must love cats

We love to watch Animal Planet. Right now one of the kid's favorite programs is Must Love Cats, which is a fun and fluffy tour of the U.S. (and occasionally farther afield, like Great Britain or Japan). Each episode has host John Fulton meeting with people and their cats, usually focusing on something slightly wacky or amusing, like a cat that prowls the neighborhood and steals things from neighbor's yards, or some people who like to shave and paint their cat's fur in decorative patterns. Fun, but kinda silly.

Host John Fulton and friends

But the most recent episode, "Kitty Kidney Transplants and the Cat Who Jogs," featured a segment with a team of doctors from Philadelphia who take cats quite seriously. They have a kitty kidney transplant program. Viewers got to see a very needy Siamese cat, Opie, who had had kidney problems most of his nine lives, which were now all almost up — he had been given two months to live. The clinic had a group of kitty kidney donors, cats that they had rescued from nearby shelters, who were being saved from being euthanized by becoming donors. These donors were not only being saved, but would be guaranteed a forever home. The cat being prepped for organ donation for Opie was a cute black cat named Cadbury.

In most cases the grateful cat owners of the donor recipient end up adopting the donor kitty (how could you not?) and that was also the case for Opie and Cadbury. It was quite a touching segment. Love is love, and pets bring a lot to people's lives. It's hard to know how far I would go for a beloved kittie, but Opie's owner had no hesitations to save her cat, who had been on medication and a special diet most of his life. Watching the happy owner with her two new kitties was great, but even greater was watching the two cats together. Opie and Cadbury were inseparable. They seemed to develop an instant bond, as if they intrinsically knew that they shared something very special. I'm growing to love this show as much as my daughter.

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