by Laura J. Graham

A beautiful black and white tomcat came to live on our farm in the 1970s. At that time, frequent veterinary emergencies among dogs was the hbc, or hit by car, and among cats, it was being injured by jumping through a moving fan belt, after spending a cold night on a warm car engine. This was before the time of leash laws and plastic shields under cars.

One day, at the veterinary clinic where I worked, this cat was brought in with a fanbelt injury to the hind leg. X-rays showed his rear left femur was broken in three pieces, with fragments. The two choices given to the owner, was either surgery, which would have involved a pin, or cage rest and hope for the best. The owners could not afford surgery and did not want a cat that probably wouldn’t walk again, much less walk without pain, and elected for euthanasia.

The veterinarian went to the cage with needle and syringe to humanely euthanize. But the cat was so friendly and purry and rolly, that he came back up front and told me he couldn’t do it. “I will take him home,” I said.

A few weeks later Fanbelt had completely mended, and if you paid attention you could see that his leg was crooked and he had a slight limp. If there was pain, he never complained.

We have a saying in the veterinary world, that if you put two pieces of cat bone on opposite sides of a room, they will knit, and Fanbelt was living proof.

Here is the immortalized Fanbelt. He’s relaxing on guard while my sister Mary feeds “orphan” lambs Vigoro and Lambert. I put “orphan” in quotes, because their mother was most likely alive and well, just uninterested in them. Late 1970’s. Photograph by William Graham.