15 hours ago
‘Scrappy street cat' with 3 legs shows shelter his sweet side. He needs a home
A 'scrappy street cat' now shows off his sweet side — and he needs a home.
'He melts under a good head scratch and leans into affection like he's been waiting for it his whole life,' Danielle Deschamps, communications coordinator for a North Carolina animal shelter, told McClatchy News in a June 17 email. 'His purr can fill a room. He's discovering the joys of indoor life, and you can see how much he's savoring it.'
Cloudy the three-legged cat has spent nearly 100 days at the Watauga Humane Society. He waits for a fresh start after he once lived in a man's greenhouse with roughly 15 other stray cats.
'Many of them were struggling, some with visible health issues, but all were cared for with quiet devotion,' Deschamps wrote. 'This man didn't have much, but what he did have — shelter, food, and patience — he gave to them freely.'
The felines were part of a cat colony, 'where every day was survival.' After relying on his instincts, Cloudy was among the cats captured and brought to the shelter for care, the humane society wrote in a Facebook post.
'He arrived with only three legs but no shortage of courage,' the shelter wrote. 'His limp didn't slow him down; it just gave him character. Somewhere between the wet food and the soft blankets, the scrappy street cat softened. Cloudy learned that hands could offer love.'
Cloudy is described as a sweet 6-year-old cat who's learning what it's like to relax on beds and window sills. The shelter doesn't know what happened to his missing leg, though it could have been injured in an encounter with a wild animal.
'Whatever happened, he healed on his own,' Deschamps wrote. 'No vet, no pain meds — just time and quiet strength. He's the kind of cat who's already survived the hard part — now he just needs someone to show him what the soft part of life can be.'
As of June 18, the shelter's website still listed Cloudy as available for adoption. Details about the animal organization's adoption process can be found at
The humane society is in the mountain town of Boone, a roughly 85-mile drive west from Winston-Salem.
