Tia the Tripod Cat

This photogenic sweetheart is our Egyptian Mau named Tia.     We got her and her sister, Sia, from a local breeder as kittens 6 years ago.   Tia is a snuggle bucket and loves to sit in laps, or snuggle under covers, LOL.    I do stock photography on the side, and these two kitties have been very fun to photograph.   Tia has actually been featured on an IAMs ad I found in Target once!

Tia’s tripawd journey begins about 1 year ago.   We noticed she was occasionally favoring her left hind leg.   Took her to the vet several times, but she didn’t exhibit the lameness in the office, and wasn’t tender anywhere, so it was always assumed to be some sort of strain.    The limping eventually became more pronounced which led to an x-ray.    The vet came back and said it was a bone tumor.   The first option he gave us was amputation, or we could biopsy it to see if it was cancerous.    Yikes, that was a crazy day!    We immediately rejected amputation, and proceeded with the biopsy surgery.    Luckily, the tumor was not cancerous, but amputation was still given as our only real option for treatment.

We hesitated to make such a big decision and waited about 6 months to see how she would do.    The limp progressed, so during an annual checkup I requested new X-rays.    The tumor had grown significantly in the 6 months, so now we knew the right answer:  amputate the leg.

So we dropped her off at the vet August 3rd for the big surgery.