TRABUCO CANYON, Calif. — A kitten that was severely injured and not expected to survive a major surgery got a new home Wednesday with a Trabuco Canyon, Calif., family that has also faced seemingly insurmountable odds.
The gray-and-white kitten was found badly mangled by two Perris, Calif., women who were walking home from their community mailbox on Dec. 17, said John Welsh, spokesman for Riverside County Department of Animal Services.
Veterinary officials at a San Jacinto, Calif., animal shelter had to amputate the cat’s damaged leg and didn’t anticipate it would make it through the next morning. But it did. And its story, which made local newscasts, inspired Matt Tipton and his wife, Simone.
The couple decided the cat would be a perfect companion for their 2-year-old daughter Scarlette, whose arm was amputated in October 2014 after she was diagnosed with undifferentiated high-grade spindle cell sarcoma, a rare soft-tissue cancer.
Scarlette has been cancer free for a year, her father said, but still bears battle scars. In addition to her amputated arm, she has fake skin near her ribs because skin grafts wouldn’t take. She’s scheduled for a surgery in mid-February where some of her existing skin will be used to replace the synthetic skin.
“More or less pull the skin tight and zip her up,” said Matt Tipton, 34, a contractor for a waterproofing company.
Simone Tipton said it was important for her daughter to understand that in spite of her circumstances, she persevered, and that she’s not the only one to have faced adversities.
“We really wanted her to grow up with something that was able to understand what she’s been through, even though an animal can’t speak,” said Simone Tipton, 25. “She would grow up knowing that she’s not the only one.”
Veterinarians were unable to determine how the kitten was injured, but speculated it could have crawled inside an engine compartment and gotten caught by a belt when the owner started the engine.
The couple, along with Scarlette and their 3-year-old son Kayden, picked up the newly named Doc McStuffins at the San Jacinto shelter Dec. 23. Matt Tipton said he could tell his daughter was already enamored.
“She’s absolutely in love with the cat,” he said.
It took coaxing, though, to get officials at the animal shelter to agree that a family with a rambunctious little girl was the right fit.
“I’m thinking, ‘oh they’ve got kids,’ and kids make it very difficult for me to want to place a very tiny, fragile kitten with them,” said Eileen Sanders, a supervising registered veterinary technologist. “But my co-worker came to me with the adoption form and said, ‘Eileen, we need to give them this cat.’ ”
Sanders said she was swayed when she found out about the girl’s diagnosis.
Simone Tipton said the name Doc McStuffins comes from Scarlette’s favorite cartoon about a girl who fixes stuffed animals.
As the family prepared to take their new pet home, Sanders called the adoption a “morale booster.”
“We’re all feeling a lot happier lately because of this cat and this kid,” she said.
