Unspeakably Mutilated and Then Dumped to Die All Alone with His Horrific Pain in the Bitter Cold, Highway Amazingly Defies the Odds and Now Has a New Guardian, a Home, and a Second Chance at Life

Highway on February 24th after His Left Front Leg Was Repaired

"He is one strong and brave kitty!"

-- the Pet Animal Welfare Society of Norwalk

On a hot, humid, and very green July afternoon like today the bone-chilling temperatures, heavy snowfalls, and grayness of this past January seem like a distant nightmare. Hopefully, a handsome, two-year-old tuxedo named Highway is able to feel the same way. He certainly has more than ample reason for doing so.

Found abandoned in a locked cage at a rest stop on the northbound side of Interstate 95 in Darien, sixty kilometers northeast of New York City, on Monday, January 24th, his right eye had been ruptured by a sharp object, both of his front legs had been broken, and one of his front paws had been mutilated. Considering that he is believed to have been abandoned on Friday, January 21st, he surely must have been languishing in pain for at least the better part of four days.

On top of all of those miseries, he was without food, water, medical assistance, and human companionship. He additionally no doubt was shivering given that the thermometer had plummeted to 9° Fahrenheit on January 21st, 8° Fahrenheit on Saturday, January 22nd, and 19° Fahrenheit on Sunday, January 23rd.

The only tiny bit of Glück im Unglück that he had was to have successfully dodged several heavy snowstorms that had blanketed the northeast throughout most of the month of January. On the other hand, if he had been abandoned during any of them, he easily could have been snowed under and his cage destroyed by reckless and uncaring plowmen clearing the rest area as quickly and as profitably as possible.

After having been unconscionably ignored for days by the many employees who work in the rest stop's numerous stores and motorists alike, his desperate plight was belatedly brought to the attention of Allyson Halm, an Animal Control officer in New Canaan, nine kilometers northwest of Darien, and Lieutenant Jason Ferraro of the New Canaan Police. Upon arrival, the duo wasted little time in rushing him to the Pet Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in Norwalk where, despite not having so much as a sou to his name, the charity magnanimously did not hesitate to treat him.

Tragically, it was not able, however, to have saved his right eye and that in turn necessitated that it had to be promptly surgically removed. The only positive thing that can be said about that irrevocable loss is that Highway tolerated the surgery reasonably well and afterwards was said to have been feeling much better. (See Cat Defender post of February 26, 2022 entitled "Intentionally Blinded, Crippled, and Abandoned to Freeze to Death in a Locked Cage at a Rest Stop on Interstate 95 in Connecticut, Highway Not Only Perseveres but Now Has Hope for a Brighter Tomorrow.")

Later on February 23rd, the separated and broken bones in his left front leg were surgically aligned and stabilized with the insertion of a metal plate. After that, PAWS was forced to hold off on repairing his right leg for another six to eight weeks in order to allow his surgically repaired left one time to heal.

"With the love and care of PAWS' staff and volunteers, Highway will recover and find a loving home," the charity pledged a day later on February 24th on Facebook. As time and events were later to demonstrate, that was one vow that the charity more than fulfilled.

  

Shortly thereafter he was placed in foster care with one of the organization's veterinary technicians, a woman identified only by her first name as Karen. Somewhere along about the middle of April, Highway was taken to MedVet in Norwalk where his right leg was repaired by Jessica Baron. No mention has been made concerning his mangled front paw but it surely was repaired at some point.

Highway's Right Front Leg Was Mended in April by the Staff at Medvet 

"Highway's surgery went well and he is now on the road to recovery," the organization announced April 15th on Facebook. "He is one strong and brave kitty!"

Six days later on April 21st, PAWS was able to share with the outside world the heartening news that he had been officially adopted by Karen. "We wish you a lifetime of happiness together!!" the charity stated simply on Facebook.

As far as it has been disclosed, there is not anything amiss with his left eye so he should be able to function quite well with just one eye. That by no means, however, excuses what was done to him.

Purposefully blinding cats and kittens is a hideous crime that urgently needs to be addressed by societies all over the world. Moreover, it is by no means limited to owners with sharp objects but rather the practice  extends to miscreants armed with knives, bows and arrows, nail guns, ball bearing guns, and rocks. (See Cat Defender posts of August 26, 2005, March 7, 2006, June 1, 2009, March 5, 2020, July 6, 2010, July 19, 2010, and April 16, 2015 entitled, respectively, "Winky Sam, a Cat with Only One Eye and Steadily Going Blind, Finally Finds a Home in Port St. Lucie," "Little Dickie Loses an Eye in a Pet Rage Fracas That Culminates in His Owner's Murder by the Police on Staten Island," "Blind and Deaf on Her Left Side as the Result of a Bow and Arrow Attack by a Juvenile Miscreant, Valentine Is Still Looking for a Permanent Home," "Struck Down by an Archer and Shunned by an Uncaring Public for More Than a Year, Valentine Finally Finds a Home," "Grace Survives Being Shot Point-Blank Between the Eyes by a Monster with a Nail Gun but the Authorities in Sioux City Refuse to Even Investigate the Attack," "Grace Is Out of the Hospital and Has a New Home but Her Nail Gun Assailant Remains as Free as a Bird Thanks to the Authorities' Dereliction of Duty," "Molly Loses an Eye to an Assailant with a Ball Bearing Gun Only Later to Be Victimized by an Incompetent Veterinarian," and "Nelson's Odyssey from Being the Long Abused Cat That Nobody Wanted to One of England's Most Beloved Comes to a Sad End at Age Twenty.")

Countless other cats lose eyes to untreated infections that they are either born with or that develop shortly after birth. (See the Berlin Kurier, May 30, 2022, "Tragische Tiergeschichte: Diese Katzen-Mama hat nur ein Auge -- der Grund ist traurig! Wer gibt der sußen Lilly trotz Handicap eine Chance?")

Then there is the heartbreaking plight of those cats that are born without eyes. (See Cat Defender posts of February 23, 2007, September 27, 2007, and October 7, 2021 entitled, respectively, "Born Without Eyes and Later Abandoned, a Humble Kitten Appropriately Named Angel Has Hope for a Brighter Tomorrow," "Abandoned to Die in a World of Darkness and Without Even Teeth, Maxwell Is Saved by the Compassion of a Rescue Group and a Veterinarian," and "Keller and Anne Are Waging Heroic Battles in Order to Stay Alive but They Are Trapped in Cruel and Inhumane Sioux City Where It Is a Capital Offense for a Cat to So Much as Dare to Exist," plus the Daily Reporter of Greenfield, Indiana, September 23, 2020, "Cats' Tale: A Story about a Blind Cat and Her Buddy Could Lead to Prize for Humane Society" and WTHR-TV of Indianapolis, October 8, 2020, "A Tale of Two Kitties: Blind Cat and Feline Friend Win $1500 for Local Shelter.")

It is young punks, ornithologists, and gardeners armed with air guns, however, that are responsible for a lion's share of not only this world's one-eyed cats but the dead ones as well. (See Cat Defender posts of May 7, 2007, September 27, 2007, April 2, 2015, March 9, 2012, and March 13, 2012 entitled, respectively, "British Punks Are Having a Field Day Maiming Cats with Air Guns but the Peeler Continue to Look the Other Way," "Caged, Shot Thirty Times with an Air Gun, and Then Tossed in the Bay to Drown, Lovey Is Rescued in the Middle of the Night by a Good Samaritan," "A Cornishman Shells Out £10,000 on Private Peepers in Order to Track Down Farah's Killer but Once Again Gets Stiffed by Both the Police and the RSPCA," "An Amateur Ornithologist Guns Down Hartley with an Air Rifle, Feigns Remorse, and Then

Cheats Justice by Begging and Lying," and "The Sick Wife Defense Works Like a Charm for Cunning Patrick Doyle after He Traps a Cat and Then Shoots It with an Air Rifle while Still in Its Cage," plus the Augsburger Allgemeine, articles dated June 24, 2015 and June 25, 2015 and entitled, respectively, "Rentner schießt mit Luftgewehr auf Katzen" and "Schuss aus Luftgewehr verletzt Katze 'Klärchen'," the Bourmemouth Echo, February 16, 2017, "A Cat Which Survived Three Air Gun Attacks Is Killed after Fourth Shooting," "KTRK-TV of Houston, May 18, 2017, "Six Cats Shot with Pellets in Spring Neighborhood," The Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, July 13, 2017,"Reward Offered in Moxham Cat-Shooting Case," Kent Online, February 10, 2022, "Feral Sheppey Cat Shot in Face Finds New Home in Faversham," and the RSPCA, press release of July 12, 2017, "Airgun Attacks Reported to Us Set to Reach Five-Year High.")

In one respect, Highway is extremely lucky that his assailant did not blind him in both eyes as was done to a Michigan cat named Ace. (See Cat Defender post of March 14, 2015 entitled "Ace Is Found Frozen to a Porch with His Eyes Gouged Out but the Authorities Are Too Lazy, Cheap, and Ailurophobic to Go After His Assailant" and Ace's Odyssey on Facebook.) 

Since neither PAWS nor MedVet have disclosed any of the particulars regarding the repairs that were made to Highway's front legs and to one of his front paws, it is difficult to speculate as to his current level of mobility. Normally, repairing a cat's broken legs is not all that much of a challenge for any halfway competent veterinarian. Incompetent practitioners are a different story. (See Cat Defender post of June 17, 2010 entitled "A Veterinarian Gets Away with Almost Killing Felix but Is Nailed by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons for Not Paying Her Dues.")

If Highway should still be experiencing difficulties getting around, additional surgeries might be able to correct any lingering impairments. (See Cat Defender post of August 8, 2019 entitled "Hounded Down and Nearly Killed by a Hit-and-Run Motorist, Eli Desperately Needs Additional Surgeries in Order to Restore His Previous Level of Mobility.")

Highway Has Been Adopted by His Foster Mother, Karen

If worse should come to worst, prostheses and implants would be two additional options for him. (See Cat Defender posts of November 17, 2010 and November 20, 2010 entitled, respectively, "Penniless and Suffering from Two Broken Legs, It Looked Like It Was Curtains for Trace Until Geoffrey Weech Rode to Her Rescue on His White Horse" and "Celebrated as the World's First Bionic Cat, Oscar Now Has Been Turned into a Guinea Pig with a Very Uncertain Future.")

No details have been announced as to what kind of a life his new owner has in store for him but, depending upon his level of mobility, she very well may have decided to limit his activities to either the indoors or to a fenced-in garden. Hopefully, he has not been declawed but the severity and multiplicity of the injuries inflicted upon him make that a distinct possibility. Of course, he always could have been bound and then mutilated.

Sadly, the outside world likely has seen and heard the last of Highway. Depending upon his genes, the absence of any underlying medical issues, and luck, he should be able to pick up the pieces of his shattered life and be able to go on and have a relatively long, normal and, hopefully, happy existence with Karen.

"Highway is one of the lucky ones," PAWS told Newsweek earlier on February 3rd. (See "Cat Found Abandoned on Highway Recovering after Having Eye Removed.") "He is away from his abuser(s)..."

 

Quite obviously, his abuser hated him and, for that matter, all cats so much that he believed that killing him would have been too good for him. Instead, he wanted to first make him suffer mightily from his blindness and his inability to walk before finally succumbing to hunger, the elements, and human and animal predation.

Such hatred and diabolical cruelty directed at a cat is rarely witnessed except in the behavior of ornithologists, wildlife biologists, gardeners, and sadistic killers and whenever monsters of that ilk get a cat at their mercy almost any cruelty is a real possibility. (See Cat Defender posts of January 19, 2010, August 8, 2011, and August 17, 2011 entitled, respectively, "A Bird Lover in München Illegally Traps Rocco and Then Methodically Tortures Him to Death with Water and Pepper Spray over an Eleven-Day Period," "Ernst K.'s Trial for Kidnapping, Torturing, and Murdering Rocco Nears Its Climax in a München Courtroom" and "Ernst K. Walks Away Smelling Like a Rose as Both the Prosecutor and Judge Turn His Trial for Killing Rocco into a Lovefest for a Sadistic Cat Killer.")

Since PAWS has not publicly speculated about the identity of Highway's assailant, it is not known if he was abused by his lawful owner or if he could have been stolen and mutilated by a complete stranger, such as an ornithologist. It likewise has not been disclosed if his injuries were inflicted in one fell swoop or if the abuse was meted out to him over an extended period of time.

If the latter were the case, it would seem likely that Highway's perpetrator set out from the start to maim him limb by limb and organ by organ but for some unknown reason changed his mind before, thankfully, not finishing the job. One conceivable possibility could be that he earlier had been stopped by the police for, perhaps, some minor traffic infraction and afterwards realized that he had better get rid of the evidence before he was stopped again and someone found out what he had done to Highway.

While it is true as PAWS claims that his mutilator cannot get at him now, he nonetheless is still on the loose thanks to the unwillingness of the charity, New Canaan Animal Control, and the New Canaan Police to even bother to so much as to open an investigation into this matter. Consequently, the monster is almost certain to, sooner or later, attack additional cats.

The refrain is almost as old as time itself and by now everybody knows the lyrics by rote. Humane groups and the police stubbornly refuse to investigate cases of cruelty to cats. 

Highway Has Come a Long Way Since Those God-Awful Days in January 

On those truly rare occasions when arrests are made, prosecutors refuse to prosecute the obviously guilty. Instead, they as quickly as possible get rid of such cases by plea bargaining multiple counts of felony animal cruelty down to a single count of misdemeanor animal cruelty and that allows defendants not only to walk out of court no worse for the wear with minuscule fines but also to thumb their dirty schnozes at all cat-lovers, morality, and the anti-cruelty statutes themselves.

Even when cases are brought to trial and convictions are obtained, no-account judges adamantly refuse to punish the guilty. For their part, slick albeit dishonest politicians respond with beau geste.

For instance, in 2017 the Pennsylvania legislature in Harrisburg enacted a supposedly tougher anti-cruelty statute and the Tennessee legislature in Nashville followed suit in 2021 with another new law of its own but cats residing in both jurisdictions have yet to profit from their efforts. Worst still, that is precisely what the lawmakers had in mind all along.

Politicians may be a lot of things but they are not stupid. They know as well as everyone else that it is not going to make one whit of difference how much they toughen the anti-cruelty statutes if they do not simultaneously include some type of enforcement mechanism.

Therefore, if any of them were even the tiniest bit sincere about curbing cruelty to cats they would mandate that all local police departments and county sheriffs' offices employed at the very least one full-time officer whose sole responsibility would be to investigate cases of animal cruelty. Everything else that they have to say on the subject of animal cruelty is meaningless public posturing and nothing more.

Secondly, legislators need to take away the discretion that prosecutors currently enjoy to plea bargain away felony animal cruelty charges. Thirdly, they need to dramatically limit the sentencing authority of judges.

For instance, if a defendant is convicted of four counts of felony animal cruelty and the prevailing law calls for a term of imprisonment of between one and seven years for each conviction, the judge should be required to sentence him to at the very least four, consecutive one-year terms in jail. Choosing between one and seven years in prison is more than enough discretion to allot any sentencing judge; robbed buffoons should not be permitted, however, to continue excusing cruelty to cats.

Much hot air and ink have been expended in recent days discussing the connection between cruelty to animals on the one hand and the mass shooting of humans on the other hand and although not all animal abusers turn into mass murderers just as not all mass murderers abuse animals, there is sans doute some causal connection between the two groups of miscreants. For example, both Payton Gendron, the Buffalo gunman, and Salvador Ramos in Uvalde honed their crafts by first abusing and killing cats. 

It thus has become trendy in the media to designate animal abuse as a so-called "red flag" or one warning sign that certain individuals are going to perpetrate mass shootings. The obvious conclusion therefore is that society should be willing to rigorously enforce the animal cruelty statutes if for no other reason than self-interest. In other words, protecting animal lives also protects human lives.

Yet, that is not about to happen either now or in the future. The disturbing truth of the matter is that most Americans do not have any regard for either animal or human lives and one proof of that is to be found in the law enforcement community's indifference to what was done to Highway. 

Photos: PAWS.