Rescuing a Himalayan cat hit by a car

Van Quentin is a new cat at Best Friends who's pulling through some serious injuries like a trooper. But he never would have survived if it hadn't been for a mother's tough choice.

Rebecca Preston, who works on Best Friends publications, was driving to her daughters' high school play. It was no minor event. Her two daughters were not only actors in Kanab High's production of "A Case for Two Detectives," they had helped direct it. And she didn't have a moment to spare to get to the theater on time.

Himalayan cat hit by a car

Wouldn't you know it? Just as she was about to reach the high school, she spotted something in the median of the highway. Oh, no. It looked like a cat had been run over! She could barely stand to look, but noticed from the corner of her eye that when he spotted her car, he lifted his head. Rebecca slammed on the brakes.

The beautiful Himalayan cat was apparently stunned, having been hit in the middle of the highway, but he was very much alive, albeit with a badly broken jaw. Although visions of an empty seat at her daughters' debut nagged at her, Rebecca raced to the nearest grocery store to get to a phone, and bumped right into a pair of Best Friends cat staffers in the parking lot. They too dropped what they were doing (though no groceries were harmed) and followed her out to the road, carrying the cat safely to the car, and then to the cat manager's house. The cat manager called the clinic staff, and pretty soon there were so many people involved in helping this cat, you'd think it was 7:30 in the morning instead of 7:30 at night! It was back to work.

Feline suffers a broken jaw

The cat has a badly broken jaw that will require a lot of surgery and recuperation, but "he wants to live," said Best Friends' Dr. Kate Creighton. So far, his outlook is excellent. Rebecca didn't make it to her daughters' play until the second half. But her daughters understood, saying, "You had to save the cat."

The good news is the play was repeated the next evening, and this time Rebecca got to see the whole thing! "They were brilliant," she said. (Of course, she isn't biased!) The cat is named Van Quentin after one of the leading detective characters in the school play she nearly missed.

Please consider adopting your next pet.