JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An Atlantic Beach couple is reaching out to the public in the hopes of raising money to pay for the amputation of their cat’s arm after it was shot last month.
Owner Ashley Hay said the couple’s cat, TJ, was shot sometime between noon and 5 p.m. Jan. 18 in the Oak Harbor neighborhood near Mayport Middle School.
Hay said she learned TJ had been shot, an injury that left a bullet lodged in his shattered front arm bone, after the cat came home that day with a noticeable limp.
On the advice of a physician, Hay tried to salvage TJ’s arm by placing it in a cast for three weeks. But after TJ’s latest checkup, the doctor determined it cannot be saved.
“It looks like there is no progression with his bones healing. He recommends that we now proceed with amputation,” Hay wrote on the couple’s crowdfunding page.
We want to do right by him, he is still full of life,” she added. “But financially it is hard.”
The cat is scheduled to go under the knife on Friday. If you’d like to help with TJ’s recovery, you can learn more by visiting the couple’s YouCaring page.