Caretaking Cat Saves Lives at Animal Clinic

Despite his fairly run-of-the-mill orange tabby appearance, Christopher the cat is no ordinary feline. Not because he has his own Facebook profile, but because some fairly credible veterinary professionals believe that he possesses an almost superhero level of feline intuition. From comforting the lame to taming the feral to even volunteering to donate blood for a emergency transfusion, workers at the Redwood City, California's Nine Lives Foundation say that Christopher has shown all the signs of being a miracle worker.

It all started on March 15, when Christopher was brought to the Nine Lives Foundation with what Dr. Monica Thompson, DVM, describes as "severe pelvic fractures." Christopher was found by a group of cyclists on Crystal Spring Rd., the inspiration for the name Christopher, after the orange tabby had apparently been hit by a car.

"We take in special needs cats and I agreed to work on him," Thompson tells Paw Nation. Though she expected to perform extensive surgery on the Christopher, Thompson says she didn't need to. "While we kept him, his condition just kept improving, so I left him alone. Then one day, he just jumped out of his cage and started walking." After six weeks, he was walking around with ease. "Now he's even running," Thompson says.

Miraculous as Christopher's recovery may be, it's only the first item on his impressive superhero resumé. He has since become the clinic's primary feline caretaker, often climbing into cages with terminally ill cats and bathing them. Christopher's charity was put to the test in July, when two feral kittens were brought into Nine Lives.

According to Thompson, the kittens were too wild to be handled. "We put the cats in Christopher's old cage and he would visit them everyday. The kittens would reach out of their cage to him," Thompson explains. After two weeks of working his magic, the two kittens were completely tame and, what's more, ready to be adopted. We'll call that minor miracle number two.

Perhaps Christopher's greatest claim to fame occurred just a few weeks ago. "We had a kitten that was severely anemic and needed a blood transfusion right away. But since it was late at night, I didn't have any blood in my freezer," Dr. Thompson tells Paw Nation. That's when Christopher stepped in; he jumped up on the table and began bathing the anemic kitten as it struggled to breathe.

"The kitten didn't even have enough blood to type it," Thompson explains, but both cats being fairly common short-haired alley cats, both would most likely have type-A blood. With time running out, Thompson made the call and transfused blood from Christopher to the dying kitten. As you may have guessed, it worked. However, there is a twist: Both cats were actually type B.

Thompson couldn't believe it when she learned that both cats possessed the same rare blood type. "I don't even have another type B in the hospital. I've been looking for one. It was as if Christopher knew it would work," explains Thompson. "It's like he's a really intelligent person reincarnated as a cat. It's hard to explain."

Tags: California, cat rescue, cat shelter, christopher the cat, esp, monica thompson, nine lives foundation, psychic cat, Redwood City