Tiny Cat Giselle Takes Big Steps in Recovery

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Known affectionately as Stumpy Cat on her Instagram account, famous feline Giselle, from Boston has suffered far more than her fair share of problems throughout her life. It is a miracle that she has pulled through and her recovery is testimony to the wonders of modern animal science to bring her back from the brink. Giselle is a really tiny cat, which is evident when you look at any photo of her against other cats who might be deemed ‘average size’. When she arrived at the Boston MSPCA shelter facility when she was first found, she would barely fit into the palm of a human hand. She was tiny! She has grown as bit since then, but not much!

Giselle is a munchkin cat, a relatively new breed famed for its short legs, the result of a natural genetic mutation. Not everybody is happy with the breed having been registered as it is thought that the short legs inhibits some of the natural things that a cat should be able to do, such as clean its own face (Giselle cannot do this and needs a human to do it for her).

Giselle had a lot of trouble with walking and was very timid when she first came to the shelter. She is still fairly quiet and scared now, but she is a lot better and this is probably a simple result of her being much smaller than everything else she comes across! It was noted that she kept bumping into things and after a check up, it was discovered that she was blind. She also had a lung infection and an under developed rib cage. That initial check up at an animal sanctuary is so important as it enables a plan to be created for the future of that animal in nursing it back to health.

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Giselle therefore faced a double whammy of not being to breathe very well as a result of poor lung development and other airway issues and not being able to move very well as a result of her blindness and poor skeletal frame – she also had spinal problems.

Eventually, after much nursing and medication, she was well enough to be moved to a local feline fostering facility. The one thing she didn’t really like about this experience was meeting Tuna the dog, who was much bigger than she was, towering above her, and she always retreated to the relative security of her bed.

She has steadily put on weight but, mainly as a result of her breed capacity in the first place, she will never be a very large cat. Indeed, she only weighs a measly 2 and a half pounds! She cannot move very well and this does affect the way she lives her life.

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It was her Instagram account that made her an internet sensation. Offers of adoption came from all over the place, as people became obsessed with her diminuitive stature and amazing story of recovery. Eventually she ended up with a person who had a large amount of experience of looking after cats with problems such as those faced by Giselle. Her future now looks much brighter thanks to a fantastic team of nutritionists and vets and a new loving owner. It just goes to show that you should never give up on an animal. Given the right amount of care, they will fight, survive and thrive, offering their love to someone and being loved in return.

Images via Instagram