I grew up not liking cats very much. My oldest son had a paper route and one of the persons he delivered to couldn't pay him so they offered him a cat. I didn't much like the idea but agreed. We went into the house and came across tons of kittens running around except for one. He was very small, had hardly any hair and I knew he wouldn't make it for long. I felt obligated to get that kitten out of there. The people who lived there informed us that they were taking them to the pound the next day and this one kitten I knew would be put down. We took him. I stayed up all night nursing him with an eye dropper. He wouldn't uncurl himself. He slept on my chest for days. He finally started growing more hair on him and he uncurled himself. To our surprise he only had 3 legs. He was very healthy and began to grow and grow, while learning to walk on 3 legs. I saved his life. 4 years later, I began to have some health problems, female related. I had severe pain in my lower abdomen. I needed pressure to sleep at night. I tried books for pressure (on top of a heating pad), and while they helped they weren't very comfortable. One night, Tripod, very gently climbed on my tummy, laid down and fell asleep. He was in the exact place that I needed him to be. From that night on he slept on my tummy helping me through the pain. He saved my life. It has been 8 years now and I feel very differently about cats, because of him. He is wonderful to have around and during the winter when it is cold here in Montana he still sleeps on my tummy.
