When a new cat appears in a neighborhood, people usually think that he’s passing through, a happy wanderer, a capable survivor. People thought that about the little tuxedo cat that they glimpsed in their rural neighborhood, from a distance. Those glimpses didn’t show them that the fellow was losing weight.

Finally, one day, a woman saw the tuxedo on her patio. He wasn’t sure that it was safe to be seen, so he moved out of sight. Yet, he seemed to feel the need to be close to humans. Eventually, after a few days, the woman understood why.

The cat’s left hind leg was shredded. It looked, those who saw the wounded leg thought, like the cat’s leg had been in a leg-hold trap. Somehow, in a way that no one wanted to imagine, the small creature had pulled his leg out and was looking for help.

Yet, his need and his fear battled each other. So, the Friends of the Shelter helped. Members set and baited a cat trap. The hungry cat went in.

That was when the cat became Castle. That was when people discovered that Castle had been a pet. He hadn’t chosen to be a roamer. A human he’d relied on made that decision, and it was a nearly fatal decision for poor Castle. The cat was heading toward starvation when he walked into the leg-hold trap.

To survive, Castle needed a drastic amputation, a surgery that the Friends of the Shelter’s Emergency Vet Fund covered. That life-saving amputation was drastic. That surgery meant that Castle needed long-term, dedicated help to recover. Castle had to learn to do everything. The story of his recuperation is in the next installment of Castle’s continuing saga.