Would someone wise please help me understand why last week Big Mac, the most loving creature I’ve ever known, had to lose his driver’s-side rear leg to an undocumented-in-any-veterinary-literature osteochondroma?
Sob.
Poor you! And poor kitty! How’s he doing? I’d feel horrible if it were my kitty. I bet he adapts real well, though. It’s so hard when things happen to our critters…
I’m sorry your kitty had to lose his leg! I bet it’s been scary for you.
On the upside, I can guarantee you that he’ll get used to it and after a while it’ll be like he never had the leg in the first place. I have a 3-legged kitty and she doesn’t miss the one that’s gone (though granted she was only 2 months old when she lost it). She can jump, climb, run, and play just as well as any 4-legged cat. Your cat will adapt and I bet he won’t even miss the leg.
I had a 3-legged kitty, too. He was a grey tabby named Biscuit. We had a big woods behind our house where people used to hunt, and he got shot. I’d like to think it was unintentional instead of some jerk being mean. I was 8 or 9 then, and he came limping up to the house with his leg literally hanging on by a piece of tissue. My dad got him to the vet and they amputated his leg. Biscuit was about 2 years old- he adjusted to it amazingly fast. He lived for another 6 or 7 years after that, and was still able to climb trees and hunt- he was still dragging home little dead furry creatures on a regular basis.
I hope your kitty heals quickly and is back on his feet (all three of them!) soon.Your kitty will adjust so fast you’ll be amazed. Don’t worry about that part.
As for why they get horrible diseases, I have no idea. Doesn’t seem fair. I’m glad he got treatment; better to lose a leg than everything else.
He’ll be fine! Give ol’ Peg a scritch for me. 
Gosh, you guys. I feel so much better now. Thanks for telling me your stories and otherwise offering support for the two of us. Lots of folks either don’t understand or don’t care – “He’s just a cat” – and I accept their sentiments. But this fellow is very special indeed to Mr. MercyStreet and me. Our lives are better because PetFinder.org hooked us up with this big clown who needed a home. I hope his life is better, too, although lately I’ve wondered whether that’s the case.
My mom’s kitty was born minus a leg. That cat can motor, I tell ya. … What’s different with Big Mac is the disease and the discomfort. I’d do anything to explain why we did this to him. (Well, why we had a vet do it to him. With anesthesia and antibiotics, even. Snort.) He is really getting the hang of navigating, even hopping aboard the bed and chairs and sofas. We NEVER thought we would see those maneuvers. …
As to why he got a weird and rare disease, well, he’s a cat. I put very little past them. 
I will happily smack anybody who tells you, “It’s just a cat.” I simply do not understand some people.
So sorry to hear about your kitty. Pooh on those who say he’s just a cat. I always say that animals are not our pets, we’re theirs. At least that’s the way it is in my household.
When I was a kid, my sister had a beagle named Peanuts. Peanuts lost one of his hind legs after becoming caught in a trap. He recovered remarkably well. So well, in fact, that one day Peanuts ran away. Animals are very adaptable creatures. I’m sure your kitty will recover quite nicely!
Some friends of ours had several cats on a small horse farm. I had been there many times and never paid much attention to the cats, but there was one in particular that seemed to always be around the barn. One day, as he walked by on the fence in front of me, I noticed for the first time that he had a rear leg missing; his movements were so natural that it wasn’t obvious at all. He had lost it some years earlier, and as a barn cat had never had a particularly pampered life, yet had adapted quite well. He did leave rather odd locking tracks in the snow.
I had a friend with a three-legged cat named Tripod. Heh heh. I didn’t even notice she was missing a rear leg until I actually looke at her closely. The only time I ever paid much attention to her was when I petted her, and she was laying down.
So, I finally noticed. She didn’t seem to mind in the least, and jumped and walked just fine.
I saw some Animal Planet (I think) show about how they have to amputate limbs all the way to the shoulderblade, because if a stump is left, the animal will try to walk on it. But if it’s all gone, they cope just fine. Hmmm.
I was pretty sad when my cat had her leg amputated too. But, like others here have mentioned, she didn’t even seem to notice, for the most part – and neither did a lot of other people. The first time I took her to a new vet after the leg was amputated, the vet didn’t even notice at first.
She knew how to work it, though. Whenever someone who wasn’t wise to her tricks was around, she would limp pitifully and cry until she got all attentioned up. Of course when nobody (or nobody who fell for it) was around, she tore around like her tail was on fire, as usual.
Oh, that sneaky kitty.
Link about feline osteosarcoma
http://maxshouse.com/feline_bone_tumors.htm
My grandparents had a cat who was hit by car and had rear-left leg amputated, and that animal could FLY around the yard with just three legs. Pretty remarkable I thought at the time, but then you see how well adapted the cat becomes, then it’s a non-issue.
For years, the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) detatchment at Sigonella, Sicily had a three-legged beagle as a mascot. They also called him Tripod.
EOD are considered Navy special forces. They defuse unexploded bombs. Tripod, I guess, served as a reminder of what can happen if you get careless.
That dog had the run of the base. Everybody loved him. He had absolutely no trouble running around.
I worked at another command on base for a couple of years a decade ago. Tripod’s probably gone now, sadly.
That Max’s House page is terrific. Initially Mr. Mercy Street and I consulted it a great deal, until we got the pathology report and learned it was osteochondroma, which isn’t really addressed … well, anywhere. … Coincidentally Mackie’s surgeon is writing a paper on rare kitty cancers. Mackie is the star. Yayyyy, Mackie! Yayyyy, Big Mac!
The pathology report said, more or less: “Jesus. Zowie. This thing isn’t in the Penn database. It’s not in any database. This is some case!”