Purr-fect Ending for Flick, the Frozen Feline

Flick, the name given to a young male cat found frozen to a porch Wednesday, is expected to recover. (Photo courtesy of Tail Wagger’s)

_______________________________

Dogs may wear the crown in all that man’s best friend business while cats are cast off as aloof, uncaring and possibly even psychotic, but it wasn’t Lassie nuzzling, head-butting and marking a Michigan animal control officer with his “you’re mine” scent Wednesday evening.

It was a friendly black cat, still just a kitten, with more – and, at the same time, less – reason to purr than you can fathom.

Hours before, the poor thing must have been terrified, distressed and in unimaginable pain. The evidence certainly pointed to that when Redford Animal Control Officer Dan Brown got a call about a cat, a young male, frozen to a front porch in zero-degree weather Wednesday morning.

The scene stabbed at Brown’s heart. Large pools of blood had begun to coagulate where the cat stood, frozen in place.

Horrified, he discovered the cat had ripped the pads from its paws trying wrench free from a re-frozen puddle of melting snow and ice. His back paws were free, but only because the warmth of his urine had melted some of the ice bonding the unfortunate feline to the porch like strong glue.

“He wasn’t aggressive,” Brown told Patch.com. “He was meowing at me, like he was saying, ‘Help, get me out of here.’ I almost fell a couple of times running to the neighbor’s to get some warm, room-temperature water – hot water would have made it worse – to free his paws.”

Concerns About Frost Bite

Once he had rescued the cat, Brown took him to Tail Wagger’s, a Livonia pet assistance center that has been offering low-cost pet care, such as vaccinations and spay-neuter surgeries, for the past 25 years.

Tail Wagger’s isn’t an intake facility or shelter, but neither does it turn away pets in need, said founder Laura Zain.

Brown didn’t want to make the longer trip to Westland, where impounded animals are usually taken, and Tail Wagger’s was closer. The immediate worry, besides all that blood, was whether the cat had suffered frost bite.

The cat is going to be just fine. In the time it took volunteers to rub salve in his paws to soothe them, warm him up and fix him a meal, the grateful feline crawled into their hearts.

Also on Patch:

• Shamed Dog Gets His Moment of Fame
• Free-Spirited Seal’s Fate Sealed: She’s Headed to Detroit Zoo

It doesn’t always work that way when cats have been through ordeals like this one had.

“Some cats come in really scared, hissing or growling, but he must have realized he fell into good hands,” Zane said. “He was marching in place, purring, arching his back and eating, like he was saying, ‘I still have faith in people.’

“It was really enlightening,” she continued, her voice tightening. “We sometimes see so much bad with the way animals are treated, but when we get to do something like this, we remember why we do this. This is good stuff.”

Zain doesn’t think he’s always been a stray. Someone had owned him long enough to get him declawed – not an inexpensive procedure – and an indentation around his neck from a flea collar the cat was wearing indicated it had been on for some time.

She thinks he was probably on his own for a while.

Sheltering Pets Especially Important in Cold Snaps

Tail Wagger’s will care for the cat until his paws heal, he’s been vaccinated and neutered, and has otherwise been made ready for adoption.

Brown said the cat could easily have frozen to death if not for the homeowner, who initially found the cat frozen to his porch.

If the owner claims the cat, there will be no charges filed. It’s not against the law to leave a cat out in the cold in Redford – though that’s “frowned upon,” he said.

Pet owners should be extra-vigilant about making sure animals have warm shelter during cold snaps.

Brown says he loves all animals, but sheepishly admitted he’s more of a dog than cat person.

That may be.

But, laughing a bit at his professed cat detachment, Brown allowed that “when I was holding him in the towel in the clinic, he was head-butting me.”

He was at Tail Wagger’s to check on Flick Thursday evening.

Oh, did we mention Brown named the cat?

Yes, the feline now goes by Flick – a nod to the kid whose tongue freezes to a flagpole Ralphie triple dog dares him to lick in an iconic scene from “A Christmas Story.”

Flick may not be Brown’s best friend – if that’s the story the animal control officer wants to stick to – but it looks like Brown is definitely Flick’s.