Freida the cat, left to die in a ditch in maine, gets international attention

On April 10, a man walking down a road in his rural Maine town spotted a tiny cat in a ditch. He picked up the forlorn feline, a tiny, emaciated, long-haired tortie covered in feces and mats, and he called a friend who runs a cat boarding facility. And that’s when miracles began to happen.

The cat-boarding facility owner is a friend of Forgotten Felines of Maine, an all-volunteer cat rescue that works to save cats across eastern Maine. Forgotten Felines quickly got the cat, who had now been given the name Freida, to BayView Animal Hospital in Gouldsboro, where Dr. Lydia Pryor and her staff fell in love with her and started treatment.

After weeks of recovery, numerous biopsies and consultations with specialists, Freida finally got a diagnosis: Multifocal portal venule hypoplasia and arteriolar hyperplasia (reduplication)- mild bile ductular hyperplasia. Basically, her liver isn’t working and her gall bladder is hundreds of times larger than it should be.

But despite her illnesses, Freida is in good spirits. She likes the sweaters she needs to wear to compensate for her shaved fur and her illness. She’s eating and enjoying the company of her foster caretakers. Although she’ll need a lifetime of special care, the odds are good that she will have a great quality of life.

As I watched Freida’s story unfold, I never imagined that the world would take notice and that this cat, who was left to die by some poor excuse for a human being, would become the poster kitty for courage, love, and an uncanny desire to live. But this week I started seeing stories about Freida in the Daily Mail, MSNBC and HLN ÔǪ and the Freida love is spreading fast!

If you’d like to follow Freida’s story, become a friend of her Facebook page. If you’d like to help contribute to Freida’s veterinary care, please do so through Forgotten Felines’ Freida Fundrazr. Any donations beyond the amount required for Freida’s veterinary care will help Forgotten Felines to help other abused and abandoned cats in eastern Maine.

Photos from Freida’s Facebook page