OUR cat Shelley, who is 13-years-old, started limping on her left front leg.

For a while we thought it was just a bit of rheumatism, but when it got worse we took her to see our vet Dr Tirgari (Dr T) of Tuckton Road, Southbourne.

He gave her an injection and said to bring her back for a check-up four days later.

Her limp had got worse and the vet said that he should give her an x-ray.

After he had taken the x-ray, he phoned us straight away and told us the sad news that Shelley had a large bone tumour in her shoulder, it was a very shocking and sad moment for us as we would probably lose her if left untreated.

Our vet gave us a window of hope though, he explained to us the possible success of an operation to remove her left leg, of course it was traumatic news for us, but Dr T comforted us by saying that Shelley would have a good quality and normal life after the surgery and removal of the cancerous bone.

Shelley is a beautifully natured, kind tempered, loving cat, everyone at the vets’ surgery love her and Dr T even offered to do the operation free of charge for us.

Shelley had her operation the following day and surgery was a complete success.

To our surprise Shelley recovered very quickly and within a few days she was running and jumping around on her three legs perfectly fine.

We realised after the surgery how much pain she must have been in before the operation.

She has now got a fantastic appetite back and has put on weight, and her coat has never looked better.

She has come on in leaps and bounds in the month since the operation and we are so thrilled and thankful to Dr T that her life has been saved and we will have many more years to look forward to with her now.

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