Montana News

Kitten melts hearts at AniMeals

Posted: Jul 31, 2011 6:22 PM by Allyson Weller
Updated: Jul 31, 2011 6:24 PM

MISSOULA- Meet John Force, he came to AniMeals just one month ago with crooked legs. He was born that way but Warehouse Manager, Steph Kassner said they're hoping they can fix that. "The tendons grew on the wrong side of his legs. So instead of growing like a normal kitten's would, they grew backwards," she said.

Little John Force may have been born different, but he doesn't know it.

"Even though he has this injury he doesn't even know that he's different from another kitten. Yeah he definitely is just a little sparkle and gem here at AniMeals," Kassner said.

Every morning, the staff at AniMeals rewraps his legs.

They say he's a good patient who never makes a peep; well that is if you don't count the purring.

"But they're hoping to basically let the tendons grow the right way, and if that doesn't work than he'll go to surgery, but we wanted to definitely try the non surgical approach first," Kassner said.

Once the community learned about the kitten, the donations started pouring in.

Kassner said people donated for all sorts of reasons. "We had one come in just because his name is John Force, we're donating, and I was like ‘alright'. I mean we're able to help him because of Missoula."

Kassner said he's brought attention to their program Healing Hearts which helps take care of injured animals at the shelter. He's also helped with other programs. "I think he's brought awareness to the foster program big time, because people want to foster him and I'm like, ‘you've got to wait till he gets stabilized'," she said.

She added the shelter and doctors are very optimistic that John Force will one day walk on his back legs.

For more information on AniMeals, click here.
If you want to find out how you can be a part of the Healing Hearts program, click here.