Misha is lucky to be alive.
The year-old, long-haired, ginger feline was darting across River Road, between Carr and 216th streets, at around 7 p.m. Sunday, when he was struck by a car and left for dead.
However, a client of a local veterinarian happened to find him on the side of the road, and called for help.
Dr. Adrian Walton, of Dewdney Animal Hospital, picked up the injured cat and put him on pain medication, fluids and oxygen. But Misha was unstable and Walton didn’t want to leave him in the clinic overnight by himself. He was concerned the injured animal wouldn’t make it and wanted to send him to an emergency clinic. But without an owner, his hands were tied.
That’s when he turned to social media.
At 8 p.m., Walton posted a picture of Misha on the Dewdney Animal Hospital’s Facebook page, with a plea for help to find the owner. By 9:30 p.m., after receiving calls from her friends and being tagged in the photo on Facebook, a worried Brittany Muscroft, 17, contacted Walton and was reunited with Misha by 10 p.m.
By then, the cat had shown marked improvement.
Misha was kept overnight for observation before being released.
Muscroft says her cat will now remain completely indoors.
Walton says the problem they always have at the clinic when animals come in without any identification is there is no way to contact the owner if they require emergency procedures.
“The policy on emergency hospitals is you have to pay a deposit. That is perfectly normal and acceptable,” said Walton.
“If I had a microchip, I would have been able to track down the owner a lot sooner and I would have had the opportunity to offer a little bit more. I can stabilize, but I can’t do much else,” he continued.
So, it is important that pets have identification, whether it is a microchip, a tattoo or a collar, said Walton.
A microchip can be read with a scanner by a veterinarian or the SPCA, and as long as your information is current with the microchip company, you can track pets within minutes.
However, a microchip is not clearly visible.
A tattoo is visible and is usually found inside the outer ear or the inside leg of a cat. But, tattoos can become difficult to read with time and information needs to be current.
A collar has a tag on it with phone numbers.