Cat loses leg after being found with buckshot wound in rural Ontario

An orange tabby cat named Marmalade was in good spirits on Wednesday after having surgery to remove a leg found to have been shot recently.

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An orange tabby cat named Marmalade was in good spirits on Wednesday, a day after having surgery to remove a leg found to have been shot recently.

The feline, who is believed to be close to two years old, had been living among a colony of cats in a rural area between Puslinch and Cambridge, Ont., where he was recently captured.

“He had been being fed at that colony that we’ve been looking after for a few years, for quite a few months,” said Cailey Seymour, who is the founder of Dorset Rescue Kittens, a non-profit that looks to find new homes for vulnerable animals.

She said her organization will capture the cats before they conduct health checks and have them spayed or neutered. The felines’ personalities are assessed and then the non-profit determines whether they are homed with humans or returned to their colonies.

“Since early spring of this year, we knew about (Marmalade) but he was very challenging to catch,” Seymour explained.

“In Marmalade’s case, he was coming around being fed for a few months and then in early August, I believe it was actually Aug. 7, was the first day he didn’t show up for his breakfast and dinner.”

She said the cat returned to the colony three weeks later.