Bruce the cat comes home

Photo: Contributed

Bruce the cat is back home, and Alana Reinhardt has her faith in humanity restored.

It was Sunday morning when eight-month Bruce was found in the backyard of Reinhardt's Lumby home with a shattered leg and mangled paw after being caught in a leg-hold trap.

Bruce was rushed to a veterinarian and had emergency surgery to amputate his front right leg at the shoulder.

Reinhardt brought the black-haired kitty home Tuesday afternoon, much to her delight.

“He's missing his front leg, but he's pretty chipper,” said Reinhardt. “He's looking pretty good right now. He's a celebrity – everyone is talking about him.”

Reinhardt was stunned anyone could be so cruel as to set out such a trap.

As word spread, a spontaneous bottle drive was held and a Go Fund Me page was set up.

“Just about everything got paid for,” Reinhardt said. “It was well over $2,000.”

“We were sickened after it happened,” she said. “It was done by one crappy person, but 500-plus people rallied to help us. We are so grateful, we don't have the words to express.”

Reinhardt said RCMP in Vernon and Lumby have been contacted, as has the SPCA.

Reinhardt believes whoever set the trap lives near her Miller Street home because the veterinarian told her Bruce could not have travelled far with such a devastating injury.

Kathy Woodward, SPCA animal protection officer, said there was an investigation last year into someone using live traps to capture cats.

Reinhardt said she is not only worried about other pets, but children in the area.

“We're in a residential area," she said. "There are people all around us with pets. This was an old-fashioned leg-hold trap. That would do damage to anyone. If it was a kid, it would maim them."