.