When it comes to ranking your crustaceans, the lobster is king. The majestically tasty ocean dweller always beats out the crab in a sheer meat-to-shell ratio and loves nothing more than luxuriating in a bath of melted butter. There is little not to love about lobsters — and I suspect fine-dining felines would feel the same way.
That being so, if someone were to open up a cat-centric lobster shack, I know just the chap to endorse such an enterprise. Handily, his name’s Lobstah, due to a remarkably distinctive front-right paw. Here’s his story.
“Lobstah was brought in to the San Francisco Animal Care and Control, who quickly discovered he was in distress,” says John Bigelow, who eventually adopted the kitty with Leda Bigelow. “He had stopped eating and drinking, peeing and pooping, and was having difficulty breathing.”
Only 4 months old at the time, Lobstah was quickly moved on to the nearby SPCA, where X-rays detailed the extent of his ailments: His intestines were “leaking” out through his diaphragm and into his chest, which in turn was putting undesirable pressure on his lungs. He was also found to have been born without a sternum, which, as John puts it, “left only the skin on his chest holding in his intestines.”
Basically, Lobstah was a cat in danger of literally spilling apart.
Calls were put in to a couple of local specialists, Dr. Jeannette Goh and Dr. Margo Mehl, and Lobstah underwent surgery to move his intestines back to their proper place, close up the pesky hole in his diaphragm, and construct a chest wall with his rib cage.
Lobstah wasn’t expected to survive this intensive internal restructuring, but only 24 hours later he was chowing down on his food and pooping in his litter box just like any normal cat.
A week later, Lobstah’s soon-to-be saviors John and Leda walked through the door of the San Francisco SPCA and met a kitten they realized was “overwhelmingly happy to be alive,” despite his medical issues and the less-than-dapper cone of shame he was sporting.
Naturally, the adoption process ensued.
When Lobstah arrived at his new forever home, he set about proving his important credentials as a cat who’s “clearly mobile and an incredibly skilled muffin-maker.”
In terms of getting around, John says that he usually struts on all four of his paws, but sometimes relies on only three as he somewhat hops on his front left. (Although that’s a habit he seems to be slowly ditching as he gets older.)
Lobstah’s also perfected his own signature pose: “Because his wrist break is behind his claw, rather then resting both paws on the ground when he is sitting, he occasionally hangs his front right leg in front of him. It’s really cute.”
Lobstah’s claw doesn’t seem to affect his natural cat-agility though. As John puts it, “His leaping ability is off the charts — he can cover great distances with just a few jumps.”
“We haven’t been able to get a video of it yet, but, when lying in bed with our hands under the covers trying to get him to attack, like a coiled spring that’s been released he springs about four feet in the air with seemingly little effort.”
With Lobstah now living it up in his forever home, what about the most crucial question of all: Has he ever shown any interest in feasting on his namesake crustacean?
“Not yet,” says John, before adding that Lobstah’s not a picky eater and that his inquisitive nature sees him attracted to the kitchen counter to the point where he’s happily sampled spinach, arugula, granola, and peanut butter “willingly and with vigor.”
“So I expect when Lobstah meets lobster, he won’t discriminate.”
Scuttle over to Lobstah’s Facebook or Instagram account to keep up to date with this kitty’s moves.
Read about more Monday Miracles:
- Smurf the Kitten Survived a Dye Job and Life as a Chew Toy
- Piglet the Cleft-Lip Kitty Champions Special-Needs Cats
- Meet Vincent, the Cat With Metal Prosthetic Legs
About the author: Phillip Mlynar writes about cats, music, food, and sometimes a mix of all three. He considers himself the world’s foremost expert on rappers’ cats.
