The winter holiday season is the setting for Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale The Little Match Girl. The story features a child, alone and outdoors in the freezing cold, sustained by visions of warmth, delicious food and a loving family. Like many fairy tales, The Little Match Girl does not have a happy ending.
The tale of Esme the cat—told in the blogpost below—is very much like the story of The Little Match Girl, except Esme’s story will have a happy ending.
Found in the Bronx
Esme was found alone in a Bronx school courtyard on a cold November day. She was sitting motionless, unable to move. While her story is unknown, she is believed to be about six months old, based on an examination by the surgical specialists at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center. Our team suspects she fell out of a window, breaking her legs when she landed on the ground. This would explain the fractures in both her thigh bones, known as femurs, leaving her unable to walk.
AMC to the Rescue
With no family in sight, Bronx Tails rescue took Esme into their care. Despite her severe injuries, Esme was sweet and friendly with her rescuers. Bronx Tails was determined to give her a bright future and a forever family.
Bronx Tails is one of the dozens of rescue groups that apply for AMC to the Rescue funding each year. These grants support specialist care at AMC for pets in foster care whose health is a barrier to finding their forever home.
Through AMC to the Rescue, Esme was brought to AMC as a patient of Dr. Nathan Cherzan, Senior Veterinarian in Surgery. Dr. Cherzan determined Esme’s injuries could be successfully repaired, and funding was provided by AMC to the Rescue to help cover the costs.
Successful Fracture Repair
Because both of Esme’s back legs were broken, the surgery was complicated. The procedure lasted two hours and forty minutes and involved placing pins, plates and screws to stabilize both fractures. You can see the before-and-after x-rays of Esme’s left leg in the photo to the right.
Just two days after surgery, Esme was starting to walk again. By the third day, she was well enough to be discharged from the hospital. When she returned to AMC for a recheck two weeks after surgery, her mobility showed continued improvement.
Esme’s Fairy Tale is not Over
Esme is still on activity restriction and is due back at AMC just after New Year’s for follow-up x-rays to assess healing. With luck, shortly after that visit she will be cleared by her doctors to find her forever home with a loving family—never to be on the streets again.
All of us at the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center hope your holidays are filled with warmth, delicious food and a loving family, just like The Little Match Girl envisioned and Esme hopes for. Happy Holidays from all of us to you, your family and especially your furry, feathered, scaly and finned friends.