My friend, Paul Spruell, is a figure skating and ice dance instructor at Snoopy's Home Ice in Santa Rosa. I got to know him when I skated there several years ago. We also share a love for cats and I was so happy when Paul fell in love with Maurice, a beautiful orange tabby. He found his soulmate.

This weekend Paul called, asking if I knew of an emergency vet for Maurice. Here's what happened:

Maurice…… I left the house early Friday morning to teach in Santa Rosa and returned in the afternoon. Maurice was nowhere in sight. Late Friday Night Maurice didn’t come home or heed my calls. This was all unusual behavior for him and in my gut I knew something was wrong. Saturday morning still no Maurice. Expecting the worst I searched the property then drove around the neighborhood looking for him. Maybe he was run over by a car and laying dead in a ditch. Maybe he was poisoned or hurt in a fight. In an hour I would have to drive to Santa Rosa and give a few lessons. Before leaving I was advised to look under the barn down the driveway at the bottom of the hill. I got lucky. I peeked under the barn and there he was sitting in a cooling chest with a hole made for feral cats to enter and sleep. I scooped him up, locked him in my apartment and headed to Santa Rosa to give my 2 private lessons. I then hurried home and got him to the emergency vet care in Rohnert Park. He had a deep wound in his hind leg exposing the bone, sores inside his mouth, a fever and very dehydrated. He is still at the hospital having surgery. I will be picking him up later this evening. He will be an indoor cat for 2 weeks and have to wear a cone around his neck. The vet thinks he was attacked by some animal. The nature of his wounds makes me think it may have been a Coyote. Hopefully we can control his infection so the leg won’t have to be amputated. I am home now exhausted and sucking my thumb.

A very sad change of events with Maurice. In surgery many more injuries were discovered. Fractures in his other leg, more serious infected wounds, an irreparable hip dislocation and the prospects of a likely leg amputation. His quality of life would have been a very painful one. The collaborative decision with my doctor was agreed to be the best one for Maurice. I will miss Maurice terribly. We adored each other. In his short year and a half on Earth, he got in a lot of living. I can’t express in words how much I will miss my little boy.

Sadly, Paul has lost his best friend and now has a large vet bill to pay. We can't bring Maurice back, but we can help him pay what he owes. Any amount will help.